60 ANGLING FOR PIKE. 



A hook of the lowest triangle is caught in the tail of the bait ; the 

 other triangles are fastened to its side, and the lip-hook (see 

 page 61) passes through the lips. In fixing these hooks, the tail 

 of the bait is curved, and the hooks (a bad point about these 

 flights) lie in the curve. This can, however, be got over by 

 slipping a piece of gimp, to which a triangle is attached, 

 down to the lip-hook, and sticking one of the hooks of the 

 triangle on the outside of the curve, about the middle of the 

 fish. I am almost obliged to mention this tackle because it 

 is so commonly used, but I strongly advise my readers to 

 have nothing to do with it. One reason why it is so bad is 

 that it has too many hooks. The more hooks the more 

 chance of hooking, seems at first sight a sound proposi- 

 tion, but it will not bear examination. If to pull one hook 

 into a jack requires a force of ^Ib., to pull in two hooks 

 requires a force of ilb. — and the more the hooks to be pulled 

 in, the greater the force required. Now, if we have three 

 triangles and a lip-hook on one flight, there are frequently 

 four separate hook-points (say, two on each of two triangles) 

 in the jack's mouth, the resistance of which has to be overcome 

 before the jack is hooked. Now I will go so far as to assert 

 that it is impossible to strike hard enough with light tackle 

 to get four large hooks in over the barb. In all my experience I 

 have never found a jack really hooked with more than two hooks 

 well over the barb, though the points of other hooks might 

 be sticking in his mouth. It foUows that the large number of 

 triangles in the Thames flight more often than not prevents 

 the pike being properly hooked, and this theory is borne 

 out in practice. I believe that, when pike are caught with this 

 tackle, they either seize only the end triangle, or hook them- 

 selves in their struggles after they have shaken some of the 

 triangles out of their mouths. 



As pike are not very likely to be hooked unless the hooks 

 are brought against their lower jaw (the upper jaw being hard 

 and bony), it follows that, with those tackles in which all the 

 hooks lie close along one side of the bait, the hooks will as 

 often come against the upper jaw of the pike as the lower, and 

 a large number of fish will not get hooked. For this reason I 



