82 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



from Walton downwards, I have never come across one 

 which had nothing to recommend it, and I should be glad 

 to be master of them all. 



V 



KICK 



This is a quality which every hackled wet fly, for use in 

 rough water, should invariably have. Without it, it is a dead 

 thing; with it, it is alive and struggling; and the fly which 

 is alive and struggling has a fascination for the trout which 

 no dead thing has. How is this quality to be attained ? 

 It is a very simple matter. Finish behind the hackle. 



Suppose you are tying an Orange Partridge. You have 

 whipped on the gut, tied in the floss, whipped to the 

 shoulder, wound on the orange floss, whipped down the 

 end, cut away the waste. You then take your brown 

 partridge hackle, and placing it face downwards on top 

 of the hook, with the stump towards the bend, you whip 

 it down with two turns towards the head ; then, whipping 

 over the hook and back to the feather, you form the head. 

 Then you take two turns over the butt, and, taking the 

 centre of the hackle in your pliers, you wind at most two 

 turns of the hackle and secure the end with one turn of 

 the silk. Then you pull all the fibres forward over the 

 head, and finish with a whip-finish tight up behind the 

 hackle, and break off the waste. You then soak the whip- 

 finish with celluloid varnish (celluloid dissolved in amyl 

 acetate or acetone), push back the hackle over the bend 

 and varnish the head, and your fly is complete. The 

 turns of silk behind the hackle makes each fibre sit up 

 and stand out, and the fly has kick, and it will improve 

 rather than deteriorate with use. Hackles with good 

 natural resilience are, of course, essential. 



