90 
FOREST AND STREAM 
February, 191« 
HOW TO MAKE THE ANGLER’S BEST FLIES 
THE SECOND PAPER ON THE SIMPLE AND FASCINATING ART OF CONSTRUCTING FLIES 
WHICH TIME AND MANY TESTS HAVE SHOWN TO BE PISCATORIAL FAVORITES 
rm 
B EFORE leaving this subject of fly- 
tying materials, we will illustrate a 
pike scale in its natural shape, and 
indicate by the dotted lines how to cut and 
trim it with scissors for use as a pair of 
wings—later tying directions being confined 
to feather wings. And .by superimposing 
one scale upon another, you may make 
double wings. Cut away the 
outer two-thirds of the central 
part, but leave a bit projecting 
from the angle between the 
wings at the root of the scale to 
bind onto the back of the hook 
sljank in order to fasten them with greater 
security. The winding-thread passes over 
this little tag and the shank and behind 
and under the wings; two or three turns 
of the thread are taken also over the 
point of the wing = V, in front of the 
wings. The scale is shown exact size. 
We will also note here that Emerson 
Hough- expatiates on the killing qualities 
of the bucktail-fly, for trout—and big ones 
—in high and discolored water. He says 
it seems to work anywhere, and that in 
the Arctic Circle, three thousand feet 
above the country where he first saw it 
used, the contrivance kept the camp in 
trout and grayling for weeks. It does 
not look like any insect in the world, and 
the ruder and coarser the fly the more suc¬ 
cessful it seems. 
He ties it on hooks much larger than 
the size appropriate for the ordinal arti¬ 
ficials in a given locality and the color 
does not seem to make much difference. 
Sometimes he makes the body of the deer 
hair with “wings” fashioned by bending 
the hair back at the neck. Again, the body 
and wings are made separately. He rather 
favors a body of the white hair with wings 
of mixed gray and white or brown and 
white. Or the body may be of herl; but 
he thinks the fly of all deer hair is better. 
There is no hackle “except by accident,” 
and the wings are never set upright but 
are kept low. The important point about 
the wings is not to crop the hair; deer hair 
does not mat down in the water, but 
spreads out, and it is this life-like crawl of 
the long hairs as they move through the 
water that constitutes the deadliest quality 
of the bucktail-fly. This fly is most effec¬ 
tual when “pulled up or across stream in 
a series of short jerks, a foot or more at 
once, then letting it drop back just a little.” 
Bass flies may be said to be big trout 
flies, though there are some special pat¬ 
terns, some are made with cork bodies to 
float them, and though larger ones than 
are necessary are often used. A smaller 
variety is needed than is found useful in 
trout fishing. Numbers 4, 5, and 6 will do 
nicely for general work, notwithstanding 
that large bass are not infrequently caught 
at night on flies as gigantic as any ever 
used for salmon, fished wet. Hair from a 
deer’s tail (bucktail-fly) or that of the fox 
is a component part of some of the most 
killing of bass patterns, and, in addition, 
By GEORGE PARKER HOLDEN, M. D. 
the following are widely popular: Red 
Ibis, Parmacheene Belle, Dark Montreal, 
Royal .Coachman, Jock Scott, Silver Doc¬ 
tor, Grizzly King, Professor, Ferguson, 
Lord Baltimore, Gov. Alford, Col. Fuller, 
Babcock, Butcher. In the subsequent de¬ 
scriptions of the patterns of the most com¬ 
monly used trout flies, these ten are not 
listed: 
(Note.— When the tail —caudal stylets— 
of an artificial fly is not specifically noted 
as being made of hackle, it may consist of 
delicate strips of some other feather and 
usually coarser than hackle-fibers.) 
Jock Scott (much diversified) : Wings, 
mixture of yellow mottled and gray mot¬ 
tled. with scarlet and yellow mid-strips 
outside, and jungle-cock and blue shoul¬ 
ders ; Body, 'anterior half black, outer half 
yellow with black tip, and whole ribbed 
An effective bass bucktail-fly 
with white silk; Legs, mixed black and 
black and brown mottled hackle; Tail, 
yellow with scarlet root. 
