J'IKE FISHING— SPINNING. 93 



Trent. — Mr. Pennell's new and improved style of fixing the 

 lead on a spinning-trace to prevent the line from twisting, will 

 prove the best thing that ever happened to pike fishers who fish 

 from a reel. He is quite right, it is a perfect cure for all kinking. 

 The gentlemen whom I have supplied with the tackle are much 

 pleased with it, and tell their friends it is the best idea ever invented 

 — and 1 think so too. I have frequently been perfectly stuck fast 

 from the line twisting, and have been obliged to talce it all off the 

 reel and draw it behind me through a field before I could start 

 again ; but, thanks to Mr. Pennell, that sort of work is now all 

 over. — Wm. Baily, Nottingham. Field, Nov. 5, 1862. 



From the Field. 



Spinning for pike is an accomplishment so very widely practised 

 by modern anglers, and the means hitherto adopted are, from a 

 variety of circumstances, so unsatisfactory, that we are glad to 

 welcome any attempt to improve the apparatus in general use, or 

 to render those sudden partings between individuals connected by 

 the fine line or strong gimp sympathy, which are so distressing to 

 one of the "parties concerned, less common than they unfortunately 

 are. It is notorious among spinners for pike that no tackle has ever 

 yet been invented from which a very large proportion of fish hooked 

 do not manage by some inscrutable means to effect their escape. 

 We have ourselves noticed this fact, and many of Mr. Pennell's views 

 upon this head, as well as others connected with the art, certainly 

 meet our warm approbation. His remarks regarding kinking, for 

 example, are excellent, and the means he takes to avoid it are ap- 

 parently all that is needed. His plan of employing flying triangles 

 is, to us, original. ... 



For the purpose of avoiding conspicuousness, I recommend 

 that all pike leads should be bronzed with a coating of Bruns- 

 wick black. If this cannot be obtained, common tackle varnish 

 will be better than nothing. This can be altered to a dark 

 green tint if desired, by the addition of a little powdered green 

 sealing-wax. 



