Note 16 — Chapter IX · THE HELL FALL.

The fisherman is very much recommended to tie his own flies for the Tay, or to get them at Edmondson’s. The author bought a good many pretty-looking specimens in the country, by way of patterns, all of which whipped to pieces in half-an-hour’s fishing. The fact is, there is a cheap way of tying flies, which it is impossible to detect by the eye; and it is just as well that the young fisherman should ask the character of his tackle-maker before investing his money in such very ticklish wares; the worthlessness of which he will not find out till he reaches his fishing-ground. The author, a fisherman of some experience, has tied a good many flies in his time, and has had a good many tied for him by his attendants and other professionals on the river’s banks; but the only tradespeople he has ever found trustworthy, in all points, in such matters are, Chevalier, of Bell-yard, London, and Edmondson, of Church-street, Liverpool. Their flies have never failed him, whether in their hooks, their gut, or their tying. All that the fisherman will want in their shops will be a little science, to enable him to choose his colours, and a little money to enable him to pay his bills.