HOOKS. 



c 



exertion of force in striking, cannot be made to enter far enough to 

 cover the barb. The result is, in practice, that the fish shakes out 

 the hook with the greatest ease. The wide standing barb, like that of 

 the Round pattern given opposite, is a much greater nuisance than this ; 

 it will simply not enter at all in a great many cases ; and I can assure 

 those whose experience may not have led them to anathematise this evil 

 that many a good pike or perch is lost because the hook could not be 

 made to hold without almost 

 pulling the fish's head off. 

 The desideratum for holding 

 -power, to be consistent with 

 perfect penetration, there- 

 fore, must be a short barb, 

 which offers little or no re- 

 sistance to the strike and 

 the entering of the hook, 

 and yet does not let the fish 

 -escape. 



Now there is no such a 

 barb sold at present, but I 

 Am making arrangements 

 with Mr. Gregory, Vyse- 

 rstreet, Birmingham, to pro- 

 duce the following hook for 

 me (Fig. 7). Of course, it 

 is chiefly applicable to the 

 larger fish, such as salmon, 

 ,pike, trout, &c. ; but I have 

 no doubt it can be manu- 

 factured in small sizes. It 

 will at once be seen that 

 the requirements of pene- 

 tration are in this device 

 carried out as nearly as 

 is possible, while, at the same time, the holding power is equal to 

 .anything yet before the public. The shank of the hook is bent in 

 making, and the barb is a movable one A and B indicate the barb and 

 the point, which is a continuation of the hook itself ; near the point it is 

 grooved to admit of the insertion of the barb, which is a triangular piece 

 of steel, secured by a tiny steel bolt ; C indicates it at the moment of 

 entering a fish, D shows the hook at the moment when the struggles of 

 the fish provoke the barb. I think I may safely say that for salmon 



FIG. 7. HOOK WITH MOVABLE BARB. 



