84 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



straws to the angler which pattern he selects by all means 

 sneck-bend be it. 



There are various ingenious inventions for the purpose of 

 simplifying the art of putting on a spinning bait. Some of 

 them are more ingenious than useful. The principle of most 

 of them is to have a piece of flat brass, about the length of the 

 bait to be used, pointed and barbed at one end. This is thrust 

 into the mouth of the bait and down beside the spine until 

 the barbed point is buried in the root of the tail ; another barb 

 half-way up the metal helps to keep the bait on and in its place. 

 The other end of the brass has fixed on it a pair of wings or 

 fans, on the Archimedian screw principle ; these extend on 

 either side of the mouth of the bait and communicate to it the 

 spinning action. Above these wings is an eye in the brass from 

 which a pair of triangles on one side, and a single one on the 

 other, hang and form the arming of the bait ; one of the hooks 

 of the upper triangle on one side, and the single one on the 

 other being hooked into the bait, serve also to keep it to- 

 gether. But in spite of all this, when there is the constant strain 

 caused by casting and drawing against stream, the barbs will 

 at times work loose and allow the fans to come up and away 

 from the mouth, so that a short interval will appear between 

 the fan and the head of the bait, which is very undesirable. 

 To the eye is fixed a swivel to which the trace is fastened in 

 the usual manner. Some of these artificial spinners are 

 without the fans, and the spin is given to the bait by simply 

 bending the tail, brass and all, the brass keeping the tail 

 properly crooked. Some, again, have the fan at the tail, the 

 tail being cut off, the spear thrust in at the tail and out at the 

 mouth, an artificial tail being thus given to the bait. Most of 

 these aids to spinning are leaded so that the weight is concealed 

 in the body of the bait ; but although it may be desirable to 

 hide the lead and to show as little tackle as possible to alarm 

 the fish, I have always found that the thrusting of a lead into 

 the fish soon knocks the bait to pieces, and the belly and thorax 

 are liable to cut out more or less speedily. Again, in these 

 aids to spinning many of them require the baits to be fitted 

 with some exactness to the apparatus and the apparatus to 

 the bait. The best of them all, perhaps, is the Chapman 

 spinner (see Plate V, Figs. 8 and 9, p. 78). But, however 

 good they may be in one sense, there are many objections to 

 them ; and my advice to the young spinner is to learn how to 

 put a bait properly on an ordinary flight of tackle devoid of 



