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HOLDING POWERS OF EYED HOOKS. 



" In July last you inserted a note of mine as to the holding powers of eyed 

 hooks, and I attributed the loss of many fish after being apparently'well hooked 

 to the use of these instead of gut-tied hooks, at the same time stating that I 

 would give the eyed hooks a good trial and note the results. Since July 22nd, 

 in 20 days' fly-fishing, I have used the eyed hooks and gut-tied hooks alter- 

 nately in this way : eyed hook in the morning and gut-tied hook in the after- 

 noon of. one day, and the reverse on the next day ; and at times, after taking 

 two or three fish with one kind of hook, I have changed to the other with the 

 same fly, and so on. The result is slightly in favour of the eyed hook so long 

 as the hook did not break ; but I lost many a fine fish by the barb of the hook 

 giving way, more particularly in the small bronzed eyed hooks. This causes 

 more vexation than the loss of a fish from not being well hooked. The manu- 

 facturer's attention should be drawn to this very serious defect, which I should 

 think could be easily remedied. [I can guarantee that this will not occur with 

 the hooks of my present Hookmakers, Messrs. Wm. Bartleet and Sons, Abbey 

 Mills, Redditch, and 53, Gresham Street, E.G., who are now my sole whole- 

 sale agents. H.C.-P.] 

 1 8th December, 1886. 



EDWARD HAMILTON, M.D., 



Author of Fly Fishing for Salmon, Trout and Grayling. 

 [We are very glad, indeed, to get this practical testimony to the holding 

 power of the eyed hook. It is the more valuable because Dr. Hamilton started 

 on his experiment under the impression that the eyed hook was deficient in 

 holding power. ED. Fishing Gazette.] 



AS TO SALMON HOOKS. 

 "EYED HOOKS FOR SALMON FLIES." 



There has been a very long controversy upon this subject, and I am glad 

 to find that Mr. H. Cholmondeley-Pennell has now come to the conclusion 

 that the turned-down eyes are better for his purposes viz., trout flies, than 

 those which are turned up, because it exactly agrees with the result of my 

 experiment with these hooks for salmon flies, which I told him of at the time. 



A few weeks since Messrs. Woodfield and Co., of Redditch, kindly sent 

 me through you, sir, a number of these hooks, and, with a view of giving the 

 readers of the Gazette conclusions drawn from practical experience, I tried flies 

 which I had especially dressed upon them, critically examining each and every 

 performance. There were various descriptions, some with turned-up and 

 turned-down eyes at different angles, and also others in which the eye was 

 simply made at the end of the straight shank. I found, as I fully anticipated 

 (and I will tell you why presently), that the more the eye was turned up the 

 worse the fly fished. As to that I had no doubt whatever in my own mind 



