20 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



Candlemas, heated in an oven, straightened 

 by being tied to a straight piece of wood, and 

 thoroughly dried in the smoke. The butt must 

 be of hazel willow or rowan, six* feet long or 

 more, as thick as your arm and evenly tapered ; 

 the pith must be burnt out so as to make the 

 butt hollow with an even taper inside, a broad 

 ferrule of iron or brass placed at each end, and 

 at the bottom a spike made to take out, to 

 enable you to get at your top, which was carried 

 inside the hollow butt. The top was in two 

 portions neatly spliced together, the whole as 

 long as the butt into which it fitted; the lower 

 part of green hazel, and the upper a fair shoot 

 of blackthorn, crabtree, medlar or juniper. 

 Bind a double line of six hairs thickness on to 

 the top at the splice, carry it down to the point 

 and there make a loop on which to fasten your 

 line. When you fish you take out your top and 

 place it in the hole at the top of the butt, into 

 which it fits; when you are not fishing put the 

 top inside the butt, and you will have a rod so 

 well disguised that you may walk with it and 

 no one will guess that you are going fishing. 

 It will be light and full nimble to fish with. 



The line is to be of horsehair, white and 

 round, the longest you can find. Stain it 

 different colours for different waters, cut off 



*Denison Text. An Older Form of the Treaiyse of Fyssh- 

 ynge vjyth an Angle. London. Satchell. 1883. It is obviously 

 the purer text, and I have used it in several places where it 

 differs from the printed text. Unluckily, it is imperfect, and 

 does not contain the section on flies. 



