H4 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



thinly, whips to the shoulder, and takes a half-hitch beyond 

 the hackle. Then, taking the hackle point between the 

 pliers, one takes one turn on the bare hook, and winds in 

 open turns (say three or four) to the tail. Leaving the pliers 

 hanging, one winds the gold wire over the turns of hackle 

 in an equal number of turns, thus securing the stalk again 

 and again. A half-hitch secures the gold wire, which is 

 then broken off by a little gentle working to and fro. 

 It should not be cut. The turn of the broken end helps 

 to keep it secure, and the break generally comes closer to 

 the half- hitch than one could cut the wire. The hackle 

 tip can be broken off with a smart twitch. 



The next step is to revarnish the head with celluloid 

 varnish. Then, taking a good long slip of landrail wing- 

 feather (nearly the whole fibre of one feather), one straightens 

 it, and, taking it by one edge in a pair of pliers and taking 

 care not to split the feather, one rolls it in a series of turns 

 until the feather is exhausted. It should then be a bunchy 

 roll, readily flattened by being pinched. Laying the roll, 

 well pinched and flattened, on its edge over the hook with 

 the cut end over the eye, one ties it down by taking three 

 firm turns over the fibre, then one turn tight behind and 

 one under the roots. If this is neatly done the entire waste 

 end can in general be cut clean away with a single cut of 

 the curved scissors. 



This having been done, one drenches the roots in cellu- 

 loid varnish. This goes almost as hard as metal when 

 set, and holds the wing very perfectly on edge. 



The next step is to take a long, short-fibred hackle of 

 the same neck as the body hackle, and, whipping it down 

 near the eye with the root towards the tail, wind the silk 

 tightly back to the base of the wing. Then with the 

 hackle pliers turn the hackle five or six turns over the 

 roots of the wing right up to the wing fibre; whip the 



