PREFACE. THE Author of this little work entreats that it may be considered and judged of as the labour, or rather the amusement, of an amateur; whose chief object has been to facilitate to the Tyro in the art, the making and choice of artificial flies, on a plan of elucidation derived from personal experience. Having himself sorely felt the inadequacy of mere verbal instructions to enable him to imitate the natural fly correctly, or even approximatively, and the little utility of graphical illustrations unaccompanied by the principal requisite, viz. colour, he has been induced to paint both the natural and artificial fly from nature, to etch them with his own hand, and to colour, or superintend the colouring of each particular impression. He therefore presumes to hope that he has succeeded in giving a useful collection of the leading flies for every month i. season, and that any one who may be led by it to a choice of flies from the stock of the manufacturer, or to the construction of his own, will not have cause to repent of having consulted the catalogue, chiefly composing the fourth Chapter. But since in his endeavours to improve the art of fly-making, careful observations were made relative to some of the habits of the Trout and Grayling, and of many insects upon which these fish prey; it is hoped that a few of these observations, intermixed with a little useful information, and some remarks on other points more or less connected with the principal subject, will not be thought inappropriate. These form the subjects of the three preceding Chapters. CONTENTS. OF THE TROUT. Measurement, Weight, Fins, Colour, Condition, Haunts, &c. Description of a Fishing-hut or Observatory. The Trout's sense of Hearing. Sight. Taste and Smell. Manner of feeding, &c. Form, Rod, Line. Reel. Foot Line. Hook. Dubbing Bag. General Directions for making a Fly and a Palmer. |