94 TBB COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



made the silk fast, take the hackle of a cock or capon's 

 neck, or a plover's top, which is usually better: take oft' 

 the one side of the feather, and then take the hackle, silk 

 or crewel, gold or silver thread ; make these fast at the 

 bent of the hook, that is to say, below your arming; then 

 you must take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and 

 work it up to the wings, shifting or ttill removing your 

 finger as you turn the silk about the hook, and still look- 

 ing, at every stop or turn, that your gold, or what mate- 

 rials soever you make your fly of, do lie right and neatly ; 

 and if you find they do so, then when you have made the 

 head, make all fast: and then work your hackle up to the 

 head, and make that fast: and then, with a needle, or 

 pin, divide the wing into two ; and then, with the arming 

 silk, whip it about cross-ways betwixt the wings: and 

 then with your thumb you must turn the point of the 

 feather towards the bent of the hook; and then work 

 three or four times about the shank of the hook; and 

 then view the proportion; and if all be neat, and to your 

 liking, fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of 

 a dull capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know 

 this, with a little practice, will help an ingenious angler 

 in a good degree. But to see a fly made by an artist 

 in that kind, is the best teaching to make it. And, then, 

 an ingenious angler may walk by the river, and mark 

 what flies fall on the water that day; and catch one of 

 them, if he sees the T routs leap at a fly of that kind: and 

 then having always hooks ready-hung with him, and 

 having a bag also always with him, with bear's hair, or 

 the hair of a brown or sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a 

 cock or capon, several coloured silk and crewel to make 

 the body of the fly, the feathers of a drake's head, black 

 or brown sheep's wool, or hog's wool, or hair, thread of 

 gold and of silver; silk of several colours, (especially 



