46 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



it will be very nearly at right angles to the point, 

 requiring three times the force to fix it, and rendering 

 it exceedingly liable to start off and merely graze the 

 mouth of the fish. As a proof of this, if the angler 

 is using hooks which are not sufficiently tempered, he 

 will frequently, after having fished for some time, 

 find them bent out in the point, showing that the 

 pull was so much off the straight line, that the force 

 which was sufficient to bend the wire, was not enough 

 to fix the hook. Whenever this is observed, the 

 angler should restore the hook to its original shape 

 by biting it between his teeth, as it will never catch 

 a fish in that state. The point of the hook must not 

 lie in exactly the same line as B A, because if it does, 

 when it comes in contact with the mouth of a fish it 

 will hardly take any hold at all ; it must be so much 

 off the line B A, that when it comes against anything 

 it will press into it. In order to understand what we 

 mean, the reader should take two dressed hooks of 

 the same shapes as Nos. 1 and 2, and pull them against 

 some soft substance, when he will at once see the force 

 of these remarks. 



We believe that with a fly dressed upon a hook of 

 No. 1 bend, we could catch at least three trout for 

 two we could catch with a fly dressed on a hook bent 

 as No. 2, out of an equal number of rises. There 

 are numbers of anglers who are of the same opinion, 

 and would not use a Limerick hook on any account ; 

 and we have met with professional anglers, ready 

 enough in general to accept of any kind of tackle, 

 who absolutely refused to take Limerick hooks, as 



