ANGLER'S FLIES AND HOW TO TIE 



toward head and fasten in a piece of dark brown 

 silk-floss, as we will suppose you are tying a 

 March Brown, one of the most popular pat- 

 terns and one that some anglers prefer tied with 

 an extended body, as it is a drake. Carry 

 thread back and wind floss over it and the shank 

 to point where gut leaves the hook, then con- 

 tinue winding floss on up the gut toward the 

 knot, which cover in. Cut off surplus floss. To 

 make the underside of body lighter in color, split 

 now a strip of yellow floss or raffia to cover it 

 smoothly and evenly, and bind spirally with 

 thread carried up to head of fly. Cut off sur- 

 plus yellow floss and fasten the thread. (In the 

 discussion of "Trout Lures" we already have 

 referred to the simpler practise of making the 

 whole body to correspond with the lighter color 

 of the underbody and sides of the natural fly, 

 and ignoring the color of the back, as, especially 

 in dry-fly fishing, these are the only parts of the 

 body that the fish sees.) 



For flexibility, detached bodies of gut occa- 

 sionally are made with the end of a looped piece 

 serving as a hinge by which it is attached at 

 the junction with the hook shank. 



We illustrate some flies tied by Dr. Harry 

 Gove of New Brunswick, who is partial both 

 to elongated bodies and to having them at- 

 tached to upturned-shank hooks. He says such 

 flies are both of more natural shape and that they 

 221 



