SPINNING AND BAIT-FISHING. 419 



I give Mr. Stewart the greatest credit for the originality of this 

 idea, which belongs to him alone ; at the same time, I am not 

 surprised at its proving, as he himself admits, only a modified 

 success. Mr. Stewart says that with this tackle he found he could 

 kill larger fish, but fewer in number, than with the single hookj 

 and that this experience was confirmed by others. He attributes, 

 and I have no doubt correctly, the diminution in the numbers of 

 fish run, primarily to the impossibility of properly concealing so 

 large a number of hooks in a single worm, and to their being 

 consequently seen by the fish. This was the principal drawback 

 to the four-hook tackle. As a minor inconvenience, Mr. Stewart also 

 mentions that, from the number of hooks often fixed in the fish's 

 mouth when landed, a certain waste of time necessarily occurred. 



These being the incidental disadvantages of Mr. Stewart's plan, 

 its advantages were : (i) that the worm was more quickly baited 

 than with the single hook ; (2) that it lived much longer — with the 

 large single hook it dies almost directly; (3) that it presented a 

 much more natural appearance to the fish ; and (4) that, owing to 

 the superior penetrating tendency of small over large hooks, much 

 fewer fish escaped after being once hooked, whilst it became 

 possible to use the finest gut, which could not be safely done with 

 large heavy hooks. This is an advantage the importance of which 

 can hardly be over-estimated in trout fishing in clear streams. 



As regards the other point — the killing powers — my own ex- 

 perience of the tackle was that when fishing properly up streamy 

 and with a shortish line, hardly any fish escaped at all, whilst with 

 the large single hook, I think the experience of most of my brother 

 anglers will bear me out when I say that fully fifty per cent, of 

 runs were ' missed.' On the other hand, the practical force of the 

 objections mentioned by Mr. Stewart to his own four-hook tackle 

 could not but be recognised, and accordingly, after some experi- 

 ments, I adopted a tackle consisting of only two hooks, and these 

 a trifle larger and thicker in the wire, which, I found, whilst get- 

 ting rid of the drawbacks, also combined one or two material 

 improvements in other respects. 



The great advantages, in several points, of the four-hook tackle 



naming the size, or omit the question altoether. ... It will thus be seen that 

 a ' single hook ' for trout worm-fishing has been hitherto universally recom- 

 mended by angling authorities, with the solitary exception of Mr. Stewart, 

 who boldly deviates from the beaten track, and gives a diagram of a taclde 

 composed of four small hooks, in lieu of the conventional single large one. 



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