THE SALMON FLY. 59 



CHAPTEE III. 



SALMON FLIES : How TO " DRESS " THEM. 



" Bad workmen find fault with their tools, but no workman can finish for use a good fly 

 with bad materials." 



ANON. 



WORKING APPLIANCES AND PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENTS. 



THE working appliances which I consider necessary are the following : 



1. A SHARP PAIR OP SCISSORS WITH FINE UPWARD-CURVED POINTS, 



which may be obtained at Fisher's in the Strand. These are specially 

 adapted by their shape to reach and cut close off at the hook certain 

 waste ends of silk and feather, as also to cut fibre stumps at an angle so 

 as to get a taper, as in forming the head of a fly ; both operations are 

 only awkwardly and inefficiently managed with straight-pointed scissors. 

 I use the smallest kind which have plenty of finger room in their rings. 



2. SPRING PLIERS ("tweezers"), preferably of brass, and procurable, 

 for a trifle, at any tackle-shop. These should be pliant. Care should be 

 taken that, whilst the inward edges of the points are not sharp enough to 

 sever a herl or the shaft of a delicate hackle, the points themselves meet 

 accurately, not only at the extremities, but also along the whole length 

 of the jaws. In other words, the jaws must neither overlap, nor bite at 

 the extremities only. Those pliers are to be preferred, which, at the 

 handle end, are formed into a ring for the finger. 



