4-i? SALMON HOOKS. 



shank prolonged to any length you require. If you use 

 the ordinary No. 6 or 7 hook, it will not float. 



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 the adjoining Plate XVI. shows the 

 best form of Limerick bend in use ; while in Plate XIV. 

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

 and the sneck bends. Scales of all these have been given 

 for the convenience of reference, for 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 sizes 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, 1 as the straight-pointed hooks are called. I have 

 no confidence in them, and believe that the point cuts 

 the hold nut. 1 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 XIV. the point of 

 the hook being ranked outwards works into the flesh 

 away from the shank, thus increasing rather than decreas- 

 ing 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 in- 

 side of the point, and often causes the strike or tug to 

 become * a scratch ' instead of a hold.' Plate XV. fig. 1, 



1 I am told that this is prejudice, but it is well founded ; the above 

 WM written ten years ago, yet last year a friend induced me to use one. 

 I rose, pncked, hooked and lost fire fish in succession. F. F. 



