PREFACE. 



THIS book is published " by request." It aims at filling up a gap in 

 angling literature, and is designed to stamp out the common fallacy that 

 no one can learn how to make a fly " from written instructions." In 

 truth, I know of no volume on the subject at all sufficiently clear, 

 instructive or exhaustive. 



In illustration of the leading statement I may perhaps be allowed to 

 quote the following from amongst many similar requests made to me : 

 " I envy your being able to tie such flies," says a well-known Angler, in 

 a letter dated 1888, " Tell me how you get the silk body so even. . . . 

 You certainly turn out the best fly I ever saw and I hope some day to 

 see you at work. Why do you not write a plain, concise, little book on 

 the subject? Think over this." So I thought over it. 



Onerous editorial duties stood in the way of my accepting many such 

 written and oral promptings, but finally a friend's offer of assistance 

 induced me to assume the task. I acknowledge my great obligations to 

 the late Mr. A. H. Gribble for the part he was able to take in the 

 mechanical details of fly-" tying," for, as his Mentor, I have, I believe, 

 been able to achieve a success in fly-dressing with novices in a way that 

 has not hitherto been compassed. During the progress of instruction in 

 the art of "dressing," for which other than personal lessons have seemed 

 inadequate, the opportunity was carefully taken to make notes in detail 

 of the measurements, manipulation and methods employed to avoid or 

 lessen the obstructions in the novice's road to excellence. The notes 

 were all new to my friend ; for me they had an unexpected value ; and 

 whoever, from practice through long years, has eyes to observe, and 

 fingers to make short work of the minutiae of fly-" tying," will readily 



