SALMON HOOKS 345 



are more prone to use them than they ought to be. The saving 

 on the purchase of cheap hooks to the angler will not amount 

 to half a crown a year, while the satisfaction of feeling confi- 

 dence in your hook is worth any money. 



Hooks are of various forms, applicable to various kinds of 

 fishing. We have the Limerick bend, the Carlisle or round 

 bend, the sneck bend, and the Kirby bend, and there are also 

 various modifications and variations of these bends. 



The hook scale in Plate XXIII shows the best form of 

 Limerick bend in use ; while in Plate XXI, page 326, I 

 have given, as will be seen, the Carlisle, or round, and the 

 sneck bends. Scales of all these have been given for the con- 

 venience of reference, as such is the confusion caused by the 

 various methods of numbering there is no other way of 

 making myself understood. Indeed, it often happens that 

 makers are not true even to their own sizes. I may add here 

 that the sjzes given for trout flies refer to the sneck bend scale. 



The best hooks, particularly for salmon-fishing, are those 

 which will take the largest hold and keep it. For this purpose 

 few have been held to be better than Phillips's (of Dublin) 

 Limerick patterns. Not those of the " hollow-point," as the 

 straight-pointed hooks are called ; they are in my eyes simply 

 detestable. I never had any confidence in them, and believe 

 that the point cuts the hold out. The hold in a salmon's mouth 

 is mostly a flesh hold, not a bone or gristle one, and a point that 

 cuts must be avoided. Now, in Plate XXIII it is evident that, 

 instead of cutting, the point of the hook being ranked outwards 

 slightly, insinuates itself farther and farther outwards, or away 

 from the shank, thus increasing rather than decreasing the 

 hold ; but this ranking outwards is often carried to excess, and 

 the stroke consequently, instead of falling full and direct upon 

 the point of the hook falls on the inside of the point, and often 

 causes the strike or tug to become " a scratch " instead of " a 

 hold." Plate XXII, Fig. i, page 331, shows a hook which I 

 have a high opinion of. It was first introduced to me by 

 Dr. Sheil, years ago, and he gave me a pattern. Lately, when 

 writing to him about the hook, he sent me another pattern 

 precisely similar, but recommended that the shank should be 

 lengthened slightly, and I wrote to Messrs. Allcock, of Redditch, 

 who were the makers of the pattern, to send me some of the 

 improved pattern. The only objection to the hook which the 

 Doctor mentions is, that in deadish water it hangs rather up 

 and down too much, though in a swift stream it swims on an 



