EVOLUTION OF THE TROUT FLY. 173 



away from the bend : strip one side of your 

 hackle and tie it and the body and ribbing 

 material in at the bend : make your body, run 

 on your tinsel and make fast under the wings : 

 turn your hackle and make fast. Divide your 

 wing with a pin into two, whip between with 

 a figure of eight, then with your thumb press 

 the wings over towards the bend of the hook 

 and take two or three turns of silk to keep them 

 in place. 



This, the earliest description, makes what 

 we now call a reverse winged fly : the wings 

 are originally tied on pointing the opposite 

 way to the one they will finally adopt, and are 

 got into position by being pressed back and the 

 butt of the feather lashed down with two or 

 three turns of silk. Venables, who dressed his 

 flies in the same way, gives reasons why he did 

 so. If he did not, he says, the action of the 

 stream would fold the wing feathers round the 

 bend of the hook, if the fibres are soft, as they 

 should be. Also I think, though he is some- 

 what obscure, he believed that this method 

 made the fly swim with the hook point well up, 

 and not hang tail downwards : and therefore, 

 he says, the action of the stream will carry the 

 wings into the position of an insect when 

 flying. 



Venables' directions are much more detailed 

 than Barker's. He tells how to make jointed 

 bodies and bodies with different colours 

 arranged lengthways : how to dress a hackle 



