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Still-fishing is the same for either species of black-bass, but as it is usually done from an anchored boat on Northern lakes, where the large-mouth bass is of greater size and weight than the small-mouth bass, somewhat heavier tackle may be used than recommended for the small-mouth.

Trolling with the live or dead minnow, or a small spoon with a single hook, is a very successful method on lakes, ponds, and broad, still rivers. A greater length of line can be utilized in trolling, whereby the fish is not so apt to see the angler. More ground can also be covered than in any other style of fishing. The boat should be propelled slowly along the borders of rushes and weed patches, over shoals and gravelly banks, and near projecting points of the shore. Considerable care should be exercised to move as noiselessly as possible, avoiding splashing with the oars or paddle, or making any undue noise with the feet or otherwise in the boat, as such sounds are conveyed a long distance in so dense a medium as water. In trolling, the line may be lengthened to fifty yards, if necessary, though from twenty to thirty yards will usually be sufficient, especially when a good breeze is blowing.

Bobbing for the large-mouth bass is much in vogue in the Gulf states, but is more often practised in Florida. The conventional "bob" is formed by tying a strip of deer's tail, with or without a piece of red flannel, around a triangle of hooks, the hairs completely investing the hooks. A single hook, however, answers fully as well or better. The hook is of large size, Nos. 3-0 to 5-0. The method of procedure is as follows: The boat is propelled by a single-bladed paddle, the paddler being seated in the stern. The boat is moved silently and cautiously, skirting the edges of water-lilies and bonnets, which grow thickly along the margin of the channels. The angler is seated in the bow with a very long cane rod, to which is affixed a short line of a few feet, not to exceed six. As the boat advances, the angler dances the bob as far ahead as possible. It is held a few inches or a foot above the water, into which it is "bobbed" at short intervals. Sometimes the bass leaps from the water to seize it. When hooked, the fish islanded without any ceremony and as soon as possible, keeping it meanwhile on the surface, to prevent its taking to the weeds. Bartram described bobbing as practised in Florida, for black-bass, nearly a century and a half ago.

During the period covered by the authors named, from 1849 to 1869, the anglers of the South and Middle West were using light cane rods, Kentucky reels, and the smallest sea-grass lines for bait-fishing, and trout fly-rods and trout-tackle for fly-fishing, rods and tackle as light, to say the least, as those in use to-day.

In 1866 I removed to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where there were thirty lakes within ten miles abounding in black-bass of both species, with pike, rock-bass, crappies, perch, etc. On my home grounds was a large shallow pond fed from Fowler Lake. Becoming much interested in the black-bass, and finding but little information available in the books of that day concerning their habits, I determined to give some study to the subject. Accordingly I cut a ditch from the pond to the lake, with suitable screens, and stocked it with black-bass of both species. During their spawning period in the summer I watched them faithfully and constantly from a blind of bushes on the bank. This I did for several years, turning the adult bass into the lake when the fry were large enough to look out for themselves, and turning the fry out also in the fall.

I extended my observations of the bass during their breeding season to the many lakes near by. I found a difference of several weeks in the time of their spawning in these lakes, owing to the difference in temperature, caused by their varying depth. The appearance of the bass also differed slightly in the various lakes, so that it was possible, from a close study of their variations in color, size, and contour, to determine in what particular lake any string of bass was taken.

The differences of opinion among anglers, of all men, pertaining to the practice of their art, has become axiomatic. Some will differ even to the estimation of a hair in the legs of an artificial fly, while it is averred others will go so far as to "divide a hair 'twixt south and south-west side," as Butler has it. But, seriously, there are several moot points which I have endeavored to discuss in the following piscatorial polemic.

Two friends went fishing. Both were famous black-bass anglers, with the enthusiasm born of a genuine love and an inherent appreciation of the gentle art so common among Kentucky gentlemen. One was a fly-fisher, the other a bait-fisher. Each was a devotee to his especial mode of angling, though generously tolerant of the other's method. They had fished together for years when the dogwood and redbud blossomed in the spring, and when the autumnal tints clothed the hillsides with scarlet and gold.

They differed in their methods of fishing from choice, or from some peculiar, personal idiosyncrasy, for each was an adept with both bait and fly. But this difference in their piscatorial practices, like the diversity of nature, produced perfect harmony instead of discord. Each extolled the advantages and sportsmanship of his own method, but always in a brotherly and kindly manner; never dictatorial or opinionated in argument, or vainglorious and boastful as to his skill, for both were possessed of the generous impulses of gentlemen and the kindly influences of the gentle art. Moreover, they were innately conscious of a common aim, and differed only as to the ways and means of best attaining that end, which, while dissimilar, were not inharmonious.

