I 50 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



Of course, the deplorable scarcity of Brook Trout fishinj^, 

 and the continual and inevitable decrease of that noble game 

 fish in our dwindling and polluted Trout streams, have a 

 great deal to do with the manifest interest and pronounced 

 favor with which the Black Bass is at present regarded by 

 the angling fraternity; but, in my opinion, the greatest rea- 

 son for this marked appreciation of this grand game-fish is 

 the introduction of proper and suitable tools and tackle for 

 its capture. 



Regarding the game qualities of the Black Bass I also, 

 years ago, hazarded this apparently heretical sentiment: *'I 

 consider him, inch for incJi z.r\d pound for pound, the gamest 

 fish that swims." The lapse of years, and a more extended 

 e.xperience in angling, from the lordly Salmon of Canadian 

 streams to the legion of finny acrobats of Floridian waters, 

 only confirm in my own mind this seemingly broad and sweep- 

 ing assertion. 



As to a comparison of game qualities as between the Small- 

 mouthed Bass and the Large-mouthed Bass, I still hold that, 

 all things being equal, and where the two species inhabit the 

 same waters, there is no difference in game qualities; for 

 while the Small-mouth is probably more active in its move- 

 ments, the Large-mouth Bass is more powerful, and no angler 

 can tell from its manner of "fighting" whether he is fast to a 

 Large-mouth or a Small-mouth Bass until he has the ocular 

 evidence. 



As there is but little difference in habits, and still less in 

 game qualities as between the species, and as the methods of 

 angling for both are the same, my remarks in this paper will 

 apply to either species under the generic name of "Black 

 Bass," unless otherwise distinctly stated. 



ANGLING AUTHORS ON THE BLACK BASS. 



Prior to the establishment of our now popular journals and 

 periodicals of out-door sports, there was very little informa- 



