144 SPINNING-TACKLE. 



the shank of the hook, is to wrap a narrow strip of lead, 

 beaten out thinner at one end than the other, over it after 

 it is tied upon the gut, and pare it off to the proper 

 shape and thickness with a sharp knife, when the whole 

 may be polished over with a file. Or leads of the proper 

 size and shape may be cast in a mould with a hole 

 through their centre, and then slipped upon the hook 

 after it is whipped to the gut, and before the other hooks 

 are attached. 



Since writing the above, I have contrived the follow- 

 ing improvement in the above set of spinning-tackle, 

 which renders it much more easy to bait, when a sliding 

 pipe-lead is used, instead of the fixed lead upon the 

 shank of the large hook ; since in that case the shank of 

 the latter cannot be firmly laid hold of, in order to intro- 

 duce it down through the body of the minnow in a 

 proper manner. 



d 



FIG. 19. MINNOW-SPINNING TACKLE. 



In this arrangement the lip-hook and off-side tri- 

 angle are whipped upon a separate piece of gut, with a 

 loop at a, just large enough to allow it to slide easily 

 along the gut, but no more, in place of being perman- 

 ently fixed to the main line as in Fig. 18 ; 2> is a sliding 



