The Bass Family 103 



shad roe may be used in quiet waters, or at 

 slack tide, but it is a difficult and unpleasant 

 bait to handle. 



The bait should be from one to three feet 

 above the bottom, and should be kept in motion. 

 Even crab bait should not be allowed to lie on 

 the bottom, as some anglers advise. To main- 

 tain the proper position and depth of the bait 

 the angler may employ a float, with or without 

 a sinker, as the exigencies or conditions demand. 



Very often hand-lines or stiff cane poles are 

 used in estuary fishing, and the bass, even when 

 of several pounds in weight, are yanked out of 

 the water into the boat at once. But with the 

 tackle recommended above the pleasure of the 

 angler is enhanced, and the fish given a chance 

 for his life in the brief struggle that follows. 



In trolling for fish of from three to ten pounds 

 a natural bamboo rod, eight or nine feet long, 

 answers well with one hundred yards of braided 

 linen line, size E or F, and Sproat hooks No. 2-0 

 to 3-0 on gut snells. Where the bass run 

 larger, two hundred feet of line, size E, with 

 hooks Nos. 5-0 to 6-0 may be required, also a 

 heavier rod. The baits for trolling are blood- 

 worms of large size, a minnow hooked through 



