VARIETIES OF SPINNING TACKLE 83 



and kill more fish than if they were fastened on to the single 

 strand of gimp in the ordinary way, and I am sure that he is 

 right. The only possible objection I can enter to it is the 

 plurality of strands of gimp he uses (or perhaps I should say 

 did use), and the amount of lashing which must be rather 

 conspicuous on the fish's side ; and I should prefer the tail- 

 hook, too, to be a trifle larger than in his original tackle, a 

 sketch of which may be seen in Plate IV, Fig. 2, page 76. I 

 have great faith in a big hook for big fish. Subsequently Mr. 

 Pennell improved his tackle, enlarged the tail-hook, did away 

 with much of the lashing, and adopted the shifting triangle 

 attached to the lip-hook, which I had employed on my tackle, 

 instead of two attached by single strands to the main strand 

 of gimp the shifting triangle being inserted on the reverse 

 side ; and in this form it makes the best tackle that had so far 

 been invented (see Plate IV, Fig. 3, p. 76). 



Wishing, if possible, still further to improve on the system 

 of flying triangles, I hit upon the idea a short time since of 

 employing triangles with loops or eyes, instead of tying them 

 on to strands of gimp, and having a single hook tied to the 

 main gimp under each triangle to hook the fish on, leaving 

 the triangles to stand out free. My belief is that in most 

 tackles the hooks lie too closely to the bait to take a favourable 

 hold of the fish, and often hit upon the hard jaw-bone, instead 

 of catching the more fleshy parts of the mouth. By letting 

 the triangles stand farther from the bait, the chance of hooking 

 is greatly increased. In Plate IV, Fig. 4, page 76, the tackle 

 is represented, but I have had it also made with the shifting 

 triangle for the reverse side, as is shown in Fig. 3, and it answers 

 exceedingly well. 



There is an immense variety of other spinning tackles, far 

 more than can be noticed here, but the above are about the 

 best of them. In the choice of hooks, Mr. Pennell strongly 

 recommends the sneck-bend for the triangles, as being far 

 more sure in hooking. I have certainly found that no hooks 

 do so well or hook so many trout in fly-fishing, where the 

 question is one of great importance ; and I can see no reason 

 why the principle which certainly suits best and prevails so 

 very extensively in trout hooks should not be equally applicable 

 to pike. Mr. Pennell says that, after a series of experiments, 

 he has come to the conclusion that the advantage which the 

 sneck-bend has over the other hooks is something like 100 

 per cent,, and such being the case as it cannot matter two 



