Hi Fred
A Toby is a flat fish shaped piece of metal, the underside is usually
concave, top side will be painted with stripes or have fishscales painted on it, the bottom side will be silver, gold etc. they come in various weights 9grm 15grm 28grm etc
attached to each end will be a swivel and split ring, other end will have a treble hook and split ring, the idea when fishing with a toby is to cast out and retrieve it at various depths, mackeral and bass/pollock seem to love them
Try fishing with a team of feathers and a heavy Toby when the Mackeral are in, I am sure you will have loads of fun.
Hope this helps