86 FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 



are necessary namely, brass nippers for putting on 

 small feathers or hackles a pair of fine scissors, 

 curved at the points ; a needle for dividing wings 

 and raising dubbing ; silk of all colours, the thinner 

 the better, as it makes the firmer dressing ; shoe- 

 maker's, wax, and a mixture of resin and burgundy 

 pitch, to be used when, the colour of the silk is in- 

 tended to be shown on the fly ; hooks of all sizes, 

 the bend to be particularly attended to. The size 

 of hook should always bear some proportion to the 

 size of fly, but the exact size of hook that will be 

 most killing with a fly of a certain size is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to determine. Some of the shop flies 

 are dressed upon hooks so small, and rolled round 

 with so much dubbing and hackle, that we would 

 consider their chances of hooking one trout out of 

 ten rises exceedingly problematical. We have fre- 

 quently fished with a very small fly, say No. 15, 

 and a larger fly, say No. 12, of the same kind, and 

 found that though the smaller fly raised twice the 

 number, it did not secure so many as the larger one. 

 We have also tried dressing two flies of the same 

 kind and size, one on a No. 14, and the other on a 

 No. 12 hook. The No. 12 was of course very much 

 exposed, notwithstanding which it did most execu- 

 tion. This should be done very cautiously ; but 

 by having hooks made a size thinner in the wire, 

 they may be used one size larger with perfect safety. 

 We have endeavoured to indicate the proper size of 

 hook in a subsequent illustration. 



