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HOW TO DRESS A SALMON FLY.

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fingers alone, and others, more particularly with the more complicated flies, use a vice and all the other implements already mentioned for trout flies; but the vice to be used for salmon flies must be larger and more powerful than that employed in the making of trout flies. Again, some persons tie the gut to the hook, as in trout flies; and though this is the neater plan, perhaps, and makes the fly swim more accurately, it is not safe, as the gut at the head of the fly soon gets wounded, and then your fly is useless for ever. Some lash a piece of stout single or treble gut, doubled on to the shank of the hook, leaving a small eye just above the end of the shank, and through this eye a strand of gut is passed and made fast by a knot, hitch, or jamb. The other end having a loop is looped on to the casting line. And this is, perhaps, the more clumsy and coarse plan as it thickens the shank of the hook, and adds bulk to the fly. Some, again, employ hooks which have an eye at the end of the shank already forged, and though this in time is apt to fret and wear the gut somewhat, it is, if the tie be looked to now and then, not only the neatest and safest way, but the fly is safe until it is pulled to pieces or smashed against a stone. The fly tyer can adopt any of these plans which he may think fit. The gut loop is the most common plan, so I will briefly describe it. Take the best bit of salmon gut

Professional tyers seldom, even with salmon flies, use a vice. Their fingers answer all purposes, and they get on so much more rapidly than the amateur, and obtain so much more precision, by carrying out only one process at a time when tying flies in bulk or large numbers. For a certain time, for example, they will tie nothing but bodies, and then having selected a good stock of the various coloured dubbings required, no time is lost in hunting for each separate colour. There they lie ready to hand, and a pinch is picked off one after the other as it is required, and the tyer goes on tying bodies, perhaps two, three, or four dozen or more, all of the same pattern, until the dubbing is exhausted, when hackles, and then wings, are served in the same way. The result of this practice is wonderful accuracy, quickness, and neatness.

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you have, round and thick-it is the best economy, one ordinary strand will cut into about four loops-double it, leaving one end somewhat longer than the other, bite the gut that is to be lashed to the shank well up and down between the teeth to ensure its not drawing; then lay it to the hook, and with a fine strong doubled thread of glovers' silk, or any other silk that is fine and strong, well waxed, begin at the head or shoulder and lash it firmly on, leaving a gut loop as in Plate XIV. fig. 2. And here I may pause to say, always get the best, newest, finest, and strongest silk you can buy for money. It is not always easy to obtain. Old silk is pretty sure to get rotten, and rotten silk is an abomination. It always fails you just when it should not, just as you are tying in or tying off a hackle, and want to make an unusually strong and tight hitch. You must have two or three colours; the lighter ones are best, white best of all, yellow next, and then red; avoid green or black, as those dyes rot the silk, green especially. Having tied in your loop, leaving a good long end of silk hanging down, proceed to business; and here, again, I must pause to bid you observe that you do not commence to tie the gut on quite up to the end of the hook, as observe in the cut. If you do, you make an unsafe and clumsy shoulder to the fly. Now put your hook in the vice, if you use one, as most amateurs do. The young tyer particularly will want all his fingers about the fly, and will not find it at all easy to hold the hook and tie too. He may possibly come to it in time, but at first he will find his vice a great convenience; and if he be a wealthy man, and can afford to buy one of those splendid vices of Holtzapfel's, in Cockspur Street, which cost some 3l. or 4l., and by which the hook can be twisted about in any direction, no doubt he will realise the convenience of the same. Having fixed his hook firmly, by the aid of the loose silk hanging from the bend of the hook he must tie

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THE TAG AND TAIL.

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on the tag, which is usually a bit of tinsel; tie on the fragment of tinsel firmly, making a long turn of the silk first over the end of the tinsel, as far down towards the bend of the hook as he wishes to go, and then, lapping round lightly back towards the head of the fly, so as not to have to go over the same ground with the silk twice, and having fixed the end firmly and taken a half hitch (see Plate XIV. fig. 2), twist the tinsel two or three times round the hook, so that each turn shall be evenly side by side. Tie the remainder of the tinsel off firmly with a couple of turns and a half hitch, and cut off the fragment, but not too closely to the silk or it may happen to slip out subsequently. It often happens that a turn or two of floss silk will be added to the tag; when tying off the tinsel the end of a fragment of floss silk must be inserted. in under the tie and tied in, the tying silk still being worked back towards the head. The floss is then served in the same fashion as the tinsel, and cut off. Then comes the tail, which is usually a small topping or some other fragment of feather. If two or three sorts of feathers or fibres be used, care must be taken to make them all lie together and in the same direction, which is usually, in the case of a topping or other whole feather, bending upwards and slightly away from the bend of the hook; having placed the feathers on the back of the hook, take three laps of the silk and a half hitch. If a but is required—as is often the case, as it serves to set off and add brilliancy to the fly, besides hiding the tie and the stump of the tailafter taking two turns of the silk, nip it with a pair of spring tweezers,* and let them hang down so as to keep the

The fly here will require two pairs of them; they should be short and strong, and of the shape shown. He will also require two pairs of scissors, one of a stoutish build, such as a pair of nail scissors, for cutting rough feathers, tinsel, &c., and one very fine pair to nip off fine fibres neatly. The points of these should always be in good order. They should be kept in a leathern sheath, and out of the ken of all females, or they will be

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