488 MR. FRANCIS'S PATTERN. 



swim to have a dozen or so of well-pricked fish in it. I 

 have seen hook after hook of the above description posi- 

 tively give and open and become utterly useless in a dozen 

 Bwims, and so, no doubt, have many of my readers. If 

 roach-fishers must have hooks of this shape, the wire must 

 of necessity be coarse to give any chance of hooking at all 

 a fair proportion of fish. I, however, greatly prefer a hook 

 with a slightly turned-in point and a shank of sufficient 

 length. I got Mr. Wright, then tackle-maker in the Strand, 

 to have some made of this shape some time since, and they 

 answer very well indeed. I lay some stress on the shank, 

 as the reader can try the following experiment, suggested 

 some time since in the ( Field. 1 Take a long shanked 

 hook and tie three pieces of gut to it, at three different 

 points along the shank, fix the point, and then pull each 

 gut alternately, and it will be at once perceived how much 

 more advantage there is in a tolerably lengthy shank 

 than a short one. Of course it would not do to have it 

 too long. If roach are shy, and are biting so badly 

 that they only nibble and do not take the hook into their 

 mouths, it matters very little of what shape the hook 

 is. The barb should not be too rank, as it is not only quite 

 unnecessary but requires a harder stroke than should be 

 given, and is liable to be broken in the frequent unhooking 

 and occasional contact with bones, &c. All this is of the 

 more consequence in roach-fishing because so many anglers 

 fish with a single hair, when the object is to fix the book 

 with the slightest possible stroke, and this with the present 

 shaped hooks is very difficult. The best shaped hook of 

 this kind I ever saw was a French hook, manufactured in 

 the Pyrenees ; and much as we look down on French 

 tackle, our hook-makers might take a lesson from that 

 hook. Some roach-fishers use sneck-bent hooks ; I, how- 

 ever, have used them in roach-fishing many times (that is, 

 my fishing companion used them and I used some other 



