No. 6 Meg in Her Braws
Wings.—Light brown from the wing of a bittern.
Head.—Yellow wool.
Next the head.—Mottled blue feather from a jay’s wing.
Body.—Brown wool mixed with bullock’s hair.
Towards the end of body.—Green wool; next to that crimson wool.
Tail.—Yellow wool.
Round the body.—Gold twist; over that cock’s hackle, black at the roots and red at the points.
“Concerning these flies, I will note one thing, which is, that if you rise a fish with the Lady of Mertoun, and he does not touch her, give him a rest and come over him with the Toppy, and you have him to a certainty, and vice-versâ. This I hold to be an invaluable secret, and is the only change that, during my long practice, I have found eminently successful.
“Another method of dressing No. 3, Toppy; wing feather from rump or tail of turkey, which is black below and strongly marked with a white tip, to be set on Tweed fashion (that is to say, the wings parted and made to lie open like a butterfly’s wings).
“Body black mohair; three turns of broad silver tinsel.
“Blue or black heron’s neck-feather at the shoulder; if heron’s feather cannot be procured, a good-sized black cock’s hackle; orange or yellow wool, for tail.”
The long transparent bodies which are made in imitation of the ephemeridæ, and are rather more admired by the fancy angler than by the fish, are composed of small pieces of gut, whalebone, or other similar material, which, after being cut to the proper length, are fastened on at the shoulder, together with a thin flat end of gut, such as comes in the covered part of every hank, and which, after being well soaked in warm water, has been smoothed down with the finger nail. The latter, while still damp and pliable, is wound evenly round the material of the body, including the hook, for several turns, and then round the body alone, and secured at the extremity by passing a couple of turns over the end and drawing it through. As this is transparent, it will show the color of the substance below, and may even be wound over floss-silk bodies which do not project beyond the hook, and while adding brilliancy, will protect them from injury. The whisks may be included with the solid material of the body, and an upper section may be added; the hackles are to be introduced, and the wings secured afterwards; but although a very perfect imitation, it is not generally so killing as the ordinary artificial fly.
In giving the preceding directions, it is by no means intended to advise that the table vice should be discarded; but, on the contrary, a small or handsome fly can be tied much more easily with its assistance. A little practice with the fingers alone will, however, greatly increase one’s expertness, and remove an awkward difficulty in case the vice should by any chance be left behind. The great objection to tying a fly with the fingers is the risk of mussing the feathers, especially in summer, when perspiration prevails.
I am indebted to Mr. J. James Hyde, a gentleman who, although an amateur, is one of the most finished anglers and neatest dressers of a well-imitated trout-fly in the United States, for the following directions for tying all Ronalds’s flies with the feathers of our American birds, so that the angler who may be unacquainted with the English feathers can make an accurate imitation, and not, as is too common in this country, produce some wretched abortion for a well-known fly, and may at the same time avoid the unnecessary outlay of importing expensive foreign materials.
The following list of flies is taken from Alfred Ronalds’s “Fly-Fisher’s Entomology.” This work has been selected because its descriptions are imitations of real flies, and not of traditional or conventional nondescripts, which, although the delight of professional dressers, might be safely worshipped without breaking the commandment, since they are not the “likeness of any thing in the heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth.”
Some alterations have been made for the purpose of facilitating the reader in his choice of materials, and the feathers indicated are, in most cases, those of our own birds, which may be easily procured, and are quite as suitable as the foreign ones given by Ronalds. Mohair is the best material for the bodies of trout-flies, and though others are sometimes named as being an easier method, the experienced amateur will prefer mohair, with which he will produce the same effect, without any of the objections to which all other materials are liable; and by a judicious mixture, any shade of color may be obtained.
Ronalds’s work being descriptive of English flies only, it has been deemed advisable to substitute their American prototypes in all cases where they are known; and although the trout are not perhaps thorough entomologists, the scientific fisherman will always prefer to use a fly which exists in the waters he frequents, to an English resemblance, restricted perhaps to a confined locality some thousands of miles away. As a general rule, there is no doubt that the best imitations of the fly the fish are taking will be the most successful; yet there are exceptions, of which the ibis fly is a glaring instance. It is also desirable at times to vary the sizes of flies, and to make the imitations larger than the living flies—when, for instance, the water is rough or thick; but these variations are not of absolute importance.