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The materials are inexpensive, and easily obtained. For instance, the feathers of game birds may be secured of a game dealer or some sportsman friend,or you can have the pleasure of procuring them yourself if you are a hunter. The gold tinsel, floss silk, etc., may be had in any large notion or millinery store. But above all things, your materials must be fresh, as it is the writer’s experience that trout are better judges of color than form, and, although the beginner may not tie as handsome a fly as the store flies at first, yet if his colors are fresh he will catch more trout with them.

For materials, procure then the following : The closely mottled brown wing coverts of the wild mallard drake, the finely marked brown feathers from the back and tail of the ruffed grouse, the penciled plumage from the back of the European partridge (if possible), or the brown mottled feathers of the Bob White, or of a brown domestic hen. British anglers also use the feathers of the red grouse.

Get the wings of the purple grackle (crow blackbird), night hawk, red-shouldered blackbird, brown thrasher, sparrow hawk, and if possible, the European starling and the cuckoo. The foregoing are for the wings of the fly. For hackles we will need the long, shining feathers from the neck of a red-and-gray domestic rooster, the tail-feathers of a house wren, and some long, bright fibers from the peacock’s tail. For the body, buy some fine floss silk of the following colors : deep orange, yellow, jet black, white, brown, pink, and rich brown. For fur-bodied flies we must have the fine fur of the hare’s ear, of the gray, black and red squirrels,and the chipmunk; also the fur of the deer mouse, and the long, black whiskers of the squirrel for gibs. For ribbing, buy fine gold tinsel at a millinery store, and the bass string of a violin, from which you can strip the fine silver wire, which is very neat material for ribbing the body with.

Next we must have some fine spool sewing silk : white, black, yellow and pink. This silk will be used for tying as well as ribbing. The hooks must be of a size suitable for the waters we wish to fish in; for instance, large lakes require large flies, while low water and small streams call for small flies. It is a good plan to go to a sporting goods house and buy a dozen flies of the leading patterns to serve as models ; also a hank of clean, round, transparent gut. This last we may stain a bluish water color by steeping it in common writing ink diluted with four parts of warm water. Procure also some shoemaker’s wax (pitch and rosin, not beeswax).

As to the tools necessary, first comes small-pointed scissors (magnetized at the points for picking up hooks), a sharp pen-knife, a good reading glass, narrow and wide tweezers, a darning needle—and the writer would suggest also a small jeweler’s vise, as the fingers grow very tired from gripping the hook.

Now let us get acquainted with the technical names of the various parts of a trout fly, and their uses, referring to Fig.6 (Figures at end of post); First we have the gib, representing the tails of the fly ; next the tinsel, the purpose of which is to attract the trout’s attention from the hook by its brightness ; next the ribbing, which is a narrow gold tinsel, silver wire from a violin string, or white, yellow or black spool silk. The ribbing is wound around the body, to represent the rings on the body of a natural fly. Then comes the hackle, which represents the feet of the fly and serves the double purpose of hiding the barb of the hook. The nature and purposes of the other parts, such as wings, body and head, are obvious.

We are now prepared to commence work on a fly. Let us suppose we are about to tie an Orange Grouse, which is a very good fly for the high, roily waters of the spring months, April and May. Take a piece of clear gut free from flaws or flat spots, and a hook of suitable size, and having a store fly before us, as a model, we take a sharp penknife and scrape the end of the gut to a taper for about half an inch from the end. Then form a loop on the end, leaving the piece about three inches long, as on a store fly. Take a piece of yellow spool silk about twelve inches long and wax it well, lay the tapered end of gut on the back of the hook, and wind with waxed thread gently but firmly about gut and hook, beginning at the shank and ending a short distance above where the bend of the hook commences (see Fig. I). Bring around the second finger of left hand, as shown, to assist in making the hitch on the thread, and also to assist holding the hackle, etc., when we come to it. Next procure some Rat gold tinsel and secure the end of it just below the winding of silk by a wrap and hitch of tying silk, which must be left continuous. Wind tinsel on the hook to form a little gold band, and secure by a hitch of tying silk (see Fig. 2). Snip off superfluous tinsel. Strip off two long mottled fibers from the wing coverts of a mallard, place the ends on the hook, curved outward and in a position to represent the tails of the fly, and secure by two wraps of tying silk and a hitch.

