12 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



while the thrush, blackbird, and cardinal render 

 the air vocal with sweet sounds, and his rival, 

 the kingfisher, greets him with vibrant voice. 

 The summer breeze, laden with the scent of 

 woodland blossoms, whispers among the leaves, 

 the wild bee flits by on droning wing, the squir- 

 rel barks defiantly, and the tinkle of the cow-bell 

 is mellowed in the distance. I know of such 

 streams in the mountain valleys of West Virginia, 

 amid the green rolling hills of Kentucky and 

 Tennessee, and in the hill country where Mis- 

 souri and Arkansas meet. 



The aptitude of the black-bass to rise to the 

 artificial fly is not questioned by the twentieth- 

 century angler, though it was considered a matter 

 of doubt by many anglers during the last quarter 

 of the nineteenth. The doubt was mainly owing 

 to a lack of experience, for fly-fishing for black- 

 bass was successfully practised in Kentucky as 

 early, certainly, as 1845. I have before me a 

 click reel made in 1848 by the late Mr. J. L. 

 Sage, of Lexington, Kentucky, especially for fly- 

 fishing. I have also seen his fly- rod made by 

 him about the same time, and used by him for 

 many years on the famous bass streams of that 

 state. And I might say, in passing, that black- 