And so the Silver Doctor and the Golden Shiner, as they dubbed each other, went trudging along the bank of the merry stream together. The Doctor, lightly equipped with only rod, fly-book, and creel, sometimes relieved the Shiner by toting his minnow bucket or minnow net. They were fishing a rocky, gently flowing river, characteristic of the Blue Grass section.

They stopped at a broad, lakelike expansion of the stream, caused by a mill-dam, and, in a quiet cove at the entrance of a clear brook. Golden Shiner proceeded to fill his minnow bucket with lively minnows, using for the purpose an umbrella-like folding net. This he attached to a long, stout pole, and, after baiting it with crushed biscuit, lowered it into the water. In a short time he had all the bait necessary--chubs, shiners, and steelbacks.

"The golden shiner is the best of all," said he, "especially for roily or milky water; but the chub and steelback are stronger and livelier on the hook, and for very clear water are good enough."

They then proceeded below the mill-dam, where there was a strong riffle, with likely-looking pools and eddies.

"The proper way to hook a minnow is through the lips," continued Golden Shiner, "especially for casting. One can give a more natural motion to the minnow on drawing it through the water. For still-fishing, hooking through the tail or under the back fin will answer; but even then I prefer my method, unless the minnow is less than two inches in length." And he made a long cast toward the eddy of a large boulder.

"For the same reason," acquiesced Silver Doctor, "artificial flies are tied with the head next the snell,"--industriously casting to right and left over the riffle.

"But some flies are tied with the tail next to the snell," ventured Shiner.

"That is true, but it is unnatural. I never saw an insect swim tail first up-stream. Nature is the best teacher, and one should endeavor to follow her lead." Just then the Doctor snapped off his point fly. Upon examination he found that the snell was dry and brittle next to the head of the fly, though he had previously soaked it well in a glass of water. He discovered that a drop of shellac varnish had encroached beyond the head of the fly for perhaps the sixteenth of an inch on the snell. This portion, being waterproof, remained dry and brittle--a very common fault with cheap flies.

"This fly," said the Doctor, "was given to me for trial by Judge Hackle. He tied it himself. The broken end of the snell still shows a portion of shellac coating."

"I never thought of that before," remarked Shiner. "No doubt many flies are cracked off from the same cause."

"Without a doubt, as you say. I know a lady," continued the Doctor, "who, as Walton says, 'has a fine hand,' and who superintends an extensive artificial fly establishment--and who has written the best book ever published on the subject of artificial flies--who personally inspects every fly turned out by her tyers. And, moreover, she varnishes the head of every fly herself, in order that not the least particle of shellac may touch the snell. Such careful supervision and honest work, to quote Walton again, 'like virtue, bring their own reward,'" and the Doctor resumed his casting with another fly.

"Well, Doctor, I sympathize with you; but my snells are clear-quill and no varnish. I may throw off a minnow once in a while by a very long cast, but it is soon replaced, and costs nothing. And, speaking of casting, I observed that you made half a dozen casts to reach yonder rock but sixty feet away, while I placed my minnow, by a single cast, a hundred feet in the other direction. Moreover, I reel my line toward me through undisturbed water, while you whipped the entire distance by several preliminary casts."

"That is necessarily true," answered the Doctor; "but while you must recover all of your line for a new cast, I can cast repeatedly with the extreme length of my line in any direction; so I think honors are easy on the question of casting."

"But," persisted Shiner, "with my quadruple multiplying reel, it is only a matter of a few seconds to prepare for a new cast. Then again. I have better control of a hooked fish, and can give and take line much faster than you with your single-action click reel."

Golden Shiner was not slow to perceive the force of the Doctor's arguments and held his peace. In the meantime both anglers had succeeded in killing some half-dozen bass, the largest ones falling to the rod of the bait fisher, as is usually the case. The sun was now climbing toward the zenith, and the Doctor's flies seemed to have lost their attractiveness for the wary bass, while the Shiner, seeking deeper water, was still successful in his efforts. The day, however, was becoming uncomfortably warm.

"You will admit, Doctor, that you must cast your flies early in the day or late in the afternoon to insure much success, while I can fish during the middle of the day in deeper water and still have a measure of reward, which I consider quite an advantage of bait over fly."

"Granted. Fish rise to the fly only in comparatively shallow water, and are found in such situations in bright weather only early and late in the day. But I prefer to fish at just those times. I do not care to fish during the middle portion of the day in summer." And the Doctor proceeded to reel in his final cast.

Just then his friend hooked the largest fish of the morning's outing. It was an unusually gamy bass, and leaped several times in rapid succession from the water, shaking itself violently each time. But the Shiner was equal to "his tricks and his manners," and soon had him in the landing-net.

