COD, HADDOCKS, WHITING, BREAM, ETC 437 



half an inch of the end, wax it well, squeeze it on to the shank, 

 and then bind it round very securely, first with well-waxed 

 thread or fine silk line, secondly with a protective whipping of 

 copper wire. To those who do not believe in eyed hooks used 

 in the ordinary way, that is, with the snooding knotted to them, 

 I strongly recommend this little dodge of inserting the snood 

 through the eye and whipping it to the shank. It is infinitely 

 more lasting than a whipping on the ordinary hook, which 

 always comes undone sooner or later at the end of the shank. 



The last time I was conger fishing I had no gimp nor 

 snoods of the usual kind with me, so prepared some by making a 

 three-plait of ordinary eight-plait tanned hemp pike-line, and 

 that is the actual snood engraved on p. 74. More recently, 

 when I came to see some of the tackle used by Mr. Harms - 

 worth for tarpon fishing, I was much interested to find that 

 one kind of snooding for those gigantic herrings was made in 

 a similar manner. The tackle for conger above the snood is 

 of the simplest kind. If a hand line, it should be a very 

 strong one, terminated with a boat-shaped lead, and, below 

 the lead, a swivel and three feet of snooding ending with the 

 hook. This arrangement is suitable for fishing over rocks, 

 where the bait must not be allowed to lie quite on the bottom, 

 for fear of entanglements. Where there is no likelihood of a 

 foul the lead should lie on the bottom, but in that case the 

 snood should not be fastened to the lead, but six inches above 

 it paternoster fashion ; otherwise, the fish has to move the 

 lead before the bite is felt by the fisherman. 



Over rocks where the fish run large, if a rod and reel 

 are used, the former must be short and very powerful. They 

 certainly enable the fish to be hooked with greater certainty 

 than does the hand line. But for very big eels a stout hand 

 line and snood, with which you can safely play the game of 

 'pull devil, pull baker,' is almost necessary. Outside the 



