SPINNING TACKLES. 17 
by impairing its brilliancy and attractiveness, rendering 
it flabby and inelastic. Upon the fish they operated 
only as fulcrums by which he was enabled to work out 
the hold of such hooks as were already fast. The great 
size also, and the defective bends of many of the hooks 
used contributed materially to swell the proportion of 
losses, as it should be recollected that to strike a No. 20 
hook fairly over the barb, requires at least three times the 
force that is required to strike ina No. 10; and that this 
disparity is increased when the hooks are used in triangles. 
A Jack,say, has taken a spinning-bait dressed with a flight 
of three or four of these large triangles, and a sprinkling 
of single hooks—perhaps eleven or twelve inall. The 
bait probably lies between his jaws grasped cross- 
mise; and \therefore’ the’ pomts of ..at. least «six of 
these hooks will most likely be pressed by the fish’s 
mouth, whilst the bait also to which they are attached 
is held firmly in his teeth. Zhe whole of this combined 
resistance must be overcome—and that at one stroke, 
and sharply—before a single point can be buried above 
the barb. 
The grand principle in the construction of all spinning- 
tackle is the use of the flyzng triangle as distinguished 
from that whipped upon the central link. A flight con- 
structed with flying triangles can never fail to be 
tolerably certain, in landing at least, a fish once struck. 
There are, however, many degrees of excellence in such 
flights, even in the item of “landing ;” and as regards 
C 
