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HOW TO DRESS A TROUT FLY.

CHAPTER XIII.

FLY DRESSING.

HOW TO DRESS THE TROUT FLY-THE METHOD OF DRESSING THE SALMON FLY.

The Trout Fly.-Some persons trust entirely to their tackle makers for their flies, and will not go to the trouble of tying, or learning to tie, their trout flies. I myself trust to my tackle maker for my general supply of flies, but there are times when the capability of tying a fly will secure one a good day's fishing, when, but for the power to do so, the angler might see fish rising but be unable to bring them to hook. As it will often happen that the angler will desire to tie a fly by the river-side, it will be well that he should learn to tie them by the use of his fingers alone. It may be more difficult at first, but the best tyers (professional tyers) very seldom use anything else, and it is a mere matter of practice. Most amateurs, however, prefer to use a vice to hold the hook, and the vice for trout flies is a small brass table vice, and can, with spring tweezers, also a common requisite, be bought at most respectable tackle makers. The only other implements required are a neat sharp-pointed pair of scissors and a dubbing needle, which last should be a stout needle, fixed in a handle like a bradawl, and with a rounded blunt point, so as not to cut the silk when used to pick out the fibres of dubbing. The easiest fly to dress is, of course, the simple palmer. Suppose we take the common red palmer. Choose hook and gut; lash on the gut with the finest and strongest silk you can procure in the ordinary way, only do not begin

A PALMER: THE BODY.

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quite at the head or end of the hook, leave space enough for two or three turns of the silk bare of lashing in order to finish. the fly off at; having lashed on the gut down towards the bend, take either a piece of crewel or silk, or even two or three (according as you require the substance of the fly to be) peacock's or ostrich herls, break off the weak points, lay the herls together, and tie the ends in a mass on to the bend of the hook (see Plate XIII. fig. 1); then select a hackle from the neck of a red cock-chose a two-year old cock in preference to a young one, as his colours will be better and his feathers stronger. As your fly be larger or smaller, and you need the fibre to be longer or shorter, so you will choose one nearer to or farther from the head; having settled this, prepare the hackle by snipping a little bit off on each side near the tip (see Plate XIII. fig. 10), so that the fibres may not be tied in. Then comes the question whether you desire your palmer to be dressed with hackle all over from head to tail, whether it shall be dressed half-way down, or only at the shoulder of the fly. If the hackle is to go from tail to head, it is tied on at the same time as the herl. If not, then the silk must be warped up from the tail to the required spot; and having tied on the tip of the hackle, you must carry the silk on to the shoulder of the fly, and fix it with a half hitch.* Then take hold of the peacock's herls and wind them round and round the hook side by side, up to the silk, when seize them down with two or

* This is one way, and the one commonly adopted. My own plan, however, is to lash in the tip of the hackle while I am tying the hook to the gut, when the hackle is to be either from the middle of the body or at the shoulder only (this plan makes the body less clumsy)—of course, if it is to run from head to tail, or tail to head rather-the hackle should be tied in at the same time as the herl or crewel. As it is very liable to break and the body then comes to pieces, to prevent this, some persons spin the herls round on the silk by twirling them together; then turning them on the hook, silk and all, and avoiding the hackle, carry silk and herl to the head simultaneously, and tie off the herl with the silk without trouble, and snip off the end.

three turns of the silk and a half hitch (see Plate XIII. fig. 2); cut off the refuse herl, not too closely; touch the fastening with a drop of shell-lac; varnish to make all secure. Then take hold of the hackle either with the fingers or spring tweezers, and taking care that the fibres point in the right direction, wind it carefully on up to the head of the fly, until it reaches the silk, pressing the fibres down so that they point tailwards while doing so; then seize it down and tie off as in the case of the herl (see Plate XIII. fig. 3); cut off the refuse, not too closely, leaving a scrap of the quill still on, which lap over and tie down firmly, finishing off with the silk to the end of the hook; nip the silk off and touch the tie with varnish, and you have a red palmer. Of course all other palmers are tied in the same way. When they are very large and thick fibred, two or more hackles are used. Some tie them both on together, and wind them on at the same time; and some use one up first, and then tie on another. The first plan is the best.

A winged fly is simply a palmer with the addition of wings, and with three-quarters of the legs taken away (fig. 4 shows the wings simply added). For the legs of an ordinary fly, prepare a small piece of hackle of the requisite length of fibre; tie the end on at that part of the hook where the thorax of the fly would be. This may be done either when the hook is being tied on to the gut, or afterwards, when the body is being warped on, a turn of the silk being taken over the herl or dubbing to secure it while the hackle is being tied on. The silk is then wound up to the shoulder; the body worked up to it and tied off; two or three turns of the hackle are then taken, by which time that too will reach the shoulder, and can be tied off, when the wing is put on, and all is finished. But be sure not to overhackle your fly; it makes it lumpy and unnatural; and, as a rule, nine fly tyers in ten overdo this.