Minnow- Tackle. 1 9 5 



too stiff, the hook or the hold will be endangered 

 when striking ; if too pliant, it will yield to the 

 resistance of the water too much to allow a ready 

 stroke to be made when a bite occurs, and the fish 

 will escape ere the effect of the stroke reaches 

 him." The length of line must be in proportion to 

 the size of the stream ; but for ordinary purposes the 

 entire length, including the cast of gut, need not 

 exceed a half more than the rod. The gut itself 

 should measure two yards or more, and for clear 

 water it is absolutely necessary that it should be 

 of the finest quality. On this cast two swivels are 

 fixed ; one of small size at the end of the second 

 strand of gut from the hooks, and another slightly 

 larger near the point of its connection with the hair- 

 line. The purpose of the swivels is not so much to 

 assist the spinning of the bait which would spin 

 without them as to prevent the spinning from 

 twisting the line. And here I should recommend 

 the use of the spring swivel, as by it nothing is 

 easier than to effect, when desirable, a change of 

 tackle from spinning-minnow to any other kind of 

 minnow or to worm, or to substitute one size of 

 hook for another. 



The varieties of tackle given by authorities and 

 used by anglers are almost endless. Some, fur- 

 nished with as many as eleven hooks, literally 

 bristle with steel, and seem to challenge an attack 



