Chapt. v. A Lip Hook and one Treble enough. -"I 



side of the dead bait parallel with the vent. Sou are ready for 

 action. But this bail will not last bo Long aa the former one, 

 because it is given to tearing at the mouth, especially in rough 

 hands which jerk it unnecessarily in swinging it out for a spin, 

 and when thesecond hook is not put in bo as to share the strain 

 with the. lip hunk. When properly baited it should give the 

 bait the slightest curve imaginable. But Francis Francis has 

 chapters and two sets of plates on this one subject alone, this line 



of beauty curve, and H. Cholmondely lVnnell has re apparently 



in "How tn spin for Pike," Between these two, therefore, the 

 reader should have more than enough on the subject, and 1 have 

 already promised not to trouble him with what he has in English 

 books. To these and other authors then I refer him, but with the 

 request that he will bear constantly in mind the one marked aud 

 very important difference between English fishing ami Indian 

 fishing, that whereas you seldom spin or troll at home in water 

 that is not more or less coloured or tinged, and not unfrequently 

 onder a cloudy sky, you never ought to spin out here fur Mahseer 

 except in clear water, and if you get any thing but a bright sky 

 above, you are in luck's way indeed. The consequence is that it 

 is necessary to be doubly particular about having as fine tackle 

 witlt as few hooks as possible ; and flights of numerous hooks that 

 onaidered quite "according to Cocker" at home, look in our 

 bright waters so truly terrible that no Indian fish would be fool 

 enough to come within a yard of them. When I use this kind of 

 tickle I use only one treble as above stated. But I find most people 

 prefer two. and in it a few three trebles, so I beg you to be content 

 with two, and let them be small ones as shown in Plate VI, 

 figure 1. Say No. 7 on Plate VII of the scale of treble hooks, 

 and of course " extra strong," as described in the chapter on 

 tackle. 



Furthermore, a multitude of hooks, even if they were not 

 repellant, as they obviously must be in bright water, are not at all 

 necessary out here. They are made at home for fishes whose 

 mouths are so full of teeth and scarcely-covered bone, that the 

 surface presented to the hook is SO hard that the chances are 

 sadly against a hook penetrating, and getting a lmld. and therefore 

 the hooks are multiplied with a view to increasing the chances of 

 hinikiic_< a fish. But the Maimer's mouth and lips are >nft, tough, 



THE BOD IN INDIA. I'- - 



