118 THE CHAPMAN SPINNER. 



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 Archi- 

 median screw principle ; these extend on either side of 

 the mouth of the bait and communicate to it the spin- 

 ning 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. 

 This is the Chapman spinner (see figs. 8 and 9, Plate V. 

 p. 112). But the constant strain caused by casting and 

 drawing against stream, causes the hooks to work loose, 

 and allows the fans to come up and away from the 

 mouth, so that an 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. Mr. Wood, of Ripon, made an im- 

 provement in arming the Chapman spinner, Vhicli does 

 away with much of the tendency of the bait to slip 

 away from the fans, and sent it to me. I tried it, and with 

 a slight modification I find it really is a great improve- 

 ment. I give a sketch of it at fig. 8 Plate I. p. 11. The gist 

 of the improvement is that instead of the gimp being 

 fixed at the eye of the spinner, it slides through cross-wise, 

 thus whenever there is a draw on the bait it must haul 

 it up close to the fan. I also flatten the lead somewhat, 

 to prevent its turning round in the fish's belly. With 

 this tackle in a long day's fishing I only lost one fish, and 

 I frequently killed two and three fish with the same bait. 

 It is a wonderful economiser of baits. The size of the 

 fans, however, must be suited to the size of the fish, larger 

 for large baits, smaller for small. Some of these artificial 



