RIVER FISH AND FISHING. 405 
on a thumb-reel, and armed with a three-hooked blunt drag 
weighted with lead, so that when a hook is caught in 
weeds or other impediment, the drag may be thrown on to 
the same spot, and the weed dragged away with the hook, 
or at all events the greater portion of the line may be 
saved. 
The clearing-ring is intended for the same purpose, 
and is a jointed ring of heavy metal which opens and closes 
again with a catch. It is attached to a long line like the 
last, and is passed upon the end of the rod open, and when 
closed is slipped down the reel-line as low as possible, and 
then drawn to land, bringing sometimes the hook and 
obstacle with it, but generally breaking the casting-line 
near the hook or about the shot. This does not act so 
well as the drag-hook when a float is used. 
The bait-box is merely a flat box perforated with small 
holes in the lid, for containing worms, or gentles, or dead 
minnows, in bran. 
The disgorger is an instrument for removing the hook 
from the throat of those fish which swallow their bait, and 
is made of various forms. One end should be forked, and 
the other perforated with a hole, and ending with a sharp- 
cutting, round surface, like a spatula, 
