CHAPTER III. 



HOOKS. 



IN order to show the difference between the hooks in use when 

 the earliest English book on fishing was written, perhaps I may be 

 allowed to again quote the fair authoress of "Fysshynge with an 

 Angle." This esteemed lady says: "Ye shall understand that the 

 most subtyll and hardyste crafte in makynge of your harnays is for 

 to make your hokis," and I believe her; but, happily, there is no 

 necessity for such a business on the part of the angler of the present 

 day. For the sake, however, of contrasting her directions with a 

 general description of the making of hooks as now practised, I continue 

 to quote what she says : "For whoose makyng ye must have fete fyles, 

 thyn and sharp and small beten. A semy clam of yren, a bender, a payr of 

 tonge, and small tongys, an harde knyfe, som deale thycker and an nedle 

 and a lytyll hamour. And for small fysshe ye shall make your hokes of 

 the smallest quarell nedlys that ye can fynde of stele in this wyse. Ye 

 shall put the quarell in a redde charckcole fire till that it be of the same 

 colour that the fire is. Thenne take hym out and lete him kele, and ye 

 shal fynde him well aloyd for a fyle. Thenne reyse the hende wyth your 

 knyfe, and make the poynt sharp. Then aloyl hym agayn, for elles he 

 woll breke in the bendyng. Thenne bend hym like to the bende fyguryd 

 herafter in example. And greeter hokes ye shall make in the same 

 wyse of gretter nedles ; as broderers nedlis, or toylers, or sho-makers 

 nedlis, spore poyntes ; of sho-makers nailer in especyall the beste for 

 grete fysshe, and that they bende atte the poynt when they ben assayd, for 

 elles they ben not goode. Whan the hoke is bendyd bete the hynder 

 ende abrode, and fyle it smoothe for fretynge of thy line. Then put it in 

 the fyre agayn; and geve it an easy redde hete. Thenne sodaynly 

 qnenche it in water, and it will be harde and stronge." 



Now the selection of a hook for ordinary fishing in these modern times 



