HOOKS. 209 



The large outsized hook (partly enclosing those just de- 

 scribed) is an excellent hook for Hake or Bonita-fishing, but 

 for Albicore the hook should be certainly twice as large. Of 

 late years Hake hooks are made eight inches long in the shank 

 with an eye instead of a flattened top. The snooding thus 

 escapes the sharp teeth of the Hake. Some of my readers 

 may possibly think 4 and 5 unnecessarily large for ground^ 

 fishing for Bass, but I can assure them they are by no means 

 too strong for this kind of work in a heavy surf or in the mouth 

 of a bar-harbour, where you are almost sure to meet with them, 

 as well as occasionally large Conger, if baiting with Squid or 

 Cuttle-fish. A very great strain is thrown on the hook when 

 a Bass of from ten to fourteen pounds weight is fast, the tide 

 ebbing at the rate of perhaps six or seven miles an hour. In 

 such situations the water is often coloured, which causes the 

 Conger to feed; usually in shallow water they do not move 

 much before sundown. 



Redditch, in Worcestershire, is, with its surrounding dis- 

 trict, the seat of the hook manufacture, with which is commonly 

 associated that of needles. 



The cuts of hooks in this work have been drawn and num- 

 bered from those commonly used by the fishermen in the West 

 of England, and called round bend ; but as there are several 

 other patterns in great favour in different localities, the num- 

 bers of which vary very much, I have thought it best to con- 

 struct a table showing the equivalent sizes of all the principal 

 sorts. 



As there is no recognised universal system observed in the 

 numbering of hooks, much confusion often occurs in ordering 

 them ; the best method is to mention the number of icths of 

 inches they measure across the bend. The Limerick and 

 Kirby hooks of the two smallest sizes are of better quality 

 wire than that used in the Exeter bend, and are therefore 

 preferable. 



