348 SALMON AND TROUT. 



of waxed silk just over the top of the hook shank ; then turn it 

 downwards towards the end of the tail, and cut it off all round 

 at a point about an inch from the last-named lapping. Now 

 sew the rough edge of the turned-over skin carefully down with 

 Holland thread, or, perhaps, better, red sewing silk, and the bait 

 is complete. 



I have found it convenient, in order to make sure of the 

 bait not slipping down over the hook, to put a small pierced 

 shot above the top of the latter on the trace. The first tying 

 of the eel skin being made above this pierced shot makes it 

 impossible for it to slip down. If the bait is nicely made in 

 the proportions that I have described it ought to spin excel- 

 lently well on any ordinary spinning trace, which should, of 

 course, consist of salmon gut. The inside colour of the eel 

 skin is blue, and this, so far as the turned-over portion is con- 

 cerned, becomes the outside on the bait, forming a very good 

 head. It also, of course, materially increases the durability of 

 the bait. 



Mr. Hughes, the well-known fisherman of Galway, who was 

 a great proficient in this mode of spinning, was in the habit of 

 keeping the eel for three or four weeks in plenty of dry coarse 

 salt before making up the bait. He was of opinion that it 

 rendered the skin both tougher and bluer. If this salting 

 process is gone through it should be soaked for some hours 

 in fresh water before being baited with in order to make it 

 plumper and better filled out. The eel-tail bait requires con- 

 siderable nicety of construction, and should always be made, if 

 possible, before starting to fish. Two or three baits at the 

 outside ought to be enough for a day's fishing, barring break- 

 ages. If not lost or used, they can be preserved in dry salt for 

 another occasion. 



The salmon will also occasionally take the parr tail or a 

 Tery small trout, three or four inches long, or a loach, or other 

 spinning bait used in the ordinary way ; for which, as also for 

 the flight, and for the trace applicable to the eel-tail bait, and 

 generally for the modus operandi in which there is, so far as 



