The Simfish Family 41 



the black-bass than any of the earlier writers. 

 He gives just three lines concerning black-bass 

 fishing, saying, " This fish is taken by casting 

 the artificial fly, or by trolling with the feathered 

 spoon, with a minnow impaled on a gang of hooks, 

 and forming spinning tackle." Of all the angling 

 authors prior to 1870, Robert B. Roosevelt is the 

 only one who knew anything about black-bass or 

 black-bass fishing, having fished for it in the 

 St. Lawrence basin. He says, " They will take 

 minnows, shiners, grasshoppers, frogs, worms, or 

 almost anything else that can be called a bait." 

 Also, " They may be captured by casting the fly 

 as for salmon or trout, and this is by far the most 

 sportsmanlike way, but the most destructive and 

 usually resorted to is trolling." The only per- 

 sonal experience he gives of black-bass fishing, 

 unfortunately, is by trolling with large flies. In 

 his "Game Fish of the North," 1862, he devotes 

 five pages to the black-bass, but apparently does 

 not discriminate between the two species. In 

 "Superior Fishing," 1865, he devotes two pages 

 to the black-bass of Canada and the Great Lakes, 

 in a general way, but gives two instances of fishing 

 as follows, " Pedro soon hooked a splendid black- 

 bass, and landed him after a vigorous struggle 



