I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a dull capacity
able to make a fly well: and yet I know this, with a little practice, will
help an ingenious angler in a good degree. But to see a fly made by an
artist in that kind, is the best teaching to make it. And, then, an
ingenious angler may walk by the river, and mark what flies fall on the
water that day; and catch one of them, if he sees the Trouts leap at a fly
of that kind: and then having always hooks ready-hung with him, and
having a bag always with him, with bear's hair, or the hair of a brown or
sad-coloured heifer, hackles of a cock or capon, several coloured silk
and crewel to make the body of the fly, the feathers of a drake's head,
black or brown sheep's wool, or hog's wool, or hair, thread of gold and
of silver; silk of several colours, especially sad-coloured, to make the
fly's head: and there be also other coloured feathers, both of little birds
and of speckled fowl: I say, having those with him in a bag, and trying
to make a fly, though he miss at first, yet shall he at last hit it better,
even to such a perfection as none can well teach him And if he hit to
make his fly right, and have the luck to hit, also, where there is store of
Trouts, a dark day, and a right wind, he will catch such store of them, as
will encourage him to grow more and more in love with the art of fly-
making.
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