SPINNING AND BAIT-FISHING. 419 
I give Mr. Stewart the greatest credit for the originality of this 
idea, which belongs to him alone; at the same time, I am not 
surprised at its proving, as he himself admits, only a modffied 
success. Mr. Stewart says that with this tackle he found he could 
kill larger fish, but fewer in number, than with the single hook, 
and that this experience was confirmed by others. He attributes, 
and I have no doubt correctly, the diminution in the numbers of 
fish run, primarily to the impossibility of properly concealing so 
large a number of hooks in a single worm, and to their being 
consequently seen by the fish. This was the principal drawback 
to the four-hook tackle. As a minor inconvenience, Mr. Stewart also 
mentions that, from the number of hooks often fixed in the fish’s 
mouth when landed, a certain waste of time necessarily occurred. 
These being the incidental disadvantages of Mr. Stewart’s plan, 
its advantages were: (1) that the worm was more quickly baited 
than with the single hook ; (2) that it lived much longer—with the 
large single hook it dies almost directly; (3) that it presented a 
much more natural appearance to the fish; and (4) that, owing to 
the superior penetrating tendency of small over large hooks, much 
fewer fish escaped after being once hooked, whilst it became 
possible to use the finest gut, which could not be safely done with 
large heavy hooks. This is an advantage the importance of which 
can hardly be over-estimated in trout fishing in clear streams. 
As regards the other point—the killing powers—my own ex- 
perience of the tackle was that when fishing properly up s¢ream 
and with a shortish line, hardly any fish escaped at all, whilst with 
the large single hook, I think the experience of most of my brother 
anglers will bear me out when I say that fully fifty per cent. of 
runs were ‘missed.’ On the other hand, the practical force of the 
objections meniioned by Mr. Stewart to his ‘own four-hook tackle 
could not but be recognised, and accordingly, after some experi- 
ments, I adopted a tackle consisting of only two hooks, and these 
a trifle larger and thicker in the wire, which, I found, whilst get- 
ting rid of the drawbacks, also combined one or two material 
improvements in other respects. 
The great advantages, in several points, of the four-hook tackle 
nami 1g the size, or omit the question altoether. . . . It will thus be seen that 
a ‘single hook’ for trout worm-fishing has been hitherto universally recom- 
mended by angling authorities, with the solitary exception of Mr. Stewart, 
who boldiy deviates from the beaten track, and gives a diagram of a tackle 
ccniposed of four small hooks, in licu of the conventional single large one. 
EE2 