"Doctor, why does a hooked bass break water and shake his head? Is it through fear or rage?"

"It is to rid his jaws of the hook. He can neither pick his teeth with a fin, nor remove a foreign substance from his mouth with his tail. His mouth is his prehensile organ. A horse, cow, dog, or fowl will shake the head violently to rid its mouth of an offending object. But a fish, having no neck to speak of, can only shake his head by shaking his body, and that only in a lateral direction. As a bass cannot shake himself energetically enough beneath the water to dislodge the hook, owing to the resistance of the denser medium, he naturally leaps into the air for that purpose; and he always does so with widely extended jaws, as you have seen time and again this morning. He probably also fortifies himself at the same time by taking in oxygen from the air. He does so, at all events, willy-nilly."

"How high can a black-bass leap from the water, do you think?"

"A foot or two at most, as you well know," replied the Doctor. "In rocky streams like this, one has a good gauge for measuring the leap. I never saw a bass leap as high as yonder boulder, which is about three feet above the water; and as you have taken several fish in its eddy, you might have proved it by your own observation, as I did myself."

"I distinctly remember, now," affirmed Shiner, "that my last catch--the big fellow--leaped several times very near that same rock, and he did not go half as high."

"A man convinced against his will. Is of the same opinion still."

THE ROCK-BASS

In the same family with the black-bass are a number of other sunfishes that will next be considered, merely as a matter of sequence, and not on account of their importance as game-fishes.

Its original habitat was from Canada and Lake Champlain southward along the Mississippi Valley to Louisiana and Texas, but its range has been extended to many other states east and west by transplantation.

In its general appearance it resembles somewhat the black-bass, but it is a deeper fish and is more compressed. Its dorsal and anal fins are comparatively larger and stronger. It has a large eye and a capacious mouth well filled with small teeth, some on the roof of the mouth being rather sharp.

The color is of various shades of olive-green, with brassy or coppery reflection, more or less mottled with black, forming broken and indistinct lines along the sides. The iris of the eye is scarlet, hence "red-eye"; there is a black spot on the angle of the gill-cover and dark mottlings on the soft dorsal, anal, and caudal fins. It prefers clear streams and lakes, and congregates in small schools about rocky situations, gravelly bars, about mill-dams, and in the vicinity of weed patches in ponds. It spawns in the spring and early summer, making and guarding its nest like the black-bass, and feeds on crawfish, small minnows, and insect larvae. In size it usually runs from a half-pound to a pound in streams, though reaching two pounds or more in lakes. It is a good pan-fish for the table, and is well thought of in the Mississippi Valley, though held in lighter esteem in the St. Lawrence basin, where it coexists with larger and better fishes.

The rock-bass is an attractive-looking fish, and for its size is very pugnacious. It will take the artificial fly, or natural or artificial bait. It bites freely at small minnows, grubs, grasshoppers, cut-bait, or angle-worms. It is capable of affording considerable sport with light tackle, owing to its large and strong fins, and its habit of curling its sides in opposition to the strain of the rod.

With a light fly-rod of four or five ounces, and corresponding tackle, and trout flies on hooks Nos. 5 to 7, the rock-bass is not a mean adversary. It rises to the various hackles, and to such flies as coachman, brown drake, gray drake, and stone fly, especially toward evening. The flies must be allowed to sink with every cast after fluttering them awhile on the surface. For bait-fishing a trout bait-rod of the weight just mentioned, with a reel of small caliber and the smallest braided silk line, will be about right. Sproat hooks Nos. 3 to 4 on light gut snells tied with red silk are the best. Live minnows about two inches long, carefully hooked through the lips, are to be lightly cast and allowed to sink nearly to the bottom and slowly reeled in again. Or if a float is used, the minnow may be hooked just under the dorsal fin. A small float is necessary when white grubs, crawfish, cut-bait, or worms are used as bait. On lakes it is readily taken by trolling with a very small spoon, about the size of a nickel, with a single Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hook No. 1 attached.

A rod nine or ten feet long cut from the small end of a native cane pole, weighing but a few ounces, with a line of sea-grass or raw silk about the length of the rod, will answer very well for bait-fishing. This is the tackle mostly used by boys in the Middle West, and it might be profitably employed by boys of larger growth.

