SPINNING AND BAIT FISHING. 413 



If, however, I cannot claim the invention, I have at least 

 (as I believe) perfected and improved upon it and that in one 

 critical, or I might say ' cardinal ' point especially. The 

 minnow as here figured and described, and with its appropriate 

 ' rig ' and trace, combines all the advantages of the Devon, 

 with others which the latter does not possess, first amongst these 

 being the impossibility of the flight of hooks getting foul or 

 out of position. 



The hooks, of course, spin with the bait, which (N.B.) they 

 could not be trusted safely to do but for the cardinal ' improve- 

 ment ' referred to namely, the notches, or ' slots,' at the bottom 

 of the minnow (vide diagram), and without which I should 

 not care to use it at all. A lake trout, at any rate, is not 

 likely to be very enthusiastic when a couple of good healthy 

 non-spinning triangles stand out in bold relief for inspection 

 in water as clear and tranquil as cut glass. 



PERFECTED SLITLESS DEVON MINNOW AND FLIGHT. 



Again, in the ordinary Devon, and all similar metal baits 

 in which is embodied the correct principle of the minnow 

 running up the trace when a fish is struck, it is found in 

 practice that the minnow will not resume its proper position 

 on the flight without re-adjustment. The result of this is 

 sufficiently annoying and inconvenient in stream or river fish- 

 ing with short casts, but where, as in lake spinning, the bait 

 is trailed behind the boat, at a distance often of fifty or sixty 

 yards, the inconvenience is enormously increased, the line 

 i. E E 



