212 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



lip-hooks that could possibly be devised deforming the 

 minnow into a tadpole, pressing it down the gut by its weight 

 until it can hardly help describing a semicircle, and serving 

 to destroy the bait, which rather requires to be kept by a lip- 

 hook in its place to give it proper spinning power. If a fish 

 runs at the head he is missed for the want of a lip-hook, and if 

 a flying triangle be wished for, in addition to the tackle I 

 recommend, the dotted line in Fig. 5 shows how it may be 

 obtained. 



All these three tackles that is, including Hawker's or 

 Salter's are baited in the same way. The bait generally 

 is a minnow. The point of the large hook is put in at the 

 mouth of the minnow, and is kept as close as possible to the 

 spine until the minnow is worked on to the hook ; the point 

 is brought out at the tail. A sufficient crook is then left for 

 the tail on the bend of the hook ; and in the first and last 

 patterns th3 lip-hook is slipped through the lip. In Fig. 5 

 the triangle is fixed at the shoulder, and the angler can try 

 how he likes it on the reverse side to the big hook. If it does 

 not allow the bait to spin well (as it does not sometimes), it 

 can be easily shifted to the near side ; if the bait spins well, 

 however, it increases the chance of hooking a fish when he 

 runs at the off side. The lip-hook never slides, because with a 

 little humouring almost any reasonable minnow can be got on 

 the hook and made to spin ; but if the angler wants a sliding 

 lip-hook, he has only to adopt the tackle, at Fig. 7. 



These are the best, and indeed the only large hook tackles 

 worth notice. Some anglers, however, prefer two or three 

 small triangles and a lip-hook on a reduced Thames scale ; 

 but there is no small hook tackle that can be named in the 

 same day with the large ones for effectiveness. Some use 

 small double hooks instead of triangles ; two or three doubles, 

 and a lip-hook. It is a matter of choice ; I prefer the larger 

 hook myself, as not being nearly so likely to lose the fish when 

 hooked. If, however, triangle or double hook tackles be used, 

 the rules given for Thames trouting or pike spinning with 

 these tackles on a larger scale will equally apply. To make 

 it spin well, however, a minnow should be bent rather more 

 than a dace or gudgeon. If the reader will glance at the 

 engraving of the baited tackle in Plate IX, Fig. 6, page 211, 

 he will form a better idea of the method than any mere 

 directions can afford him. 



There is another tackle used by some anglers, sometimes 



