184 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 
The bait should not be taken out of the water until 
brought close up to the bank, or side of the boat, as it is 
not at all an uncommon circumstance for a fish, which 
has perhaps been following it all the way across, to 
make a dash at it at the last moment, when he appears 
to be about to lose it. 
The proper play of the rod, which is one of the 
most certain tests of a good spinner, is highly im- 
portant, not only to prevent the stopping of the 
bait between the draws, but in order to give it its 
tull glitter and piquancy. It produces a more “life- 
like motion,” as it were, than that imparted by the 
mere pulling in of the line by hand, whilst for some 
reason or other—probably the greater elasticity of the 
lever used—the spin of the bait is also far more rapid 
and brilliant. 
The loss of attractiveness in the bait caused by the sub- 
stitution of a mere mechanical motion for this combined 
movement of the hand and the rod, is in my opinion one 
fatal objection to what is termed the “Nottingham 
style” of spinning. 
To test the fact that such a loss does actually take 
place, the following simple experiment will suffice ;— 
drop the spinning bait into the water, and wind it in 
as fast as possible, on the Nottingham plan (that is, by 
the reel only), keeping the point of the rod stationary ; 
then draw the bait through the water at the same pace, 
using the rod only, and it will be found that whilst a 
