STRIPED BASS. 141 



current lend a charm to the scene. While the fish, 

 rendered doubly powerful by the force of the stream, 

 and aided by the numerous rocks and falls, have 

 every chance to escape. 



The bass pursue the silvery herring, which is the 

 principal natural bait, and ascend the Little Falls of 

 the Potomac during the summer months in vast 

 numbers. They are captured in such quantities 

 with the net in the salt water and with hook and 

 line in the rapids, as to be almost a drug in the 

 market. 



As the season advances, the native crawls uj^on 

 some rock that reaches out into the stream, and with 

 his coarse but elastic cedar pole, casts the roll of 

 flannel, wrapped round a hook and misnamed a fly, 

 into the seething current ; and when the brave fish 

 seizes the clumsy allurement the fisherman contends 

 for the mastery as best he may, occasionally at the 

 risk of a ducking in the stream consequent upon the 

 sudden breaking of his tackle, and accompanied 

 with considerable risk. When a man has but a 

 slight foothold upon the slippery surface of a shelv- 

 ing ledge, and has attached to the end of his rod a 

 vigorous fish of twenty pounds, he is apt to fall if 

 the line parts unexpectedly. Many are the tales of 

 such accidents, and now and then of fatal results. 

 But with proper tackle, the scientific angler is mas- 

 ter of the situation ; he can reach any part of the 

 current, casting into the eddies at the base of the 

 precipitous cliff's opposite ; he can yield to the rush 

 of the prey ; can retire, paying out line, to surer 



