66 Little Feather required in Artificial Flies. 



Dress two flies on single-hair of similar shape or form, 

 but one of the colour that the trout are rising at, and the 

 other of an opposite hue, and the true-coloured fly will 

 take fish, when the other will hardly rise one. This is 

 daily proved by professionals who make their living by 

 angling. 



" Town-made flies," he very justly says, " have gener- 

 ally too much feather;- and practical anglers put only about 

 a third of the amount of feather on their flies, which is 

 unquestionably one reason of their success." 



Now as Mr. Stewart has not accounted for this we 

 will briefly explain the reason. The wings of the natural 

 insect are, though varied in colour, exceedingly transparent, 

 and the general material used to represent them is feather, 

 which, though to a certain extent it possesses the hue, 

 yet lacks the transparency. Therefore to use feather for 

 the wing of an artificial fly as full and bulky as the ap- 

 pearance of the natural one would at first sight suggest, 

 militates very greatly against its transparency. Conse- 

 quently, on this account a third of the apparently requi- 

 site feather better represents the natural wing of the 

 insect; and the only desideratum to be mindful of, in 

 addition to this, is its proper length of fibre. For the 

 above reason, also, new flies seldom kill so well as those 

 that have got a little reduced by fishing. It is not denied, 

 by any means, that four colours, the sizes varying accord- 

 ing to circumstances, may be useful through the whole 

 season. But to maintain that they are equally as deadly 

 as a good imitation of the natural fly that is on the water 

 at the time, is tantamount to saying that a shilling and 

 a sovereign are of equal value, because they are the same 

 size. Black, brown, red, and dun (or drab), take in a 

 wide field as a basis from which to vary your flies, as they 

 embrace all the varieties I am contending for, if applied 

 through all their changes of light, middle, and dark tint, 



