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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.
Venator. But, my loving master, if any wind will not serve, then
I wish I
were in Lapland, to buy a good wind of one of the honest witches,
that
sell so many winds there, and so cheap.
Piscator. Marry, scholar, but I would not be there, nor indeed
from
under this tree; for look how it begins to rain, and by the clouds,
if I
mistake not, we shall presently have a smoking shower, and therefore
sit close; this sycamore-tree will shelter us: and I will tell
you, as they
shall come into my mind, more observations of fly-fishing for
a Trout.
But first for the wind: you are to take notice that of the winds
the south
wind is said to be best. One observes, that
when the wind is south,
It blows your bait into a fish's mouth.
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