14 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



soon give up the unequal contest. But the black- 

 bass exhibits, if not intelligence, something akin to 

 it, in his strategical manoeuvres. Sometimes his 

 first effort is to bound into the air at once and 

 attempt to shake out the hook, as if he knew his 

 misfortune came from above. At other times he 

 dashes furiously, first in one direction, then in 

 another, pulling strongly meanwhile, then leaps 

 into the air several times in quick succession, 

 madly shaking himself with open jaws. I have 

 seen him fall on a slack line, and again by using 

 his tail as a lever and the water as a fulcrum, 

 throw himself over a taut line, evidently with the 

 intent to break it or tear out the hook. Another 

 clever ruse is to wind the line around a root or 

 rock, and still another is to embed himself in a 

 clump of water- weeds if permitted to do so. Or, 

 finding it useless to pull straight away, he re- 

 verses his tactics and swims rapidly toward the 

 angler, shaking himself and working his jaws, 

 meanwhile, as if he knew that with a slack line 

 he would be more apt to disengage the hook. 



I have never known a black-bass to sulk like 

 the salmon by lying motionless on the bottom. 

 He is never still unless he succeeds in reaching 

 a bed of weeds. He is wily and adroit, but at the 



