After a season of fly fishing trout or bluegill, your fishing flies usually are battered and worn. Give them a "steam bath" to regain that natural look.

The tiny bits of fur, the delicate feathers, the gossamer silk threads which go to make up a trout or panflsh fly are not indestructible. Considering the fine materials from which good, and even poor flies are made, it is no wonder that bouncing around a wild white water stream, rubbing against the jaw of a wily old brown trout, or being hastily crushed while still wet into a crowded fly box, mats the hackles, dulls the sheen of the body and feathers and thus impairs the buoyancy and balance of dry flies considerably.

While it is a known fact that sometimes the most battered, torn and disreputable looking fly proves to be most attractive to a wary fish, still, day in and day out, the dry fly that floats properly and has lost least of its natural color and sheen will take more fish.

It is unnecessary and certainly expensive to discard many of your flies which to all outward appearances could never float again and would scarcely interest an unwary chub, much less a discerning trout or bluegill. A careful culling of your fly box will unearth many flies which, with a brief steam bath and a bit of judicious preening with thumb and forefinger, can be made to look nearly as good as new and are able to serve you well again.

A jet of live steam can be produced in your kitchen by simply boiling water in a tea kettle or pressure cooker. The smaller the escape vent for the steam, the stronger its pressure and the easier the re-conditioning job becomes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker with a small vent, a paper or cardboard cone over the spout of a tea kettle will improve the latter, though the steam column from either will serve satisfactorily as long as the escape port does not exceed 3/4 inches in diameter.

Hold the fly by the hook with a pair of clips or tweezers in the steam for 10 to 15 seconds. You may actually see the bent hackles begin to spring back into place, wings perk up and matted fur, wool or chenille body material regain its nap. Then, while the fly is still moist, stroke the hackles with thumb and forefinger "against the grain,” i.e., from the bend toward the eye of the hook. This will help to restore the hackles to their proper position at right angles to the shank of the hook.

Allow the fly to dry in the air for half an hour (do not return them immediately to your fly box), and presto! -- the old McGinty or badger bi-visible is ready, willing, and able to serve you once again on your favorite stream or lake.