66 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



But no definite account of the process, as we practise it, 

 appears to have been given by any of our countrymen before 

 the lime of Robert Salter, and to him, therefore, must be 

 awarded the credit for the first substantial improvement in dead 

 snap fishing, so far as pike are concerned. 



Since Robert Salter's time a great deal of ingenuity has been 

 expended on improving Hawker's, formerly Salter's, spinning- 

 tackle — in which it may at least be granted that there was room 

 for ample improvement — with the result that the difficulties in 

 baiting the old flight were to some extent at least overcome by 

 an improved style of ' lip hook,' and by transferring the position 

 of the lead from the bait's head or belly to the trace itself. 

 These improvements proceeded, however, in almost every case 

 upon a principle which involved the crowding of a great number 

 of hooks on to the inside curve of the bait — a principle not 

 only destructive to its spin and durability, but also entailing the 

 loss of a large percentage of the fish run. A modified example 

 of one of these revolving chevaux de /rise may be seen in the 

 flight recommended by 'Ephemera' in his 'Handbook of 

 Anghng, &c.,' and which he proposes to substitute for the 

 ordinary flights as being 'too intricate and composed of too 

 many hooks.' His own flight consists of eleven, including 

 three triangles ! This is also the flight recommended by 

 Hofland, ' Otter,' and many others. 



Another drawback to spinning was the 'kinking' or, un- 

 technically, crinkling up, of the line owing to want of thought 

 and a little application of mechanical principles to the sub- 

 ject of the swivels and leads, and especially to the position 

 of the latter on the trace. This 'kinking' used to be the 

 veritable curse of spinners. I have often been reduced by it 

 myself to the verge of desperation, and, indeed, I have known 

 cases where, rather than submit to it, spinners have been 

 willing to sacrifice altogether the convenience of a reel, and 

 to trail their running hne behind them in the grass, which had 

 the effect of taking out the ' kink ' at one end as fast as it was 

 imported at the other. 



