SPINNING. 75 



I would not trespass on the ground taken by 

 one of the best practical fishermen of the day, Mr 

 Cholmondeley Pennell, or attempt to add any- 

 thing to the instructions given in his admirable 

 work on the pike, by laying down rules either for 

 baiting the hook or using it when baited. My 

 readers cannot do better than consult his pages ; 

 but I may say, that the S hook invented by him- 

 self is the simplest and best form of spinning- 

 tackle that can be used. With it I captured the 

 thirty-pound fish recorded below. In fixing the 

 bait, the great point is the tail, which must form a 

 slightly obtuse angle to the line of the body ; and 

 the body should, by a careful adjustment of the lip- 

 hook, be made as stiff and straight as possible; this 

 shape is more readily obtained by the use of 

 Pennell's hook. You will require at least forty 

 yards of line, plaited, not spun, and thoroughly 

 prepared to prevent kinking ; your rod, of fourteen 

 or fifteen feet, should be sufficiently pliable, not so 

 much so as a fly-rod, but of far greater strength, 

 and something between it and a trolling-rod. The 

 bait is thrown out with a sort of jerk, requiring 

 very little exertion, but when made by skilful hands 

 astonishing the beholder by the distance to which 

 the bait is thrown. Many Thames fishermen will, 

 without apparent effort, shoot out twenty-five or 



