Is .The Single Hook More Deadly Than The 
Gang Or Plug Bait? 
A Few Remarks On Rigging Hooks To Catch Fish As Legalized By The Three Representative States 
N the last few years the Con¬ 
servation Commissions of a 
number of states have begun to 
take a new departure in the 
conservation of fish. They 
seem to figure on its being a 
practical method and feel as¬ 
sured of its final success. 
Whether it is a success or not there is large 
room for doubt. 
They seem to feel that they have gone as far 
as they can go in limiting the open season and 
still have any open season at all, for the middle 
of June is certainly very late to get any good 
bass fishing, it being much better two weeks 
earlier. But no doubt feeling that something 
else should be done toward conserving the sup¬ 
ply they have enacted theoretical laws limit¬ 
ing the number of hooks to be used. 
The state of Maine has put into effect a law 
that allows a fisherman to use only one hook, 
presuming of course, that this would not only 
tend to conserve the fish, but prove to be a less 
cruel method of taking them. They seem to 
have felt that a fish would suffer much more 
acutely when caught on a gang hook than on a 
single hook. This might be true if a fish were 
hooked in the same position with each style of 
hook—but they are not. 
By Black Bass. 
It is seldom when fishing with a set of treble 
hooks that a fish is hooked anywhere but the 
hard, callous part of the mouth, for the simple 
reason that the hook must be struck in a cer¬ 
tain precise position for the fish to swallow the 
complete set of hooks. Whereas, in using the 
single hook, it being small and easily swallowed, 
a fish will almost invariably be hooked in the 
gullet; this, of course, applying to a baited hook 
and not a fly. 
In this respext alone the single hook is mur¬ 
derous. The fact that a fish fights in a more 
feeble manner when hooked in the gullet than in 
the mouth goes to prove that they must suffer 
more pain. Consequently, the single-hook law 
could not have emanated from a humanitarian 
viewpoint. 
Probably it originated through a vague idea 
that it would tend to conserve the fish supply. 
But does it? Has a fish any chance at all when 
hooked in the gullet? 
Nowadays a great many fishermen fish simply 
for the sport it affords, replacing all fish taken. 
Under these conditions, a large number of the 
fish are apt to die when hooked in the gullet with 
a single hook, whereas if they were caught on a 
bait surrounded with sets of gang hooks, as most 
of the modern bass baits are, they would be 
hooked lightly in the callous part of the mouth 
and suffer very little or none at all when replaced 
in the water. 
It is possible that the tyro does not catch as 
many fish when using the single hook as he 
would should the law allow him to use gang 
hooks, but what the tyro catches matters very 
little in the long run, anyway. It is the expert, 
the man who fishes day in and day out, that 
counts. And it is just this same expert that the 
law does not touch, for the simple reason that the 
expert knows how to rig a single hook so that 
it will catch just as many, or more, fish than the 
gang hook will. By single hook is meant the 
interpretation that the Maine law places upon it, 
one large hook to do the work and a smaller 
hook, called a gill hook, above it. 
In using a smelt for bait (a very favorite 
method in Maine), it can be placed on the hooks 
just as well, if not better, when using this gill 
hook as if several sets of treble hooks were 
used, although, as a matter of fact, in the uni¬ 
versal method of hooking a smelt, more than 
one hook is not needed, as the bait is threaded 
on in such a manner to make it look natural, 
and more than one hook is superfluous. All of 
which goes to prove that, although the law was 
intended for the protection of the fish, it does 
not work out as desired, being not at all prac¬ 
tical. 
The state of New Jersey has a law limiting all 
