HOOKS FOR BOTTOM-FISHING. 181 



On such hooks you can easily put your worms 

 without injuring them. If your hooks are sneck- 

 bent you will feel a difficulty in threading your 

 worm, and as you force it up, you will often find 

 the point of your bent hook penetrating through 

 its sides, spoiling the bait in more ways than one, 

 rendering it less lively, and liable to break even 

 by the motion of the water. Hooks for gentles, 

 greaves, paste, and so forth, may be short in the 

 shank, and sneck-bent, for they are more readily 

 covered by the bait, and will not let it slip off so 

 easily as the straightly rounded hooks. All bait- 

 hooks should be whipped on as delicately as pos- 

 sible, with silk the colour of the bait you use, and 

 waxed with almost colourless wax. Hooks should 

 be whipped on from towards the bend, and the 

 whipping should be terminated by a couple of 

 almost imperceptible slip-knots, varnished at the 

 end of the shank. If the beginning of your 

 whipping be rudely done, showing a commence- 

 ment glaringly thicker than the wire of your hook, 

 an obstruction will exist fatal to putting on your 

 bait easily, and without injuring it, if it be a worm. 

 In general hooks are whipped on too clumsily, 

 with too many coils of the silk, and with the silk 

 too fatly waxed. Bait-hooks have commonly a 

 few nicks made with a file towards the ends of the 

 shanks. The whipping need hardly extend beyond 

 them. The gut should be softened and thinned 



