DKAG-HOOKS. 173 



of two No. 10 hooks tied back to back, and left to 

 play loose about three inches behind the minnow, 

 very effective. Some anglers put a drag-hook about 

 half-an-inch behind the tail, in expectation of those 

 trout that bite short taking hold of. this hook with 

 their mouth, but this rarely happens. The tail of 

 the minnow in spinning describes a considerable 

 circumference, and the drag, being further out, a still 

 greater one ; so that, if the trout misses the min- 

 now, there is little chance of its catching the drag. 

 The drag which we advise should be dressed on a 

 separate piece of gut, sufficiently long to keep it at 

 least three inches behind the minnow, and attached 

 to the upper hook of the minnow-tackle by a loop, 

 so that it may be taken off or put on at pleasure. 

 The object of having it so far behind the minnow is 

 to catch, by the outside of the body, those trout 

 which bite shy, or miss the minnow. 



In order to test whether the two hooks by them- 

 selves, or with the addition of the drag, kill most, 

 we fished for several days, time about with each 

 having the drag on one half-hour and off the next. 

 We have, unfortunately, lost our notes on the sub- 

 ject, but the result was decidedly in favour of a 

 drag. Sometimes more than half of what we caught 

 were taken by it ; at others not more than a third. 

 When the drag was on, we did not catch so many 

 trout on the minnow-tackle itself, as when the drag 

 was off, which we account for in two ways. Firstly, 

 the drag is likely to alarm a few trout which would 



