To Make The Trout Fly In The Best And Most Approved Method
The reader will lay out his materials before him on the table, which
consist of hook, gut, wings, hackle, feather for tail, body of fur,
floss silk, or peacock harl, silk to rib it, wax, tying silk, &c., all
things now ready, proceed as follows:--Wax a piece of fine China silk,
about a foot in length; if it is spool or ribbon silk, twist two pieces
together, and take one end between your teeth, twisting with your
finge
s and thumbs, not too much; take the other end in the left, and
wax it up and down till it is covered with the wax all over; you may pin
it on your knee as in the first plan, and wax it; take the hook by the
bend in the left hand, say a No. 6 or 7 to begin with, placing your silk
just waxed on the shank under your left thumb nail, and give two or
three turns of the silk towards you, flatten the end of the gut a
little, and tie it on to the hook about half way down the shank, at the
same time hold the gut and hook tightly between your nails, and shift it
as you go up or down, on the hook shank with the tying silk; the hook
firmly tied on, take out one of the wing feathers of the hen pheasant,
and cut out of the centre of it two equal pieces to compose the wings,
(see the piece cut out for the trout fly wing in the plate of Feathers),
you lay these two pieces together even at the points, take them between
the nails of the right hand, place them on the end of the shank between
the finger and thumb of the left, and give two or three turns of the
silk over them tightly, winding the silk towards you, cut off the roots
of the feather slantingly with your scissars, as this swells the fly at
the shoulder when forming the body; the wings are now tied the reverse
way, (see No. 7 Plate, at the sign of the "picker.") The three flies at
top of this plate I will explain, when I show how the wings are turned
back in their place. You now turn the hook in your fingers and hold it
by the head, and of course you roll the tying silk from you; form the
tail, body, and hackle, while holding your hook by the shank shift it in
your hand till the nails are opposite the barb, where you tie on a tail
(see Plate VII) You now draw a little mohair or fur out of the piece
lying on the table, and lay it along the tying silk sparingly, twist it
round the silk, and roll it up to the shoulder, or nearly so, and give a
running knot; take a small hackle and cut it at the point (see hackle at
the bottom of this plate), or, instead of cutting it, draw it back a
little with the fingers, as you may see the grouse hackle prepared in
the plate of feathers, or hackle cut at point in the plate of feathers;
tie the hackle on at the centre of the body at the point where it is
cut, and give a running knot, and to fill up the space between that and
the shoulder, roll on a little more fur, and give a knot with the silk;
wax your silk occasionally, as it wears off; you now turn the hook round
in the fingers and hold it by the bend; this turning of the hook is the
most curious and convenient part of it; the hackle appears standing on
the fly, as in Plate II., or V. You take the hackle by the end in your
right hand, and roll it up to the shoulder in a slanting direction,
giving it an extra turn or two at the head, as you see Plate VII., tie
it down, and cut off the stem of the hackle; take the fly between your
finger and thumb, keeping the fibres of the hackle under them out of the
way while you turn up the wings; you now divide them in two with a
needle or "picker," turn up the off side one first and tie it down, then
the one next you, and turn the silk in and out between them, to keep
them asunder; you then draw all under your finger and thumb, and with
the tying silk, give two turns over the ends, which forms a head, and
finish on the small bit of hook left at the head, take a turn or two of
the silk round the gut to guard it, and take two running knots; the fly
now appears as Plate IV., press the fly between the fingers which slants
the hackle towards the tail.
As this is a valuable plate of flies to work upon, I will here commence
with Numbers 1, 2, 3, and then 5 and 4, these two latter flies are
bodies of gaudy sea-trout ones, or grilse flies. The wings are tied on
last of the three first flies--you hold the hook by the bend in the
left, and tie on the hook, gut, and tail, as you see in Plate I.; you
then place on a little mohair to form the body, as in Plate II.; before
you reach the shoulder you tie in the hackle, as No. 2, and leave a
little of the end of the hook to receive the wings, and let the silk
hang at the head; you now take the hackle by the end in your right, and
roll it slantingly on its side or partly on its back, placing the third
finger of the hand, the fly being held in against the hackle at each
roll till you come to the shoulder, take a turn of the silk over it cut
off the stem, and give a knot; let the silk hang at the place you are
about to tie on the wings, the fly now appears as Plate III., and in
this plate you may perceive the right length the hackle ought to be for
the size of the hook; you then cut off two pieces from the starling or
woodcock wings, and lay them together to make the wings of the fly full,
and to appear double when finished, or a piece of mallard feather, like
the wings of Plate IV.; you now hold the fly between the fore-finger and
thumb nails of the left hand, close to where you see the silk hanging
(Plate III.), tie on the off side wing first, holding tight by the nails
to keep it on the top of the shank so that it will not turn round with
the silk, wax your silk here, keep the middle finger of the left against
it while you take up the other wing, and tie it on in like manner on the
near side; this plan makes a division in the wings. You must endeavour
to keep them tight on the end of the shank, or they will fall over on
the gut, but by holding tight with the nails, and drawing tightly with
the tying silk, you may soon prevent mistakes, and use every thing
sparingly to prevent clumsiness or you will never get on. Now cut off
the ends of the wings closely, and finish with a turn or two, and a
running knot or two at the very head, and the fly will appear like the
finished fly, Plate IV., lay on a little spirit-varnish at the head,
which keeps it firm--(this varnish you may procure at the oil and colour
warehouses, or at doctor's shops, that which is used for rods is best.)
Now for the two Plates V. and VI.:--
When the hook and gut is neatly tied on, as Plate I., you take a hook,
size of the above two, and a hackle to suit; you hold the hook by the
bend in the left, and opposite the barb where you see the silk hanging
at No. 1, you take a piece of tinsel, tie it on, and give two or three
turns just immediately below where you tie in the tail (see the tip of
tinsel below the tail, Plate V.), take an ostrich harl and roll it on
for tag, which you will see just above the tip of tinsel, then tie on a
topping above that, as you may see, then the piece of tinsel to rib the
body, which you may see extending longer than the tail; you now take a
piece of floss silk, fine, and form the body of it from the tail to the
shoulder, as you see the taper body of Plate V., and during the interval
tie in the hackle on the centre of the body, at the point where the silk
is hanging to receive the wings; take the end of the hackle in your
right (first roll the tinsel as the body of Plate VI.) finger and thumb,
and roll it slantingly over the body in rotation with the tinsel, as you
see in this latter plate, and tie it down at the end of the shank, leave
the silk hanging as in this plate, touch it at this place with varnish;
you may wing it with turkey or "glede" (kite's) tail feather, mallard,
&c., like the plate of the plain fly, opposite No. 7, or like the wing
of the gaudy Irish salmon fly immediately under that number at the
bottom of the plate, (I mention these two flies in this manner to
distinguish them from the plate on Salmon Hooks). These two are models
of a plain, and gaudy Irish fly; the delicacy of the body of the gaudy
one, as the silk and tinsel is so finely wrought between each joint of
harl and hackles, is beyond compare; and the wing is finely mixed,
although not so perfect as the beautiful engravings of the twelve
salmon flies.
Before I begin the gaudy salmon fly, I will here show how the palmer is
made, in two or three ways.