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Information on Salmon Fly Hooks to use for fly tying.
Salmon Fly Hooks The ' Pennell-Limerick bend hooks,' before figured, p. u, are also made plain (as shown over leaf) for the convenience of those who may still prefer the old ' lappingon ' system. The bend of all these hooks, which is a variation of existing recognised bends, is one that I think will commend itself to the practised eye without much argument. The bend has been designed to combine in a mechanical form the three great requisites of penetration, holding power, and ' flotation.' The last-named, which sounds rather Irish, is a question of the general contour of the shank. It will be seen in the diagrams that the hook shank itself or rather that part of it on which the fly is tied is very nearly straight, whilst in the Limerick bend the shank is commonly slightly more curved, or, as it is termed, hog-backed, which when exaggerated, as it frequently is in the so-called Limerick hooks, supplied by the fly-tyers, has the effect of preventing the fly swimming or floating perfectly straight, and, indeed, when the stream is strong, an excessive ' hog-backedness ' will not unfrequently cause it actually to spin. DEFECTIVE HOG-BACKED-SHANKED HOOK An exaggerated example of this is shown in the cut. The penetrating power in my bend is obtained by the angle at which the point and short side of the hook stand in regard to the hook shank, towards which, it will be observed, they are very slightly inclined, so that when the point pricks the mouth of a fish the probabilities of its penetrating are greatly increased. Into the general question of fish-hooks, however, their vices and virtues, and the mechanical principles on which they should be (but unfortunately seldom are !) Constructed, as also as to what are the 'points' of a perfect hook, I have already entered fully in the pages of the ' Modern Practical Angler ' * ; and have since had the pleasure of finding the views there set forth very generally endorsed by the thinking portion of the angling public, and notably by several of the more recent American writers on the subject. The general argument is perhaps somewhat beyond the scope of this essay, and I will merely observe here that, ' flotation ' apart, the three cardinal principles to be borne in mind as governing the ' killing '. Power of a Fishing Hook and Penetrating Power The striking, penetrating, and holding power of a fish-hook, are (1) the length of the shank compared with the width of The bend ; (2) the angle at which the short, or point-side, of the hook stands in relation to the shank ; and (3) the shape of the point and barb. In proportion as the point is long, fine, and conically tapered (and therefore, of course, very little 'hollowed out' inside), so, c&teris paribus, will be its tendency to bury itself in whatever it comes in contact with ; as the direction of this barbed point, and the angle of the short or point-side (or angle of impact), coincides with the direction of the applied force (i.e. in this case the ' pull ' of the line) so will be its penetrating (or hooking) inclination ; and as the shank is long in proportion to the width of the bend, so will be the general power it gives the hook in striking a fish and in holding him when struck. It may be added that, as the greatest strain is always borne by the top angle of the bend, such angle should be formed, not ' square,' but in the strongest shape known to mechanics, viz., a curve (or the segment of a circle) sharper or more gradual according to the other conditions desiderated. Although it is very difficult to give an accurate rendering of fish-hooks by means of wood-engraving, a glance at the diagrams, will, I hope, convince the 'educated' eye that an attempt, at least, has been made to combine these various essentials giving to each its due weight and proportion so as to bring out a mechanically reliable result. DEFECTIVE HOOK-BENDS The diagrams above are good illustrations of defective hooks. They embrace nearly every vice which, mechanically speaking, can be imported into a hook. And yet they were taken, facsimile^ from a hook-maker's catalogue (I forbear to give the name), as illustrations, it is to be presumed, of what in his opinion hooks ought to be ! If one of these abortions, say No. 4 or 5 < needle point,' so called, were attached to gut and the point pulled in the ordinary way against a piece of cork which represents fairly well the inside of a fish's mouth I doubt very much if it could by any possibility be made to penetrate ; the hook-point would, in fact, strike the fish's mouth vertically instead of horizontally. If it should appear that I am attaching undue importance to minute details, let it be borne in mind that ' the whole art and paraphernalia of angling have for their objects, first, to hook fish, and, secondly, to keep them hooked.' The difference in the penetrating powers alone of different bends of hooks is something enormous ; between the extremes of goodness and badness (I am not speaking now of 'monstrosities ') it amounts to certainly not less than a hundred per cent.
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