Next, cut off about two inches of deep orange Ross silk, sufficient to cover the body when wound closely and evenly. Take also a piece of narrow gold tinsel about two inches long, place the ends of floss and tinsel together on the hook just above the gold band and secure them by two wraps and a hitch of tying silk (see Fig. 3). Next, carry up your tying silk with two turns to top of hook shank ; procure a finely barred feather from the back of a ruffed grouse ; strip off two pieces from opposite sides of shaft about one-quarter inch long each ; lay them back to back, being careful not to disarrange the fibers but to leave them clung together as on original feather. Now lay the ends together on the back of the. hook, pointing the reverse way from that in which they will finally set (see Fig. 3), and secure ends with two wraps of tying silk and a hitch. Lay the tying silk over the gut loop so as to be out of the ways and taking the floss silk between forefinger and thumb, wind it on the body smoothly and evenly. Examine each wrap with the glass, to see that it is smooth and even. Wind it up to the end of the wing and secure with a hitch of tying silk. Wind on ribbing in even spirals up to wing, secure by a hitch of tying silk and snip off superfluous silk and tinsel (see Fig.3).

For the hackle, take the long, shining red feather of a rooster’s neck-plume ; rub it the wrong way between forefinger and thumb, so that the fibers will stand out straight; then take the wide-nosed tweezers, and draw the fibers all to one side of stem (see Fig. 4). Secure the tip of feather thus prepared just below the wing by two wraps and a hitch of the silk, and taking the quill end between forefinger and thumb, wind two or three turns around the hook, just under the wing. Hold in place by the second finger of left hand and secure by two wraps of tying silk and a hitch. Snip off superfluous feather; arrange fibers with point of needle, combing them so they will all point towards barb of hook ; and lastly, turn down feathers of wings, arranging them neatly with point of needle, and separating them slightly so as to lay naturally. Wrap tying silk three or four times around near the end, to form head of fly, and secure by two or three hitch knots ; snip off silk and touch head and tying silk with a drop of copal varnish, and your fly is complete. Verily “a thing of beauty and a joy forever.”

This is a smooth-bodied fly. Now to make a fur-bodied fly, proceed as before up to the point where we attached the floss silk (see Fig. 3). Now procure the fine fur from the hare’s ear and mix in a little yellow fur from the chipmunk’s back. Take end of tying silk between your teeth and wax it for about an inch from hook a second time. Make a little loose pile of the fur about an inch long, and lay it on a piece of paper on the table ; take the end of tying silk between the forefinger and thumb of right hand, holding the hook between forefinger and thumb of left; place the waxed end on pile of fur and twist end of silk so that it will roll and gather the fur—twisting it about itself until it looks like a hairy caterpillar. Wind this on the hook. just as you did with the floss silk in the smooth-bodied fly, and pick out the hairs with point of needle.

Comb and arrange them as you proceed, so that there will be no bunches of fur in places, but a uniform furry body. When you have wound up to the wing, scrape off with finger and thumb nails the superfluous fur from the tying silk, and hitch it twice. Now wind on your body ribbing, which was left hanging at tail of fly, being careful to pick out hairs that are doubled under it with point of needle. Examine the condition of fur and ribbing with reading-glass as you proceed, until you reach the wing, and then secure the end of tinsel by one wrap of silk and a hitch. Snip off superfluous tinsel, and attach the hackle, prepared as directed for the smooth-bodied fly. Wind this on as before directed, and secure with two turns and a hitch. Snip off quill end of hackle feather close up to body, then turn down your wings, arranging them so that they will set naturally. Tie with three or four wraps of tying silk and two or three hitches, snip off superfluous tying silk, touch head with a drop of copal varnish, and you have a complete fur-bodied fly, of the “genus” hare’s ear, a most effective fly for the early months and high water (see Fig. 7).

Follow carefully the sequence of operations as I have given them, as much depends on this. By this method you will have less crowding of the materials, and you will have a fly that will not be clumsy. Another point I would emphasize is to keep your tying silk continuous from beginning to end of operation. If you break it by undue force, you cannot knot it without making a clumsy, untidy fly. If unfortunately you should break it, it is better to cut off your fly and begin over again. You must also be careful to avoid wrapping materials too much, such as the body floss silk, tying silk, etc. Rest satisfied with as few wraps as will cover the body of the fly smoothly and evenly; otherwise your fly will grow too fat and clumsy. Above all, keep your silks and feathers clean and bright, and avoid all unnecessary handling of them because, as I said before, trout are very fastidious as to colors.

Do not be discouraged if your first flies are not as handsome and trim as “store flies.” There are three requisites for successful fly tying, namely: Patience, Practice and Perseverance ; and after you have tied a dozen or so you will become expert, and find out many .little kinks which are mastered by practice and the necessities of the case.

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