4-'- SPINNING HOOKS. 



either in point or barb, and the barb should not be ranked 

 nearly so much as nine-teuths of them are. I have seen 

 triangles with the barbs ranked more than in an ordinary 

 Limerick hook, and when this is the case, if two or three 

 hooks take hold, hardly any reasonable tackle will stand 

 the stroke that is required to detach the hooks from the 

 bait, and to force the barbs home into the pike's jaw. I 

 know the extreme difficulty and force required to ram such 

 a barb through, by having once buried one in the ball of 

 my thumb, and the resistance caused by the badly ranked 

 barb, in my efforts to bring it through and turn the hook 

 out at the shank, was something incredible. It is owing 

 to this fact that eight pike get off out of every ten which 

 are lost when hooked in spinning. Two or three rank 

 barbed hooks take hold, and the barbs are not driven home. 

 You may never get a sufficient strain on the fish to drag 

 them home (no easy matter either), and the first moment 

 a loose line or a turn occurs, away come the hooks. To 

 my fancy, pike hooks in spinning require almost more 

 care and consideration in construction than any others, 

 and probably they receive less. With regard to the shape 

 of the hooks best adapted for spinning-tackle, Mr. Pennell 

 makes a statement which, if it be borne out by long ex- 

 perience, is so striking that it settles the question beyond 

 all argument. He says that the sneck bend hook possesses 

 100 per cent, more killing power than the Limerick bend, 

 and 50 per cent, more than either the Carlisle or Kirby 

 bend ; and further, that whereas it requires an average 

 pressure of three pounds to force home a Limerick hook> 

 it takes two pounds and a half to the Carlisle, two pounds 

 and one-third to the Kirby, but only one pound and a 

 half to the sneck bend. Having quoted these facts (which 

 I neither vouch for nor controvert), I leave them to the 

 angler's consideration. 



All worm hooks, from the largest to the smallest, should 



