FISHING TACKLE AND HOW TO MAKE IT. 



497 



I shall first refer to artificial baits. The spoon is without 

 question the chief of those, and in its thousand-and-one mod- 

 ifications is invariably a successful lure. It would be invidi- 

 ous to single out special makes as being superlatively supe- 

 rior. Competition looks after the quality, and reliable tackle- 

 sellers keep good goods. "Cheap," in refer- 

 ence to spoons, infallibly means "imsty." 



Fig. 35 represents the orthodox spoon-bait. 

 The attractiveness of this is enhanced by 

 adding tufts of gaudy feathers, and there- 

 fore American ingenuity has improved on the 

 original plain spoon of Britain, and we find 

 a combination spoon, as shown at fig. 36, 

 is preferred by trollers for Mascalonge or 

 Pikerel or (Pike). 



The difficulty with spoon-trolling is, that 

 the hooks being necessarily so exposed, they 

 catch into weeds and grass with annoy- 

 ing frequency. This has been obviated by 

 the device shown in fig. 37; 1 and 2 and 3 

 are each arrangements for deflecting or 

 throwing off the weeds, 3 being a flattened 

 bar protecting the point. As it is of spring- 

 steel, it fits, with a slight degree of tension, 

 against the point; and the impact of soft 

 weeds is not sufficiently strong to force it 

 away from the guarded hook, whilst the 

 spring is not strong enough to prevent the fish 

 being hooked as the bait is seized. This 

 arrangement must be seen to be apprecia- 

 ted. It is patented by the Syracuse Fish- 



r-.i 



IfPP 



Fig. 38. 



Rod Co., N.Y. 



Another novelty, of an exceedingly effective form, is made 

 by the same firm, and I give it place because I have person- 

 ally proved its efficacy. It is shown at fig. 38. When the 