Ferguson (diversified pattern) : Wings, 
mottled brown and black (turkey) with 
mid-strip of yellow outside; Body, yel¬ 
low fibbed with silver tinsel, and black 
herl head; Legs, light green hackle, some¬ 
times tied palmer; Tail, scarlet and yel¬ 
low, with peacock sometimes. 
Lord Baltimore: Wings, black with jun¬ 
gle cock shoulders; Body, orange ribbed 
with black silk; Legs and Tail, black. 
Gov. Alford (diversified pattern) : 
Wings, drab (front, or uppermost, third of 
each wing) with cinnamon under-wing; 
Body (corpulent, or moth), brown herl; 
Legs, brown hackle with black root; Tail, 
scarlet. Or Wings, front half black, pos¬ 
terior half brown ; Body, green herl; Legs, 
brown hackle; Tail, scarlet. 
Col. Fuller : Wings, yellow with scarlet 
shoulders; Body, yellow ribbed with silver 
tinsel, and black herl head; Legs, yellow 
hackle; Tail, black. 
Babcock : Wings, yellow with outer 
black mid-strip; Body, scarlet ribbed with 
yellow silk, and black herl head; Legs, 
black hackle; Tail, black and yellow fibers. 
Butcher (three patterns) : Body, scar¬ 
let ribbed with yellow; Legs, yellow 
green mottled; Tail, scarlet hackle; this 
called Light Butcher May-fly. With Body, 
scarlet ribbed with red brown; Legs, gray 
mottled; Tail, brown hackle; this pattern 
called Dark Butcher May. With Body, 
green herl; Legs, scarlet hackle wound 
palmer; the pattern is called Scarlet 
Butcher. (Hackle on all the Butchers is 
very long and bushy.) 
One special pattern personally known to 
the writer to have been used with much 
success, has: Wings, extra longf" and set 
upright, of white deer-tail with gray mot¬ 
tled (wood-duck) or gray shoulders; Body, 
white or yellow chenille ribbed with scar¬ 
let; Legs, white (deer-tail); Tail, scarlet. 
Scarlet, white, yellow, brown, and black 
flies are notably good colorations in bass 
lures of this class, and their efficiency is 
enhanced by the addition of a small spoon 
(spinner-fly) attached in front of the head, 
and by a thin strip of pork-rind, about 
one and one-quarter inches long, fastened 
in the bend of the hook. 
F LY-FISHING for base is, as a rule, 
less available and less successful than 
for trout; and salmon fishing is re¬ 
stricted to the few who can afford it, most 
of the productive salmon waters either be¬ 
ing preserved or necessitating a long jour¬ 
ney in order to reach them. Ofttimes both 
is the case. Salmon flics are like unto 
nothing in the air above or waters be¬ 
neath ; they are frankly “fancy” creations, 
and so much diversified that there is no 
absolute standard for any of the patterns. 
Hooks. —The angler's fishhooks are made 
in various styles, according to the weight 
of the steel wire and the particular form 
of the bend employed, and are thus named 
Sproat, Sneck, Limerick, etc. They are also 
made either eyed or snelled, the latter hav¬ 
ing a short looped length of silkworm-gut 
bound onto the eyeless shank; though 
some makers are putting out eyed hooks 
fitted with snells. The fly-tyer will buy his 
hooks loose, and advantageously in packets 
of a hundred. Eyed hooks, fastening di¬ 
rectly to the leader, are preferable for 
making flies because a well-made fly will 
outwear its gut attachment. The author 
is one who prefers those with eyes turned 
down, to the upturned-eye pattern, believ¬ 
ing that a more direct pull is thus assured. 
Some hooks, Sneck for example, have the 
point deflected to one side; others, as the 
Sproat and Limerick, have the point in 
the same plane as that of the shank, and 
when laid Upon their side on a flat surface 
they will touch it throughout their whole 
length. For dry flies we prefer this style. 
A floating-fly hook should have no un¬ 
necessary weight, consequently it should 
be made of wire as light as consistent with 
the required strength. All these desirable 
qualifications are fulfilled in the hook 
known as the Pennell down-eved Lim¬ 
erick, and the most useful sizes of these 
(continued on page 114) 
