TKOIJT FISHING WITH BAIT. 89 



In spinning for small trout with a minnow a different 

 kind of tackle is used. The rod is lighter, and capable of 

 being swung and used with one hand. The spring should 

 be something between that of a bait rod and a fly rod. 

 The rings upright, of course, as is the case with all 

 spinning rods ; the line the finest dressed silk ; the trace 

 of moderate trout gut, and two or three swivels, and the 

 tackle suited to the size of the minnows you are likely to use. 

 This does not vary much, and a very little manipulation 

 is required to accommodate the bait to the tackle. Some 

 people like one kind of tackle, and some another some 

 like small hooks and some large. The old three triangle 

 pattern is not unfrequently used ; but this again is often 

 modified by using pairs instead of triangles, leaving only 

 a single hook projecting. I do not care about these tackles, 

 but incline to the larger hooked species. The earliest 

 of these was one large round bend long shanked hook, 

 which was passed in at the mouth of the minnow, and so 

 on down along the spine till it was brought out at the tail, 

 the tail being crooked on the bend of the hook; but above 

 the shank of the hook there was a small hook, used as the 

 lip hook, to hold the minnow up on the big hook, and this 

 being passed through the lips of the minnow, the tackle 

 was baited; but I found that this arrangement often 

 allowed fish to run and take hold of the bait lightly 

 between these two hooks, and to escape being hooked at 

 the strike, and so a large percentage of runs were lost 

 unless the fish were very hungry. I therefore added a 

 small triangle on a thread of gut, to be inserted midway 

 (as shown in Fig. 5, Plate 3). 



For many years I used this tackle and no other, and 

 found it in streams all I could wish ; but when I came to 

 fish on the Scotch lakes I often found that my minnow 



