HOOKS. 5 



hook, is by no means new. Mr. H. S. Hall, whose charming 

 contributions to these pages will be read with interest by all 

 dry fly-fishers, was my immediate predecessor and pioneer on 

 the somewhat thorny, though by no means untrodden, track. 

 Still earlier both during the century just ended and before 

 the great advantages of attaching the hook direct to the line 

 have been recognised by writers on angling and hook- makers. 

 But when I say that the idea yet remained to be perfected, I 

 mean that however ingenious or admirable in themselves in 

 different ways all previous attempts have failed in the one 

 essential particular of actually solving the problem ; of solving 

 it, that is, by such a combination of eyed-hooks and knot- 

 attachments as to overcome all difficulties, and bring the 

 system into general use. The 'system,' in fact, had to be 

 complete at all points. The most perfect eye was foredoomed 

 to failure without the appropriate knot, and similarly a fault- 

 less knot was practically worthless without its complementary 

 metal loop. 



This ' loop ' might, theoretically, be either turned upwards 

 or downwards, or be ' needle-eyed ' that is, drilled through 

 the end of the hook-shank like the eye of a needle ; and in 

 the first issue of these volumes each system was fully discussed, 

 with the arguments pro and con. At present, however, if we 

 accept the tackle makers as feeling the pulse of the angling 

 world, it would appear that the arguments adduced, or other 

 causes, have so far influenced public opinion that firstly 

 eyed hooks are rapidly coming into general use (especially 

 amongst trout-fishers) ; and secondly that my own patterns 



C. 



THE PERFECTED EYED-HOOK AND KNOT. 



of hooks with the eyes turned down practically hold the field. 

 I shall therefore, in the present edition, omit as far as 



