EYED HOOKS. 13 



is fastened. Of late years, eyed hooks, as they are called, 

 have come greatly into use in fresh water, and they, 

 undoubtedly, have many advantages. The arguments ^ro 

 and con have been discussed at so much length in the 

 angling press, that I need not enter into them here; but I 

 will unhesitatingly say that for the angler in salt water 

 they are the most useful kind of hooks which can be ob- 

 tained. 



In bass and pollack fishing, it is of the first impoi*tance 

 to have good hooks, and it is the worst possible economy 

 to buy cheap ones, which are certain to be badly tempered. 

 A hook should be neither over-tempered or brittle, causing 

 it to snap when subjected to a heavy strain, nor under- 

 tempered or soft, opening when the point is pulled against 

 the mouth of a fish. With so many different pattern hooks 

 to select from, it is a little difficult to say which is the 

 best. 



Sea fish take the bait eagerly as a rule, and the exact shape 

 of the bend is not of very great importance, provided the 

 hook is not radically bad. For fly fishing in salt water, I 

 think the Sproat hook as good a one as can be made: it 

 may not hook so well as some other bends, which is not 

 of the same importance with bass as with trout, but it holds 

 well — a very important point in bass fishing. For the smaller 

 fish, a Round or Kendal Bend hook answers admirably. 

 Hooks are made with the points slightly twisted to one 

 side. They do very well for fly fishing or whiffing, but I do 

 not like them for ground fishing. Rather a longer shank 

 can be used in the sea than in fresh water, which is a decided 

 advantage, as the longer the shank the greater is the pene- 

 trating power possessed by the hooks. Hooks to be avoided 

 are those with points bending outwards away from the shank ; 

 these scratch more fish than they hook. A large barb is not 

 necessary. A sharp point is very essential; this depends 

 in the first instance on the bookmaker, afterwards on the 

 angler, who should sharpen up the point occasionally with 

 a needle or watchmaker's file. In sea fishing it is very 

 desirable to have hooks made of rather stouter wire than 



