THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 263 



angler,) so as the point of the hook shall stand reversed; by 

 which means your fly swims backward, 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 fore-finger and thumb of your left hand, 

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

 finger's end ; 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, 

 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 tow r ght ; 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 farther, 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 



* This and the other inconveniences mentioned in this paragraph, are 

 effectually avoided by the use of fine grass, or gut, of about half a yard 

 Jong, next the hook. See notes on chap. xxi. part i. 



