268 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



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 fore-finger and thumb of your left- 

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

 towards your finger's ends ; then take a strong small silk, of 

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

 wax of the same colour too (to which end, you are always, 

 by the way, to have wax of all colours about you), and draw 

 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 permit ; which being 

 done, strip the feather for the wings proportionable to the 

 bigness of your fly, placing that side downwards 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, and 

 then whip the silk fast and firm about the hook and towght, 

 until you come to the bend of the hook, but not further, as 

 you do at London, and so make a very unhandsome, and, in 

 plain English, a very unnatural and shapeless fly ; which 

 being done, cut away the end of your towght, and fasten it, 

 and then take your dubbing, which is to make the body of 

 your fly, as much as you think convenient, and holding it 

 lightly with your hook betwixt the finger and thumb of 

 your left hand, take your silk with the right, and twisting it 

 betwixt the finger and thumb of that hand, the dubbing 

 will spin itself about the silk, which when it has done, whip 



