51 



While this instrument is affixed, the butt joint fmist 

 be taken off, and be used separately, the line being kept 

 as tight as the situation may demand by the residue of 

 the rod. It is also a good plan, to have one of the same 

 form attacher? to a taper plug, made to fit into both the 

 first and the second joints of your rod. This is more 

 manageable j but, unless well fixed, there is some dan- 

 ger of the plug being drawn forth, and eventually lost, 

 when the hook is used. 



Thz Disgorger. 



This is an extremely useful implement for liberating 

 the hook, when your bait has been swallowed by a fish. 

 Jacks, perch, and eels, and sometimes trouts, when 

 hungry, are very apt to get you into this difficulty. 



It is true, that by means of a good stout knife, well 

 sharpened, you may cut down through the junction of 

 the jaw bones, and thus lay open the whole -, but such 

 an operation is not in itself very delicate, and creates, 

 besides, so much filth, as spoils every thing with which 

 it comes in contact. 



Disgorgers are of various shapes; the most simple, 

 however, is that made on rather a long flat stem of 

 steel, not unlike the shape of the handle of a spoon, and 

 having at the end, which is pointed, and ought to be 

 very sharp, an angle, made also very sharp, both within 

 and without j so that when the instrument is pushed 

 past the place where your hook is fast, it may, in drawing 

 up again, divide that part, and consequently allow your 

 hook liberty to come forth, without straining your line, 

 which, during this operation, should be kept over to the 

 opposite side of the fish's mouth. 



D 2 A sketch 



