242 Rod and Tackle. Ohapt. xvm. 



It' you are spinning for murral or sea-fish, however, you cannot 

 be quite so sure of hooking with one treble, and can either add 

 another treble to my flight of hooks as above described, or can 

 adopt Francis Francis' or Pennel'a flights of pike hooks, which, 

 if quoted by the inventors' names, will be sufficiently described for 

 recognition by tackle-makers. I, however, would rather recom- 

 mend the use of small stout Mahseer hooks, because Indian 

 waters are generally bo bright, and pike hooks are so large and 

 formidable. For these fish, however, they should be tied on gimp, 

 not gut. 



When I am fishing with at all a large bait, so large that it 

 carries the hooks well without showing, I do not mind adding a 

 second treble hook, so as to have one treble book half-way up the 

 fish, and another near about the region of the tail, but I never 

 have one trailing all unconcealed behind the bait, and I do not 

 know that this second treble is really of any use. It is more 

 fancy, I think, than anything else, the remains of an old creed still 

 clinging about one, though all reason in connection with the mate- 

 rial of the Mahseer's mouth, and the manner in which it seizes its 

 bait, argue that one treble hook is really all that is wanted; and if 

 more than one is superfluous, then it is objectionable, for it 

 certainly cannot tend to make the bait look more tempting to the 

 fish. Keep then, as a rule, to no more hooks for our bright water- 

 than are absolutely necessary, to wit, One lip honk and one treble. 



In consequence of hooks rusting so quickly in India, and the 

 difficulty of replenishing vour stock, t lie prudent 



Preserving Tackle. J l ° J .... 



man will perhaps take extra precautions which 

 I confess I never had the time for. A thin coating of shellac 

 varnish put over your hooks, swivels, traces, and flights of 

 hooks, and heads of flies, will exclude the air, and thus preserve 

 them from rust. It is recommended that the same should be done 

 again on putting away used tackle I believe the Waj to do it is 

 to dip your hooks and tackle in the Tarnish, and then hang them 

 on a thread stretched crosswise. If laid on the table, of Course 

 they will stick to it. 



\\\ flies I always kept in a tin box of sandalwood sawdust. 

 The oil in the sawdust kept the hooks from rusting ; the smell pre- 

 erved the feathers from being moth-eaten 



Shellac varnish is easily made. Lat is p amble in any 