A dozen "red-eyes," gleaming with green and gold, on the string of the boy angler, is something to be proud of. He gazes with fond admiration on the wide-open crimson eyes, which to him seem more precious than rubies. He admires the bristling fins, the gracefully sloping sides, the gaping mouth and forked tail, with boyish enthusiasm and appreciation. Although hot and tired, and with many a scratch and bruise on hands and feet, such trifles are lighter than air, and do not admit of a moment's consideration. Seated on a rock at the margin of the stream, with the string of fish in the water, he feasts his eyes on the finny beauties with the conscious pride of well-earned success and the happy culmination of his outing. In imagination the battles are all fought over and over again. He knows just where and under what condition and circumstance each fish was caught, as, with bare toes, he separates and indicates the individual on the string. That largest one was hooked under the dam beside the big rock. The next in size was taken among the roots of the old sycamore at the bend of the creek. Another and still another from the deep hole under the rocky cliff. Oh, the joyous days of youth and going a-fishing in the glad springtime of life! And then, having laved his swollen feet in the cooling stream, he washes the blood and scales from his hands, scrapes the mud and slime from his well-worn clothes, shoulders his lance of elm, and starts for home, bearing his trophies with as proud a mien as a warrior of old returning with the spoils of war.

THE SACRAMENTO PERCH

I have had no experience in angling for the Sacramento perch, which is said to be taken with the hook in large quantities for the market. I have no doubt but the tackle recommended for the rock-bass would be just as effective for this fish, with similar baits.

THE WARMOUTH PERCH

It is dark olive on the back, lighter on the sides, with blotches of blue and coppery red, and the belly brassy or yellowish. Iris red, ear-flap black, bordered with pale red, with three dusky red bars radiating from the eye across the cheeks. Fins mottled with a darker color, and a black blotch on the last rays of the soft portion of the dorsal fin.

It is not so gregarious as the rock-bass, but otherwise is similar in its habits, though not so partial to rocky situations, rather loving deep pools and quiet water. It feeds on minnows, tadpoles, frogs, insects, and their larvae. It spawns in the spring. It is a good pan-fish, and grows to eight or ten inches in length and a weight of nearly a pound. For its size, it is the gamest member of the family except the black-bass, and is more like that fish than the others. It is a favorite game-fish in the South, rising well to the fly, and is a free biter at natural bait.

In angling for the warmouth, the same rods and tackle mentioned under the head of rock-bass are well suited. In the Southern states a light native cane rod, ten or twelve feet long, and a line of the smallest caliber, sea-grass or twisted silk, is the favorite style of tackle, with hooks Nos. 2 to 3 tied on light gut, and a quill float and split-shot sinker. The usual bait is the black cricket, or the catalpa worm or caterpillar. The white grub found in decayed stumps, and other larvae, crawfish and small minnows, are all useful. Of these the minnow is the best. On streams a small float is necessary to keep the bait from the roots of overhanging trees. In the stillness of Southern streams, under the moss-draped trees, I have idled away many a dreamy hour in the pleasure of fishing for the warmouth, but at the same time fully alive to the weird surroundings. Occasionally the splashing of a hooked fish on the surface entices an alligator from his lair in expectation of a fishy morsel. The echoes are awakened time and again by the pumping of the bittern, the hoarse cry of the crane, or the hooting of an owl in the dark recesses of the cypress swamp. The solitudes of those waters are very fascinating to the lone fisher. The novelty of the situation appeals very strongly to the angler-naturalist whose experiences have been on the clear, sparkling, tumbling streams of the North. There Nature is ever bright and joyous; here she is quiet and sombre and subdued. But the fishes know no north or south or east or west,--always the same creatures of interest and beauty, and ever responding to the wiles of the angler.

I was once fishing on St. Francis River, in Arkansas, where the warmouths were both large and gamy. One day I went through the woods and cane-brakes to the banks of Mud Lake, situated in the midst of a cypress swamp. The lake was much smaller than it had been formerly, as was apparent from the wide margins of the shores, which were of considerable extent between the timber and the water. On this margin was a group of four cypress trees that in size exceeded any that I had ever seen, and I think worthy of mention. They were from twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter, or sixty to sixty-five feet in circumference, three feet above the ground. They were buttressed like the wall of a mediaeval stronghold. In comparing notes with many naturalists and travellers, they have declared the size of those cypress trees to be both unique and wonderful.

THE BLUE SUNFISH

The blue sunfish has a wider distribution than any other member of its family except the black-bass. Its range extends from the Great Lakes through the Mississippi Valley to Texas, and along the South Atlantic states to Florida. In the Middle West it is known as blue gill and in the South as blue bream and copper-nosed bream. It has a medium-sized head and very deep body, its depth varying from one-half its length to almost as deep as long, in which case, barring head and tail, it is almost round in outline. It is much compressed. The ear-flap is quite black, without the pale or red border usual in the other sunfishes.

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