346 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



even keel. One of the best hooks I have seen is the American 

 Kinsey hook, made by Messrs. Hutchinson, of Kendal, who 

 make the finest classes of hooks ; it has somewhat of a 

 resemblance to the Limerick bend, but is shorter from the bend 

 to the barb, and having a larger gape takes a larger hold, and 

 does not wear it out so soon ; it is a capital hook. Another 

 admirable hook is one called the Sproat bend, being the 

 invention of Mr. Sproat, of Ambleside. This excellent hook 

 was brought out lately by Messrs. Hutchinson ; a drawing of 

 it may be seen in Plate XXII, Fig. 10, page 331. It has many 

 of the advantages of the Kinsey hook. Whether hooks should 

 be heavily or lightly ironed will always depend on circum- 

 stances not worth considering here. 



Passing from salmon, we come to trout hooks ; and for 

 large flies up to sea trout size there is nothing like a good 

 bold Limerick, unless it be the Kinsey pattern before noticed, 

 which would be the perfection of a sea or lake trout hook. 

 In lake or still water fishing the fly should swim upon an even 

 keel, and therefore no sneck bend or twisted point should be 

 employed, or the balance cannot be fairly maintained. In 

 swift or troubled water this is not of so much consequence. In 

 small trout flies the point must be twisted slightly, or the hook 

 will often fail to take hold at all, for the body and the hackle 

 will often stand out sufficiently to help to guard the point to 

 some extent, and if the hook chance to be taken flat or side- 

 ways in the mouth of a good fish, it may be pulled from his 

 mouth without the point coming in contact with the flesh at 

 all. To prove this, let the reader lay such a fly flatly between 

 two pieces of softish card and draw it out : it will come out 

 without a scratch. Not so if it be slightly twisted, as in the 

 sneck bend. For these reasons I prefer for all small flies a 

 sneck bend. The point should be as fine and sharp as possible, 

 but not too long ; the bark should be light, fine, and also short, 

 so that it may be driven home with the slightest tug ; it 

 should, too, lay as close to the hook as possible. A rank barb, 

 such as we see in the Limerick, is unnecessary and even 

 objectionable, requiring hard striking and hard holding to get 

 it home, neither of which are commendable or workmanlike in 

 trout fishing. The hook requires to be of the very best 

 temper, and the wire moderately stout, but not too stout ; 

 neither should it be too fine, or it will not stand. The length of 

 the shank must be dictated by the fly to be used to some 

 extent, but as a rule the longer the shank that can be afforded 



