FISHING-TACKLE may be defined as consisting of rod, line. honk, reel, nets, etc. Rods are made of elastic wood. and sometimes of steel. Split bamboo is especially adapted for fly-fishing, and lancewood, hickory, or ash for any other kind. Double-handed rods for salmon-fishing are sometimes over 20 feet in length, and weigh near ly three pounds. Most rods are made in see tions or joints, so that they can lie taken apart and the more easily carried. Fish-lines may be of hair, silk, linen, hemp, or cotton, according to the purpose for which they are required. There is a wide variety of hooks, not only for the different fish, but variations in design for the same fish, the choice depending on the skill and preference of the fisherman. The straight hook, or one in which the point is in line with the shaft and not bent to one side, is generally re garded as the most profitable to use, although the great majority of hooks are made with flatted, ringed. knobbed, or plain ends. A particularly effective hook is the barbless hook, which has a sharp piece of wire fixed across the opening of the hook, making it almost impossible for the victim to get away after it has once im paled itself; such hooks, however, are little used. The spoon hook is a piece of polished metal shaped somewhat similar to the do piest ie tablespoon, which when drawn through the water twirls and glitters in a manner de signed to attract the fish, which, if it snaps at it, is inevitably caught by the hook. This tackle is used in trolling for bluefish, pickerel, and lake trout, although in piekerel-fishing arti ficial flies, together with a number of hooks, are usually attached to the spoon. The such
is a piece of silkworm-gut connecting the hook and the line. Sinkers are generally small pieces of lead, or bullets cut in half, and fastened to the line; floats, which are made as a rule of cork and fastened to the line at both ends, serving to indicate to the fisherman the location of his hook. There are many kinds of reels, including the automatic, which winds the line when a spring is pressed. The best tackle in the market and the most experienced fishermen are practical ly powerless without an attractive and conse quently effective bait, which ought to consist of some item from the known diet of the fish sought for; or, where that is not obtainable, of some thing closely resembling it. Beginning with the angleworm, or common earthworm—the larvae of insects, grubs, artificial flies, grasshoppers, etc., the list of available bait may be extended to various kinds of animal and fish flesh. as well as the numerous pastes common with the fisher men of Europe. To be effective, the hook must he concealed by the bait as far as possible. The only net used by the genuine sportsman is the landing net, by which the fish is taken out of the water after it has been brought to shore or boat by the hook and line.