148 



DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



I don't remember how many different swivels I 

 made, or the many parts of the bait I placed them in, 

 but at IcLst I pleased myself, and, what is more, I have 

 now the satisfaction of seeing that all phantoms hold 

 a ring between their lips from which strands of twisted 

 gut go back to hold the hooks, and, through a pin- 

 hole in the ring, a pin goes forward, on which the bait 

 spins freely, and thus the need for swivels on the trace 

 is done away with. 



Heavy, yellow, waterproof lines were used which 

 were harled across the fish for fifty yards before the 

 bait came to them. It occurred to me it would be 

 better that they should be finer and of a dark colour, 



^tT^i'-a 



THE SPOON PHANTOM. 



and, to prevent their twisting, I made a lead, boat- 

 shaped, with a swivel at each end, to one of which 

 I attached my wire trace and to the other my line, 

 and I felt I had much improved my chances. 



The success of the definite Phantom Minnow and 

 of the indefinite spoon, when spinning, made me wish 

 some one would construct a bait possessing the attrac- 

 tions of both combined. To test the effect of a spoon 

 revolving round a minnow was not difiicult, but it 

 did not answer, and I ceased, for a time, my efforts 

 in that direction; but, whenever I looked into a window 

 filled with a seemingly endless variety of Sheffield 

 goods, that brightly glistened, the spoon and phantom 

 idea came back to be thought much of again. It was 

 while gazing in a window decked out with these shining 

 goods that an idea came which caused me, Irish-like, to 

 scratch my head to encourage it to continue its line 



