16 Fly-rods and fly-tackle. 



one of the faults of the ' Sproat bend,' which is exagger- 

 ated for sake of illustration in Fig. 3. 



"Holding Power. To illustrate this I shall take a 

 case which is both the most common in practice, and will 

 admit of a theoretical demonstration : that of the hook 

 having penetrated quite through the lip of the fish, so 

 that the point protrudes. In this case it is evident that, 

 when once hooked, the nearer the point approaches the 

 shank of the hook, the less chance must the fish have of 

 escaping. This will be seen by carrying the principle 

 to the extreme limit and assuming that the point was 

 so bent in after hooking as actually to touch the shank; 

 the fish's lip would then be enclosed in a complete tri- 

 angle, from which, of course, there could be no possible 

 escape. 



" Strength. It is obvious that those portions of the 

 hook which are nearly or quite in the same line as the 

 penetrating or holding force, have little or no strain to 

 bear. This is the case with the shank and with the 

 short or point side of the hook shown in Fig. 1. The 

 strain, therefore, is thrown on the top side, and more 

 especially on the angle f, and it is precisely in this 

 point that the common Sneck bends have hitherto failed 

 in practice. So marked has been this failure, that I 

 have known three salmon to be lost within an hour with 

 Sneck hooks, all by breakages at the angle in question. 



" Lightness and Neatness. The lightest form of hook, 

 other points being equal, must evidently be that in which, 

 while retaining the requisite thickness of metal at the 

 portion subject to strain, the parts not so subject that 

 is, the shank and * point side ' are tapered away towards 

 the ends. Hooks so tapered are also neater when em- 

 ployed for flies, and more convenient for general use. 



