136 FIVE POINTS OF EXCELLENCE. 



upon a single length of gut, with loops to slip on and 

 off the hook of the swivel as required. The sets of hooks 

 may be thus easily and expeditiously changed to suit 

 the size of the baits, or to please the fancy of the sports- 

 man when he takes it into his head to try another 

 arrangement. Some may consider two swivels upon the 

 same traces a superfluity, but a few trials will soon con- 

 vince them that the bait spins much more freely with 

 two swivels than one, while the line never becomes 

 twisted into snarls as is frequently the case when there 

 is only one. 



HOOK-SETS. 



The different kinds of hook-sets will next engage 

 our attention, as the arrangements may be varied to an 

 almost infinite extent according to the fancy or inge- 

 nuity of the sportsman. I will content myself, however, 

 by only describing a few methods which I have found 

 eminently efficient in my own practice. Premising that 

 the following five points embrace the chief excellencies 

 of any arrangement of hooks whatever, and that the 

 sportsman must have a due regard for them in all such 

 fresh contrivances as he may think proper to adopt, I 

 shall give them in their order : 



Firstly, All the hooks to be so placed, as to be well 

 concealed in the body of the bait, so as not to deter the 

 fish from seizing it. 



Secondly, The hooks to be so placed as to render it 

 next to impossible for a fish to mouth the bait without 

 being hooked. 



