METHOD OF DRESSING A SPIDER. 87 



Great care should be taken to select the finest 

 and longest threads of gut for dressing flies on. 

 When the waters are clear, fine gut is quite as 

 necessary as good flies ; the finest gut, however 

 lightly thrown, will sometimes alarm the trout. 



Dressing a spider is a much simpler operation 

 than dressing a fly, and therefore it is better to 

 begin with it. Having selected a thread of gut and 

 a hook, the next thing is to choose a feather, which, 

 to make a neat spider, must be so proportioned to 

 the size of the hook, that the legs of the spider, 

 when dressed, will be about the length of the hook. 

 Before commencing, bite the end of the gut between 

 your teeth ; this flattens and makes it broader in 

 the point, which prevents it slipping ; a thing very 

 liable to occur with small flies. Next, take the 

 hook firmly between the forefinger and thumb of 

 your left hand, lay the gut along its shank, and 

 with a well-waxed silk thread, commencing about 

 the centre of the hook, whip it and the gut firmly 

 together, till you come to the end of the shank, 

 where form the head by a few turns of the thread. 

 This done, take the feather, and laying it on with 

 the root end towards the bend of the hook, wrap 

 the silk three or four times round it, and then cut 

 off the root end. 



What remains to be done is the most critical 

 part of the whole operation ; still holding the hook 

 between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, 

 take the thread, lay it along the centre of the inside 



