186 Fisnine 1s AMERICAN WATERS. 
of the O’Shaughnessy pattern, or the regulation hook for ex- 
portation. The Virginia hook, and the Sproat and round 
bends of Redditch, are the best that I have seen. 
The foregoing cut, representing the samples of two hooks, 
was clipped from a recent number of the Fre.p, and as it 
embodies philosophy founded on experience, I give it, refer- 
ring to the cut, as follows: 
“Now I have this autumn devoted particular attention to 
this subject, 7.¢., hooks. I have been fishing with Hutchin- 
son’s Limerick and Sproat bends (I may remark that I can 
not speak too highly of the latter for its prehensile capabili- 
ties), and the following is the result. In seven consecutive 
days’ fishing I hooked thirty-six fish, and of them landed 
twenty-seven. I was broken four times. Once my single 
gut, with which I always fish, was frayed by a heavy fish 
against sharp boulders, and three times the hooks were the 
traitors—two were Limericks, and one was a Sproat. Three 
out of thirty-six is too large a proportion, and it is very de- 
sirable to reduce it. Even in fishing with single gut, the 
heaviest fish, if properly handled, barring the circumstances 
of snags or boulders, seldom succeed in breaking the line. 
But what handling will save a hook? One will go some- 
times, and most unaccountably, probably from being fixed so 
as to allow the fish to wrench, jerk, or squeeze it. The first 
step to a cure is to find the weak point. 
“The only Sproat hook which has broken with me went at 
the point a I think it is an admirable form of hook, al- 
though I tried it first as an experiment this year, with much 
prejudice against the looks of it. It is less apt to break than 
the Limerick, both from its form, and because the pull, 4, ¢, is 
nearly in the direétion of the point, whereas in the other the 
line of pull, d,e, forms an obtuse angle at the point e Of 
the thousand and one Limerick hooks which I have seen bro- 
ken, either against stones or in fish, by far the greater propor- 
tion have failed at the point 4 where—in good hooks to a 
less, and in bad to a greater measure—the wire is reduced in 
