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making artificial flies, and concomitant fishing tactle. The 

 vrork is published by himself, at 54, Dean Street, Soho. and 

 we recommend it more earnestly than we have ever done 

 any other work of the sort." 



An Extract from " Bell's Life," April 29th, 1855. 



"I shall copy a few of Mr« Blacker 's patterns as given in 

 his recently-published and very valuable work, entitled Art 

 of Fly Making, ^q. He is by far the best fly maker I have 

 ever known, and his opinions on flies and fly-fishing deserve 

 the attention of us all. In the book just named he says of 

 the Yellow Sally : — "This is the forerunner of the green 

 drake or May-fly. The trout take this little fly freely if 

 made after this description ;— 



" Body, buflF-cloured fur and a small yellow hackle for legs round the 

 head ; wings of the buff-coloured feather inside the wing of the 

 thrush. Hook, 13" 



" Several ways of imitating the May-fly. First, Slacker's, as glren 

 in his Art of Fly Making :— The body of this beautifal fly is made of 

 yellow green mohair, the colour of a gosling newly hatched, and 

 ribbed with yellow-brown silk, a shade of light brown mohair at the 

 tail, and a tuft of the same at the shoulder, picked out between the 

 hackle, the whisks of the tail three black hairs, three-quarters of 

 an inch long ; the hackle to be dyed a greenish buff (dye, according 

 to my recipe, a silver dun hackle with bars across it, called a cuckoo,) 

 or a light ginger hackle bordering on yellow. The wings, which 

 should be made full, and to stand upright, are made of mallard's 

 feathers dyed of a greonish buff, or yellowish shade ; a brown head 

 of peacock harl tied neatly above the wings on a No. 6 hook. The 

 wings may be made of the tops of two large dyed mallard's feathers, 

 with fibres stripped off at the butts of the stems, tied back to back. 

 These feathers stand up well and appear very naturally in the 

 water. Large-sized ones kill well in lakes, with bright yellow mohair 

 bodies ribbed with gold twist. 



•• Secand way, from A Handbook of Angling.— Body, bright yellow 

 mohair, or floss silk, ribbed sparingly with light bronze psacock harl; 

 wings, mottled feather of the mallard dyed a pale yellow green. 

 They are to stand nearly erect, and to be slightly divided. Legs, a 

 c ouple of turns of a red-ginger hackle j tail, three hairs from the 

 rabbit's whisker. Hook, 5, 6, and 7.— Another way : Body, yellow- 

 brown mohair; wings, mallard's feather dyed yellow, and black head ; 

 legs, yellowish hackle ; tail and hooks as before. During the season 

 of the May-fly, should the weather be gloomy, with a strong warm 

 wind, I would angle with three flies on the casting-line of different 

 sizes, and of colours slightly differing, buff, yellow, and yellow-green, 

 and one of them made buzz. The largest fly should be used as the 

 stretcher ; the smallest the upper bob. 



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