Learn French: Le pêcheur prépare sa canne à pêche et l'hameçon. - The fisherman prepares his fishing rod and the hook.

In French, the preposition à is often used to show the purpose or function of an object. So, a canne à pêche is literally a 'cane for fishing'. You see this pattern in other common words too, like tasse à thé (teacup) or brosse à dents (toothbrush).

Why is the circumflex accent (the little hat) on pêcheur important?

The accent changes the meaning entirely! Un pêcheur (with the circumflex) is a fisherman, related to la pêche (fishing). But un pécheur (with an acute accent) means a 'sinner'. As a fun fact, the circumflex on fishing-related words historically replaces an 's' that used to be there.

Since hameçon starts with an h, why do we use l' instead of le?

Hameçon starts with a 'mute h' (h muet), which means French treats the word as if it starts with its first vowel. Therefore, just like with l'homme or l'hôpital, you must drop the 'e' from le to make the pronunciation flow smoothly: l'hameçon.

Could I say son hameçon (his hook) instead of l'hameçon?