82 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



off side, as it gives a better chance of hooking the fish. Now 

 the only difficulty in this tackle is the fixing of the lip-hook, 

 which, in the form shown in the engraving, would give some 

 trouble, and that I meet by having only one loop on the lip- 

 hook instead of two. I only tie one good stout loop on to the 

 lip-hook at the top of the shank, and when I push the lip-hook 

 down to the mouth I can without any difficulty turn the main 

 line, which holds the big hook, three or four times round the 

 shank of the lip-hook. This secures the lip-hook in its place, 

 and holds the triangle pretty firmly. This tackle is extremely 

 simple and exceedingly effective ; I think that without doubt 

 it combines the maximum of simplicity and effectiveness 

 with the minimum of hooks. And having hit upon this plan 

 of baiting the tackle, and being quite satisfied of its efficiency, 

 I shall now never use any other. I used it all the last season 

 and had some capital sport with it, holding and killing more 

 large fish with it, and losing fewer fish than I have lost for 

 years. I had on the Kennet perhaps the best half a day's 

 pike spinning I ever had in my life with this tackle, running 

 and hooking on ten fish without losing one, the average weight 

 of the ten fish reaching thirteen pounds each fish. The largest 

 fish was twenty-two pounds and a half, the next seventeen 

 and a half, sixteen and a half, and so on, down to about seven 

 pounds, which was the smallest. The rest of the day I spent 

 in perch-fishing, taking about two dozen and a half, which 

 ran from one to two pounds each fish, one or two being a little 

 above two pounds. I had a friend with me who also caught 

 a large number of fine perch, but he did not fish for pike at all. 

 Now, if five hooks are capable of such a day's sport as this, 

 what need is there for using double the number ? If the pike 

 has four out of the five hooks inside his mouth, as will probably 

 be the case, it is ample to give the fisherman a very good 

 chance of hooking him. The bait does not spin quite so rapidly 

 with this tackle, but as there are so few hooks about it, there 

 is less need of it ; and few will deny that, if it spins well 

 enough to realise such a take as I have described, there is not 

 much to find fault with. 



Soon after I brought this tackle out, Mr. Cholmondeley 

 Pennell wrote a little work on spinning for pike, in which he 

 described a tackle which he had invented, and an excellent 

 tackle it is (see Plate IV, Fig. 2, p. 76). Mr. Pennell states, 

 with respect to his tackle, that flying triangles, or triangles 

 upon separate strands of gimp, are more correct in principle 



