262 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. {PAST II 



reversed ; by which means your fly swims backwards, makes a 

 much greater circle in the water, and, till taken home to you 

 and set right, will never raise any fish ; or, if it should, I am 

 sure, but by a very extraordinary chance, can hit none. 



Having done with both these ways of fishing at the top, the 

 length of your rod, and line, and all, I am next to teach you 

 how to make a fly ; and afterwards, of what dubbing you are 

 to make the several flies I shall hereafter name to you. 



In making a fly, then, which is not a Hackle, or Palmer-fly, 

 (for of those, and their several kinds, we shall have occasion 

 to speak every month in the year,) you are first to hold your 

 hook fast betwixt the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, 

 with the back of the shank upwards, and the point towards 

 your fingers' ends : then take a strong small silk of the color 

 of the fly you intend to make, wax it well with wax of the 

 same color too : to which end you are always, by the way, to 

 have wax of all colors about you ; and dr-aw it betwixt your 

 finger and thumb, to the head of the shank, and then whip it 

 twice or thrice about the bare hook, which you must know is 

 done, both to prevent slipping, and also that the shank of the 

 hook may not cut the hairs of your towght, which sometimes it 

 will otherwise do. Which being done, take your line and draw 

 it likewise betwixt your finger and thumb, holding the hook so 

 fast, as only to suffer it to pass by, until you have the knot of 

 your towght almost to the middle of the shank of your hook, 

 on the inside of it ; then whip your silk twice or thrice about 

 both hook and line, as hard as the strength of the silk will per- 

 mit. Which being done, strip the feather for the wings pro- 

 portionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that side down- 

 wards which grew uppermost before, upon the back of the 

 hook, leaving so much only as to serve for the length of the 

 wing of the point of the plume lying reversed from the end of 

 the shank upwards : then whip your silk twice or thrice about 

 the root-end of the feather, hook, and towght. Which being 

 done, clip off the root-end of the feather close by the arming, 



