116 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



When angling for large fish the more slowly and the more 

 directly the bait can be brought to their notice the better. 



Natural minnows, artificial minnows, and spoon baits 

 can be used for this method of spinning. 



The advantages of spinning across and down stream are 

 these : a much slower method can be adopted, and the 

 pressure of the down-stream current will assist the spinning 

 of the spoon, the minnow, etc. 



I am dealing now almost exclusively with the spinning 

 during fine weather, and in clear water, and therefore I 

 wish again to impress on the fisherman the necessity of 

 using as light a lure and lead as possible. Many artificial 

 lures, such as that excellent one the Reflet Minnow,* 

 patented by Messrs. Wyers Freres are sufficiently heavy 

 in themselves. 



If it be true that the great majority of fishermen consider 

 that the present method of arming the natural or arti- 

 ficial minnow with a number of triangle hooks is prejudicial 

 to the best interests of sport, then I think they would 

 welcome laws which prohibited the use of more than one 

 hook to each lure, or at least more than one triangle to each 

 lure. Quite apart from the fact that a number of triangles 

 lead to the lure being repeatedly caught in the weeds, 

 snags, etc., etc., the fish which are caught are very frequently 

 unable to make a fight for their lives, both their upper 

 and their lower jaws being firmly locked together by these 

 triangles, and when they succeed in escaping they are so 

 badly mutilated that they cannot possibly recover. 



I was watching a fisherman spinning on the Wye a little 

 time ago, and he got into a good sized fish. He brought the 

 fish nearly up to his landing net when it got away, and on 

 one of the triangles of the lure we found the eye of the 

 fish, which happened to be a chub. Evidently the chub had 

 * This can be obtained from Messrs. G. Little and Co., 63, Haymarket, S.W. 



