152 FORES T A N D S T REA M March, 1918 
HOW TO MAKE THE ANGLER’S BEST FLIES 
THE THIRD ARTICLE ON THIS VERY PRACTICAL SUBJECT CARRIES THE 
PROCESS OF TYING THE FLY FROM THE FIRST STEP TO THE FINISHED LURE 
F LIES are tied, or dressed, to a dis¬ 
tinctive style according to whether they 
are intended for dry dies, wet dies, 
or for hackles or palmers. The latter two 
are made wingless, as they represent the 
worm or creeper form of insect life which 
lives under the surface of the water, pre¬ 
paratory to Its transformation into the 
winged state; consequently such artificials 
are principally intended to be fished wet— 
though they may be used dry—and are adapt¬ 
ed especially for such times when the fish are 
not feeding on surface insects. A palmer- 
fly is a wingless one with the hackle wound 
the entire length of the body; a winged 
artificial with “legs” extending the whole 
length of the body is said to have the body 
dressed “palmer,” or palmer fashion. The 
larvae of land flies also may be imitated, 
thus the Brown Palmer artificial is sup¬ 
posed to represent the common brown cat¬ 
erpillar. 
Not all tyers tie their dies in the same 
sequence of construction, in making the 
body, wings, legs, and tail; and there are 
diverse opinions also as to the most ef¬ 
fective wing positions for individual pat¬ 
terns. But that does not matter; having 
once mastered any method, the amateur 
tyer is in possession of all the fundamen¬ 
tal principles and will be fully competent 
to vary the order and other details to suit 
his own later inclinations or ideas. Be¬ 
cause dry flies are the harder to tie, and 
because the wings are usually the most 
difficult part of a fly to construct, we will 
start with the tying of a dry fly, and we 
will put the wings on first; then all the 
rest will be so much the easier. There 
are other, special, advantages of first tying 
the wings in the popular form of dry fly, 
as you will presently perceive. 
The proceeding divides itself nicely into 
twelve cardinal steps, which we have illus¬ 
trated from photographs of these actual 
consecutive stages. 
i.—Fasten hook in vise, at the bend as 
shown. 
Wax about a fifteen-inch length of tying- 
thread. (The McClelland recipe for wax 
is equal parts of resin and turpentine 
mixed by immersing the container in boil¬ 
ing water; then pour into collapsible tube. 
The J . Harrington Keene formula is: Bur¬ 
gundy pitch, 480 grains; light resin, 240 
grains; mutton-tallow, 96 grains. First 
melt pitch and resin together, then mix 
tallow in thoroughly; pour into a dish of 
water and pull like candy, then lay on a 
piece of greased glass to cool. Cut into 
small pieces and roll in paraffin paper. 
By GEORGE PARKER HOLDEN, M. D. 
Keep a small working bit in a folded piece 
of old kid glove.) 
2.—Starting just a little space behind the 
eye—to leave room for the hackle—catch 
end of thread under (“thread” means your 
tying-silk) and take four or five turns 
Steps 1 and 2 
around the shank, winding away from you 
and making close turns toward the bend 
of the hook. Cut off close short end. 
The tying-silk must be wound as tightly 
as it will stand without parting; and a 
handy arrangement for catching and hold¬ 
ing taut the thread at any time you wish 
to drop it is the following: Between the 
two legs of a common wooden clothespin 
jam a piece of rubber, from the front side 
of which you cut out 
a V-shaped piece, and 
then further make a 
cut into the angle to 
correspond with the 
leg of a Y. Bore a 
hole in the front of 
your workbench which 
will take the clothes¬ 
pin snugly, and into 
which insert it head 
first. When you want 
to relinquish the 
thread temporarily, 
catch it in this rubber 
slit. No knots are 
made in the tying- 
thread until it is per¬ 
manently secured 
when the fly is com¬ 
pleted; it is “carried 
along” with the pro¬ 
gressive manipulations 
of the other parts of 
the fly all the way to 
the finish. 
A dry fly (in the Halford pattern, “split¬ 
winged”) differs mainly from a wet fly 
in the style of the wings; its wings are 
double —there are four, two on each side, 
one superimposed upon the other; they 
curve, or flare, out, having their convex 
surfaces facing each other and toward the 
body of the fly; and they are set upright 
(cocked-winged) or inclined a little for¬ 
ward, toward the head of the fly (eye-end 
of the hook). 
3.—If you make the wfings from strips 
taken from a feather of the first shape pic¬ 
tured, you may cut them from both sides 
of the same feather, a pair of strips for 
each double-wing from each side; but if 
from a feather of the second shape shown 
—the shape of most wing-feathers—you 
must get your strips from corresponding 
sides of matching right and left wing- 
feathers ; for one fly-wing must have a 
curve and flare exactly corresponding to 
the other, not the same but just its oppo¬ 
site; and the wings must be of equal length. 
In cutting out strips, one-eighth of an 
inch or less will be about the right width 
Step 3 —Cutting wings 
for a number 10 or 12 fly. Separate them 
from the rest of feather web with the 
point of a penknife-blade carried, edge 
first, from the quill outward and upward 
between the fibers; or you can use the 
bodkin point. Now scissor them free at 
base, close to and parallel with quill. The 
proper distance for the wings to extend 
above the body (shank of the hook), in 
order to attain a well-proportioned fly, is 
exactly the overall length of the hook to 
which the dy is tied. 
4 - —Cut four strips of wing-feather for 
wings and pair them, exactly overlapping; 
pick them up between left thumb and fore¬ 
finger; place them in position on back of 
hook, a pair of the lower ends projecting 
a little below the shank on each side of 
