8 SALMON AND TROUT. 



for the gut to work against, and its shape offers at the same 

 time special conveniences to the fly-dresser. 



The point of importance to be recollected in dressing flies 

 on these hooks, whether for salmon or trout, is that the ' neck ' 

 between the head of the fly and the loop, should be left 

 clear to receive the gut {vide preceding" diagram, p. 7, left- 

 hand fig.). 



It has been observed that my old turn-down eyed patterns 

 of hooks, both salmon and trout, appear to be steadily pushing 

 all other forms of eyes and loops out of the field— and this 

 notwithstanding two very decided blemishes. One defect, so 

 far as salmon hooks are concerned, has just been described, 

 with its remedy ; the other was inherent in the principle not 

 only of my own turn-down eyed patterns, but in a still greater 

 degree in the older models of hooks with eyes turned up. 

 The defect is— or rather was — that the line did not, and could 

 not, ocaipy a plane absolutely level with that of the hook-shank. 



DEFECTIVE TURN-UP EYED SALMON HOOK 

 WITH 'OVER DRAFT.' 



C, Loop or eye ; A, correct draft-line; B, actual draft-line. 



In the turn-down eyed hook the inaccuracy was of course 

 reversed. The deflection was considerably less than that 

 above illustrated ; still it was a decided defect— one of its 

 results being (in the case of my own hooks) to unduly narrow 

 the ' gape ' of the hook, and, in the turn Up eyed hooks, to 

 unduly widen it. That this must inevitably be the case, a 

 glance at the last diagram will show. 



To overcome the difficulty, I tried many experiments — 

 indeed, I began experimenting on my own hooks almost as 



