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BLACK BASS SPORT TIME Season Is Here for Catching Amer ¬ icas Most Popular Fish Habit and Lairs of the Bans and How to Take Him Early Morn Ing Bent Time to Fifth Along in midJune the time is ripe to go fishing for tlw most popular and widespread of all the game fishes of America the black bass found hi every lilypad lake anywhere in farming country and also In most streams and rivers south of our north ¬ ern tier of states He Is a much heavier fish though not so quick as the trout and is a battling bulldog of a fighter that will give you many a thrill before he is in the landing net netIn In bass rivers fly fishing for them Is often done larger and more gaudy flies being used than with trout in lakes where the bass are small and afraid of an artificial lure the fly is the only thing that will get them I often have rowed or canoed round a lake full of bass without a strike casting with the artificial lure and then changed to tke fly rod and got two at a cast I generally use Silver Doctor Montreal Royal Coachman and Red Ibis tied on No 6 hooks two flies at a cast for bass bassBut But to our mind bait casting for bass is the real thing A bass big enough to strike at an artificial lure will run two to four pounds in weight and every moment of fighting him is full of thrills He is not to be brought to boat in the first yank We use a baitcasting rod of split bamboo about five feet six inches long and a quadruple multiplying reel wide and of small di ¬ ameter costing about four or five dollars A fine braided silk line of No 5 size fifty yards long costing a dollar is about right and to it the lure is tied For live bait a No 6 snelled hook baited with a small frog a hellgramite or a crawfish or the festive and agile nightwalker is used We always take an assortment of artificial lures and spoons and also liberal samples of all live baits for there is no use spoiling your fishing trip because of poverty in baits and one never can tell what baits the bass will prefer preferIn In lilypad lakes they are wont to lurk jnst under the outer fringe of the pads in little coves also around stumps and under docks boats and fallen trees We send the boat along slowly about fifty feet away casting every likely spot as we go Bait casting is target practice of a high order and a fascinating art not easy to become proficient in inBLACK BLACK BASS CASTING IS AN AST ASTIt It sounds an easy art to baitcast for bass but it takes considerable practice to do it without back ¬ lashes and once learned you must get accuracy in placing the lure for it should be shot fair and true right at the spot where a bass is likely to be lurking If he is there he will pounce on it like a tiger and you will have your bands full There will be a mighty smash in the water a foajslng boiling swirl as he dashes below for a spot that he knows of where he can tangle up your line and break it itAnd And you well with pounding heart and gasping breath you are trying your darndest to head him off from the snagr to bring him back to water in midleap with your rod tip to turn the boat as he goes under it and to keep your Wits about yon during the fiercest and most intense moments you will ever live through And all the time all the control you have over him is the play of that reel for he is managed with the reel alone instead of by stripping the line under your right forefinger and letting the rod do the work as with trout and it takes quick thinking and good judgment to win out But in time the bass from his weight gets tired out and can be maneuvered up to the boat where the landing net can be slipped under him Take your time with him himFor For baits re find that the various diving and wabbling lures are good takers especially if they have a slash of red on them and the large red fly tied on a 10 hook with a spinner in front and a pork minnow or pork chunk in the hook is another killing lure Better hang a treble hook in the tail of the minnow if there are pike or pickerel about for these gentry strike from behind and will not be taken by the main hook The bass always strikes for the throat of his victim where he sees the red slash and there the hook should be beIf If you strike a warm sunny day with the pond like a hot mirror the chances are that not a strike will be had from lures no matter how art ¬ fully cast The bass are there but they are in deep water and are lethargic Anchor the boat at both ends near some sunken ledge that you can dimly see by peering down into the depths Put on a small frog and cast him over so that he will sink down to the ledge In may be half an hour your line will begin to run stealthily out It should have no click on the reel no resistance whatever The bass has seized your frog and is swimming away with it in Ids mouth If you strike now you will get back the frog nothing else Finally he turns the frog and swallows it itPATIENCE PATIENCE AND CARE ARE BOTH NEEDED NEEDEDIf If you can get him away from the ledge and into deep water the rest is a matter of cool thumbing of the reel quick playing of it during rushes that make for slack and playing out under pressure of your thumb brake when his rushes get too fierce Easy to write but not easy to do Ive seen men get so excited as to lose their beads and throw away line rod and all begging me to save the fish for thorn thornThe The fact of the matter is Mister Bass honestly and sincerely thinks he is boss of the whole lake and anything moving on it wiggling diving spluttering on the surface or even resting innocently on it is likely to rouse his sudden ire and cause a nerve shattering strike It is the reason for the success of the astonishing variety of artificial lures look ¬ ing nothing like anything in the heavens above or the waters beneath A white clothespin with a red slash on it and a treble hook hung In the slash Is as good as any of them themIn In river fishing for bass hellgramltes give good results fishing from boat or point by playing out the line slowly from your baitcasting ountfit ountfitWherever Wherever there are bass there are also quite likely to be pike and pickerel Trolling for them with the baitcasting rod and a spinner payed out ome seventy feet astern is effective but boresome We generally get much more sport with the fly rod skittering for them The boat is maneuvered slowly along about twenty feet outside the lily puds or the rocky shores of he lake The fly rod lias a email No 1 spinner for a lure Attached to a short gut leader This is cast across the boat in long switch casts the backcast being offshore At each cast the lure is directed to some cove or fringe of lily pads or a sunken tree where may lurk a pickerel pickerelThe The best time for bass fiehlng is in the early morning when the mists hang low over the lake and the wind has not got up yet All nature is at morning feeding and the birds are caroling in the trees along the forested shores The boat drifts lazily a single occasional ehove of the oars sending it along and you are free to cast to your hearts content every cast a pleasurable bit of fine skill As the bass are about their morning meal your strikes will be plentiful During the day the wind will be ruffling the lake and driving the boat hither and yon and it takes one man steadily at the oars and another casting to get results Or if the lake is still and the hot June sunshine drives man and beast to the shade of the trees the bass will have retired to deep waters and bait fishing will be in order orderThen Then along toward evening conies the cream of it all The wind has gone down the heavens above are a blaze of roseate splendor and the still mirror of the pond reflects the gorgeous hues of the dying sun Now is the time when you smoke the pipe of peace and tranquilly cast the coves and dents in the edges of the lily fields And under the gold of the setting sun full many an old warrior has fought his last fight with a master angler W H Miller in Country Gentleman
