32 



THE THAMES ANGLER. 



tlie skin of the bait, on the side, and bringing it out at the back 

 fin. There is a third kind of live-bait hook composed of two 

 hooks placed back to back, and having a much smaller one 



bound on the gimp just at the end of 

 their shanks. The bait is put on this 

 upper small hook as on the snap, and 

 the two larger hooks hang down at the 

 side of it. When fishing with this hook, 

 you can strike much quicker than when 

 using the lip hook. 



When I am fishing with a live bait. 

 I very much prefer a set of hooks pecu- 

 liar to myself, for I never saw them in 

 any fishing-tackle shop. They some- 

 what resemble the one described above, 

 but differ from it in two points : first, 

 the hook for the back fin of the live -bait 

 has a little more play ; and there is an 

 additional large hook, which hangs on 

 the opposite side to the large pair of 

 hooks. Descriptions of this kind are 

 not very clear, so I have made a little 



Uf 1 / drawing of the tackle. In my sets of 



V i hooks I find that the binding at the 



I V^ J top extends a little lower down the two 



pieces of gimp than in the engraving. 



Trolling is practised either with the 

 gorge, or with tackle of the same 

 description as that already described in 

 spinning for Trout, merely substituting 

 gimp for gut, and using rather larger 

 hooks. This is my favourite mode of 

 Pike fishing, and is, I think, far pre- 

 ferable to the gorge, particularly when 

 the fish are not well on the feed. Or 

 with the spoon-bait, an invention of 

 the last few years, which has deservedly met with the greatest 

 success : they can be purchased at any of the fishing-tackle 

 shops, with or without their hooks and traces ; they are used 

 for spinning and trolling, and are a good bait for Trout, Jack, 

 and Perch. The gorge is a double hook on twisted brass- 



