First, let your rod be light, and very gentle: I take the best to be of two
pieces. And let not your line exceed, especially for three or four links
next to the hook, I say, not exceed three or four hairs at the most;
though you may fish a little stronger above, in the upper part of your
line: but if you can attain to angle with one hair, you shall have more
rises, and catch more fish. Now you must be sure not to cumber
yourself with too long a line, as most do. And before you begin to
angle, cast to have the wind on your back; and the sun, if it shines, to be
before you; and to fish down the stream; and carry the point or top of
your rod downward, by which means the shadow of yourself and rod
too, will be the least offensive to the fish, for the sight of any shade
amazes the fish, and spoils your sport, of which you must take great
care.

In the middle of March, till which time a man should not in honesty
catch a Trout; or in April, it the weather be dark, or a little windy or
cloudy; the best fishing is with the palmer-worm, of which I last spoke
to you; but of these there be divers kinds, or at least of divers colours:
these and the May-fly are the ground of all fly-angling: which are to be
thus made:

First, you must arm your hook with the line, in the inside of it: then take
your scissors, and cut so much of a brown mallard's feather as, in your
own reason, will make the wings of it, you having, withal, regard to the
bigness or littleness of your hook; then lay the outmost part of your
feather next to your hook; then the point of your feather next the shank
of your hook, and, having so done, whip it three or four times about the
hook with the same silk with which your hook was armed; and having
made the silk fast, take the hackle of a cock or capon's neck, or a
plover's top, which is usually better: take off the one side of the feather,
and then take the hackle, silk or crewel, gold or silver thread; make
these fast at the bent of the hook, that is to say, below your arming; then
you must take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work it up to the
wings, shifting or still removing your finger as you turn the silk about
the hook, and still looking, at every stop or turn, that your gold, or what
materials soever you make your fly of, do lie right and neatly; and if
you find they do so, then when you have made the head, make all fast:
and then work your hackle up to the head, and make that fast: and then,
with a needle, or pin, divide the wing into two; and then, with the
arming silk, whip it about cross-ways betwixt the wings: and then with
your thumb you must turn the point of the feather towards the bent of
the hook; and then work three or four times about the shank of the
hook; and then view the proportion; and if all be neat, and to your
liking, fasten.

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.