Flies and Hooks. 109 



To criticise the Sproat is difficult. Every manufac- 

 turer seems to make a hook which he calls a Sproat, and 

 the market is flooded with hooks under this name, no 

 two of which are alike. For some years I have been un- 

 able to obtain the form upon which the Sproat made its 

 reputation, and which was really a good hook. Some of 

 the recent types have every defect a hook can have — 

 some of them more, some of them less. But all of them 

 seem to have one feature which should preclude them 

 from use against a fish which fights so long and so hard 

 as a salmon — they are very short on the barb-side. The 

 fish, therefore, plays directly on the barb, which is con- 

 sequently very liable to be broken off. I have known 

 three of these hooks to fail at this point in one day's fish- 

 ing. The state of mind of their unhappy user may easily 

 be imagined. 



Of these hooks, therefore, the O'Shaughnessy is decid- 

 edly the best for salmon-flies, and upon them 

 the Forest flies are tied. 



But a so-called modification of the Lim- 

 erick hook, the invention of Mr. H. Chol- 

 mondeley Pennell, the well-known angling- 

 author, has recently appeared in England, 

 which I believe to be far superior to any 

 of these. I recommend this hook with the 

 greater confidence, since I have used Mr. 

 Pennell's modification of the Sneck-bend for 

 three or four years under conditions designed 

 to thoroughly test its efliciency and strength. ^'^S'' 

 Gradually it superseded every other form of bend Hook. 

 hook in my esteem, until last year I used no other, except 

 upon compulsion and with reluctance. 



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