82 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



various others, that there are none to approach it. I have 

 used it now for three seasons, and as to missing 50 per cent, of 

 fish, as he complains of, I will engage that if mounted and used 

 in the manner recommended by its inventor (and it can be 

 so procured at several of the London tackle-makers) he will 

 not miss 10 per cent, of the fish with it. It is as superior to 

 the old-fashioned three-triangle flight as sunshine to a rush- 

 light. It gives a most brilliant spin, and I have taken fish with 

 it when all other methods have failed. I get mine from Mr. A. 

 Young, of Oxford Street, and find them well and properly made 

 by him.— I am, &c., 'Rotans.* 



' Bury St. Edmunds." 



Before dismissing the subject of spinning-hooks — triangles, 

 lip-hooks, &c. — I must take this opportunity of bringing to the 

 notice of the spinner a new method of attaching the flight by 

 which greater fineness, simplicity, and durability, so far as the 

 bait is concerned, are attained. 



This method, which I have now been using myself for some 

 years, consists in dispensing entirely with the lip-hook and 

 substituting for it a half-knot tied in the trace through the lips 

 of the bait, as recommended also in the fastening for the dead 

 gorge bait. The flight — which should be in every respect the 

 same as the flights already figured, Nos. i, 2 and 3, minus the 

 lip-hook — having been adjusted to the bait as far as the body- 

 hook, the trace (detached, of course, from the hook-swivel below 

 the lead) is passed under the gill cover and out through the 

 bait's mouth, being then passed through both lips and again 

 under itself, thus forming a sort of half knot which never 

 can slip and has the merit of keeping the bait's mouth 

 closely shut. 



It is also needless to point out to any experienced spitaner 

 the great gain on the score of ' fineness ' which must arise 

 from being able to dispense entirely with the lip-hook. The 

 lip-hook shows more than any other hook on the flight and 



1 Fishing Gazette, April 12, 1884. 



