FISHING TACKLE AND HOW TO MAKE IT. 



497 



I shall first refer to artificial baits. The spoon is without 

 question the chief of those, and in its thousand-and-one mod- 

 ifications is invariably a successful lure. It would be invidi- 

 ous to single out special makes as being superlatively supe- 

 rior. Competition looks -after the quality, and reliable tackle- 

 sellers keep good goods. "Cheap," in refer- 

 ence to spoons, infallibly means "n«.sty." 



Fig. 35 represents the orthodox spoon-bait. 

 The attractiveness of this is enhanced by 

 adding tufts of gaudy feathers, and there- 

 fore American ingenuity has improved on the 

 I ^^ \ original plain spoon of Britain, and we find 



a combination spoon, as shown at fig. 36, 

 is preferred by trollers for Mascalonge or 

 Pikerel or (Pike). 



The difficulty with spoon-trolling is, that 

 the hooks being necessarily so exposed, they 

 catch into weeds and grass with annoy- 

 ing frequency. This has been obviated by 

 the device shown in fig. 37; i and 2 and 3 

 are each arrangements for deflecting or 

 throwing off the weeds, 3 being a flattened 

 bar protecting the point. As it is of spring- 

 steel, it fits, with a slight degree of tension, 

 against the point; and the impact of soft 

 weeds is not sufficiently strong to force it 

 away from the guarded hook, whilst the 

 spring is not strong enough to prevent the fish 

 ^^i'v'vW'li/ being hooked as the bait is seized. This 

 v4\,'*'l '% arrangement must be seen to be apprecia- 

 Fig. 38. ted. It is patented by the Syracuse Fish- 



Rod Co., N.Y. 



Another novelty, of an exceedingly effective form, is made 

 by the same firm, and I give it place because I have person- 

 ally proved its efficacy. It is shown at fig. 38. When the 



K'Si 



