The Art Of Dyeing Fishing Colours Which Are Pig's Hair Mohair Fur & Hackles Commonly Called Dubbing
The great advantage the fly fisher must derive from a knowledge of
dyeing his colours and hackles is obvious. It affords amusement to the
enthusiastic fisher to be acquainted with the various shades required
for making his flies to suit the rivers, and the flies become valuable
when made of good colours and hackles. Every hackle and colour that is
used for making a salmon fly must be of the richest dye imaginable, that
they may show brilliant and good to the fish's eye at the bottom of the
water, and entice them to rise and take it at the top. The hackles must
be taken from old cocks, both the neck and saddle ones, as they hold
the dye best. Wool is not good for the fly, as it soaks the water, and
is dull and heavy. Pig hair, that next the skin, with the stiff and
coarse bristles picked and cleared away, and mohair, which is Spanish
goat hair, a most beautiful brilliant substance for fly making when dyed
well; white seal's fur, and furs of different kinds of a white colour.
White hackles are best for yellows, oranges, gold colours, blues,
greens, &c.; red hackles do best to dye claret, red, or fiery browns,
olives, and cinnamon browns, &c., and black hackles for sooty olives,
and tawny colours. When the angler sees a white old cock he should buy
him to procure his hackles, or a black cock, a grey cock, and old red
cocks of every hue, all of which are good for dyeing. These also must be
washed in soap and hot water before being dyed, and the flue stripped
off, tied in bunches (see the bunch of white hackles in the Plate of
Feathers, ready for the dye) of proper sizes, and when about to be put
into the dye-pot, wet them and the hair in hot water.
Provide a small crucible or earthen pot, glazed inside, with an earthen
handle, to hold a quart of soft water, and before you put in your
hackles or hair, wash them well, as I said before, in soap and hot
water. The five principal colours to work upon are blue, red, yellow,
brown, and black. From the combination of two or more of these may be
produced every shade required, from the lightest to the darkest, so that
it only requires some practice, to know the different ingredients to
use, to become a Dyer of Fishing Colours.