THE TREBLE TRIANGLE FLIGHT. Ill 



goes Pikey, quite satisfied with his entertainment pro 

 tern., and wondering what that ugly two-legged monster 

 with the hop-pole in his hand, and who looked in such a 

 state of perplexity and stew, had to do with the matter. 

 There is another reason why pike often get off through 

 the barbs of the hooks not being fleshed in them, 

 and that is, from the bad shape of the hooks, the 

 points being far too long and the barbs much too rank. 

 I have touched more fully on this subject in the chapter 

 on hooks. 



But to return to that important point, the flight of 

 hooks. The tackle with three triangles and a sliding 

 lip-hook has perhaps the greatest number of admirers. 

 It is the oldest tackle, and people are used to it. To 

 bait the three-triangle tackle, take a small fish (a 

 dace, gudgeon, or bleak), stick one of the hooks of the 

 lowest triangle into the flesh of the tail, bringing the 

 point out on the same side so that the shanks of the hooks 

 may be in a straight line along the side of the bait, draw 

 the tail up so as to bend or crook it, and stick the reversed 

 single hook in so as to keep it crooked ; insert one of the 

 hooks of the second triangle in the middle of the side, 

 about, or a little below the vent ; stick one of the hooks 

 of the third triangle into the middle of the side near the 

 shoulder. It should, if the bait is suited to the size ot 

 the tackle, go in just below the pectoral fins; then, having 

 slid the lip-hook down to the proper distance so as 

 neither to bend the head of the bait nor allow it to be too 

 loose, put the lip-hook through both lips of the bait, the 

 point being upwards. Examine the drawing of the lip-hook, 

 and it will be seen that the gimp passes two or three times 



will easily perceive that if these teeth were buried in a bait, and the bait 

 were drawn firmly forwards, it would not be an easy thing for the pike to 

 disengage himself by any other method than the one suggested, and which 

 he very commonly adopts. 



