14 SPINNING-TACKLE : 



five commonly employed on a good sized 

 flight. These, I unhesitatingly assert, are 

 not only useless, but eminently mischievous ; 

 both as regards the spinning of the bait, and 

 the basketing of the fish when hooked. 

 Upon the bait they act by impairing its 

 brilliancy and attractiveness, rendering it 

 flabby and inelastic; and when, as it fre- 

 quently happens, a transposition of the hooks 

 is necessary. . by destroying it altogether. 

 Upon the fish they operate only as ful- 

 crums by which he works out the barb of 

 such hooks as were already fast, and which 

 would otherwise have sufficed to lay him 

 " floating broad upon his breathless side." 



The great size also of the hooks used 

 contributes materially to the losses com- 

 plained of, as it should always be recollected 

 that to strike a No. 1 hook fairly into a 

 fish's gills, requires at least three times the 

 force that is required to strike in a No. 5 ; 

 and that this is still more strongly the case 



