M Till: DROP MINNOW. 



at fig. 7. This tackle at tig. 5 \va> originally invented by 

 me for a jack-tackle. It was to be made of large size, 

 and the two parts of it were made to detach, but it did 

 not answer for jack, though it will answer well for min- 

 now. This is the tackle referred to at p. 115 as affording 

 Mr. Pennell the sliding triangle. 



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 effec- 

 tiveness. Some use small double hooks instead of tri- 

 angles ; 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. 1 i\ 

 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 VIII, 

 fig. 6, p. 284, he will form a better idea of the method 

 than any mere directions can afford him. 



There is another tackle used by some anglers, some- 

 times called the bead or drop minnow. The tackle is 

 made and is used much after the same system as that 

 shown in Plate V. fig. 7, p. 1 1 2, as being employed by 

 the Nottingham spinners. From the junction of the lip- 

 hook depends a pear-shaped pellet of lead, secured to the 

 tackle by a small ring. The tackle is not reeved through 

 the gill as in the Nottingham plan, but the bead of lead 

 is forced into the minnow's mouth, which is then closed 

 by means of the lip-hook, the first triangle being hooked 

 in just behind the back fin, so as to give the bait a bend, 

 the second triangle hanging loose a little beyond the tail. 



