Hooks. 237 



The Edgar patent barbless hook, furnished by William 

 Mills & Son, is made upon a very different principle. 

 This hook, while having no barb, has a " keeper " which 

 securely holds the fish after it is hooked, rendering it 

 almost impossible for it to escape, even with a slack line. 

 It is the only " patent " fish-hook that has any real merit, 

 though it seems to me like taking too much advantage of 

 a fish, and is likely to foster and encourage a careless and 

 shiftless style of angling. Still, it may become quite a 

 favorite hook with many. To my mind the great charm 

 of angling consists in using a proper judgment (born of a 

 thorough knowledge of the fish and its habits) in present- 

 ing the bait, and the exercise of skill and science i-n hook- 

 ing, playing, and landing it. 



Mills & Son have applied for a patent on a new form of 

 barbless hook. At the bend of the hook the wire is turned 

 on itself, forming a loop, and then continued up to the 

 point. This loop answers the same purpose as the keeper 

 of the Edgar hook. It has also a vertical eye. 



Eecently the old " eyed " hook has been revived in Eng- 

 land for artificial flies, but with this difference: the old- 

 fashioned form had the eye vertical, that is, on the same 

 plane with the shank, while the improved eye is either 

 turned up or turned down; though some prefer it turned 

 up, the turned down eye is deemed the best form. Through 

 this eye the snell is passed and fastened by one of several 

 knots 'or hitches, each of which has its advocates. 



But the black bass fisher need not worry his brain as to 

 whether the e3'e should be turned up or down, nor fret his 

 soul as to the particular knot or hitch by which to attach 

 the snell; for the plan of making the eye of gut or gimp 

 in bass flies is really to be preferred to any form of eyed 

 hook, as the loop of the snell can be readily passed through 



