vbl. sb. [? Related to SNIG sb.1]
1. The action or practice of fishing for eels by means of a baited hook or needle thrust into their holes or haunts.
1661. Walton, Angler, xiii. (ed. 3), 193. Because you … know not what snigling is, I will now teach it to you…; take a strong small hook tied to a strong line…, and then into one of these holes,… or any place where you think an Eele may hide or shelter her self, there with the help of a short stick put in your Bait.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 260. Eels commonly abscond themselves under stones…, and under Timber, Planks, or such-like…, where you may take them by this way of Snigling.
1740. R. Brookes, Art of Angling, I. xl. 85. Snigling or Brogling for Eels is another remarkable Method of taking them.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 55. There are two ways to take them in the day time called sniggling and bobbing.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 258. Sniggling is another mode of taking eels,… and the apparatus consists in a strong needle [etc.].
1885. Sat. Rev., 21 Nov., 673/1. ‘Sniggling’ … is one of the most favourite ways of catching eels.
attrib. 1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 103/1. A Snigleing, or Prokeing Stick, is a forked stick, and a short long Line with a Needle Bated with a Lob Worm. It is only for Eels in their holes.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, iii. (1880), 91. A sniggling stick or rod.
2. In salmon-fishing (see quots.).
1890. Scottish Leader, 20 Nov., 5. ‘Sniggling,’ means fishing with rod and line and artificial fly, but the hook is made to sink in the water where fish are supposed to be, and the rod so jerked that they are hooked and quickly landed. Ibid. (1891), 13 Nov., 4. ‘Sniggling’ … is a mode of fishing by which the hook takes the fish, and not the fish the hook.
