142 STRIPED BASS. 



footing, and can follow the fish along the shore ; and 

 finally, having subdued his spirit and broken his 

 strength, can lead the prize, gleaming through the 

 transparent water with the sun's rays reflected in 

 rainbow colors from his scales, into some quiet nook 

 where he can gaff him with safety. Such is fly-fish- 

 ing for striped bass amid the most lovely scenery, 

 gorgeous in its summer dress of green and alternat- 

 ing hill and valley, dotted with pretty farms and 

 smiling grain-fields ; and there is but little sport 

 that can surpass it. 



Bass are also taken at the Grand Falls, ten miles 

 further up the river ; but the Little Falls are their 

 favorite locality, as they are here just passing from 

 the salt tide into the pure, sparkling, broken fresh- 

 water. They frequently weigh twenty pounds, and 

 occasionally much more ; but, of course, the main 

 run is smaller, and the number killed in lucky days 

 is prodigious, being counted by hundreds. 



Bass are said to be taken with the fly in other 

 rivers of the Southern States, and also to a certain 

 degree in those of the north. At the mouths of 

 narrow inlets, where the tide is rapid and diluted 

 with fresh-water, a gaudy red and white fly with a 

 full body, kept on the surface by the force of the cur- 

 rent and not cast as in fly-fishing, will occasionally 

 beguile them ; but generally speaking, bass are not 

 fished for with the fly north of the Potomac. 



Although the artistic angler naturally despises the 

 miserable flannel abortion manufactured by the stu- 

 pid boors of Tenally Town, it will often be found as 



