SOME MORE FLY DRESSING 137 



are many books which profess to teach fly dressing, but 

 none that I am aware of (except Cut cliff e's — this only to 

 a limited extent) that tells the dresser what effects he is 

 to aim at, and how, and why; and it may be doubted if 

 more than one here and there has any idea of what he or 

 she is purporting to express. Even if given the natural 

 insect to dress to, it may be doubted if the dresser realizes 

 that it is a semi-translucent being that he is reproducing 

 or seeking to reproduce, and he must, therefore, either 

 reproduce by means of his materials the effects of trans- 

 mitted light, or, if his materials be necessarily dense, like 

 quill, he must get or suggest by reflection from the surface 

 of his material the effect of transmitted light. If the body 

 of a real spinner be held to the light, it looks very different 

 from the same insect looked down upon and seen only by 

 reflected light, but it is rare to see an attempt made to 

 reproduce the effect of transmitted light by translucency 

 of material or by reflection from an opaque surface. The 

 tendency is, almost necessarily, to reproduce unintelligently 

 stereotyped patterns which go on diverging further and 

 further from type. And when this is done with poor 

 materials which are dull in colour, and poor in translucency, 

 texture, and quality, and when, to crown all, hackles are 

 cut, it is little to be wondered at that the trout so often 

 exercises the prerogative of rejection. In the days when 

 anglers habitually dressed their own flies there were to be 

 had hackles and dubbings, but especially poultry hackles, 

 such as neither love nor money can buy nowadays. And 

 it is because I want to see things go back to the conditions 

 of the palmy days that I would like anglers to learn, at 

 any rate, to dress their own flies not merely as a mechanical 

 art, but as a means of rendering in colours the effects 

 which, so far as man can judge, the natural insect produces 

 upon the eye of the trout. 



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