MINXOW TACKLES CONTINUED. 285 



having experienced the same thing before, may have used 

 the same method to remedy this that I did. I never saw 

 it previously, however, though I have since. This tackle 

 gets rid of the double strand of gut in Hawker's or 

 Salter's tackles, which I look on as exceedingly objection- 

 able ; indeed I would almost as soon have gimp tackle at 

 once. It also disposes of the leaden cup, which is the 

 worst substitute for sinkers and lip-hooks that could 

 possibly be devised deforming the minnow into a tad- 

 pole, 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 pos- 

 sible 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 the 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 

 \vants a sliding lip-hook, he has only to adopt the tackle 



