Angling. [f. the name of the inventor, W. H. Sproat of Ambleside.] Sproat-bend (hook), sproat hook, a light fish-hook with a wide and slightly flattened bend, short front, and point set well inwards.
[1866. W. H. Sproat, in Field, 1 Dec. I send … salmon hooks made by Messrs. Hutchinson and Son, of Kendal. They have affixed my name to them.]
1871. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rur. Sports, (ed. 9), I. V. 276. The sproat-bend, which is intermediate between the round-bend and the Limerick, has also come a good deal into use of late for trout.
1883. J. A. Henschall, in Century Mag., July, 378/1. He attached a sproat hook, No. 11/2, with a gut snell eight inches long.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 20. Thirty or forty yards of braided silk or linen line, and a Sproat-bend hook.
