176 THE SPRING SNAP-HOOK. 



apply itself close to one side of the bait, and the 

 other to be similarly placed on the other, but 

 with the direction of their points reversed. A 

 good sized roach, or dace, can conceal the snap- 

 hooks, but it is not properly applicable to a 

 small fish. 



The Spring-snap is generally used with a dead 

 bait, because it cannot be inserted properly in a 

 live bait without doing it disabling injury. It 

 requires deep insertion in the bait, to allow the 

 spring to act which it will not do without some 

 considerable resistance. The spring-snap is figured 

 on the opposite page. 



If you examine this tackle, reader, you will 

 perceive that the two large hooks project from 

 one and the same shank, which is flat and split, 

 and which slides up and down between two per- 

 pendicular wire pillars. They are attached, as 

 well as a small hook, to a moveable band above, 

 and when suddenly and sharply pulled down- 

 wards below the band beneath,. the elastic shank 

 separates with a strong spring, and the result is 

 the insertion of both hooks or at least one within 

 the mouth of the fish that seizes it, and at which 

 you sharply strike. 



In the spring, summer, and early autumn 

 months pike are shy, and fond of basking near 

 the surface of the water, and if, as Mr. Blaine 

 says, "one of them does seize a bait at these 



