442 



THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



whose skin has been perforated in this manner, and more especially when 

 the wound lets in the oxygen of the air. In water the pain may not be 

 nearly so great, and that is one reason why a fish does not snffer as 

 has been snpposed by being hooked ; bnt the convulsive thrills that rnn 

 throngh the struggling fish as it is being impaled are to me so piteous 

 as to induce me to chronicle a resolve which I trust will be adopted by 

 my brother anglers. Let it be understood that I say nothing about 

 passing the hook through a fish' s cartilaginous lip ; but between this 

 and an unmerciful tearing and oxygenising of a skin wound is a very 

 great difference. 



A method of snap fishing, recommended by Pennell, here requires 

 some remarks. The following illustration (Fig. 64) shows it. 



FIG. 64. PENNBLL'S LIVE BAIT SNAP. 



Now this is a remarkably deadly method ; but can anything be more 

 like unnecessary vivisection than the under-skin attachment here shown ? 



Of course the skin at a is by no means very thick, and supposing the 

 angler, by some mishap, entangles his line as he hurls the bait out for a 

 long throw, what is the result ? " So much the worse for the bait," you 

 reply ; and indeed you are right, for the poor brute is jerked off, perhaps 

 to live, but more likely to die a death which must, in the very nature of 

 things, be more painful than any other. 



It is not figured because of its merit, but because, as Pennell is one 

 of our chief pike authorities, anything he puts forward requires the 

 fullest treatment, either to overturn or criticise. I do not like his 

 method, if only for the reason that the hook (a) tears out very soon, and 



