208 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



mation upon Black Bass angling, and even that little is 

 totally unreliable and unsatisfactory. As a rule, our 

 angling authors have damned the Black Bass with faint 

 praise, and have given but the most primitive methods 

 for its capture. 



Most writers have devoted their attention exclusively 

 to the Salmon and Brook Trout, among the fresh-water 

 game fishes, or to the Striped Bass, Blue Fish and Weak 

 Fish, among the salt-water species. While acknowledg- 

 ing the game qualities and fine sport afforded the angler 

 by these different species, and which acknowledgment is 

 founded upon ample personal experience with them all — 

 excepting the Salmon — I regard the Black Bass as one of 

 our gamest fishes ; and an experience of twenty-five 

 years has convinced me that the sport afforded by it 

 is not surpassed by the pursuit of any other member of 

 the finny tribe, excepting possibly the Salmon, with which 

 " King of the waters," as I have just stated, I have had 

 no experience. 



But in order to realize Black Bass fishing in its per- 

 fection, suitable tackle must be employed. Fishing for 

 Brook Trout with a bean-pole for a rod, and a piece of 

 raw meat for bait, would not be considered sport in the 

 true meaning of the term, nor should the pursuit of the 

 Black Bass, under similar conditions, be so regarded ; 

 yet the methods of Black Bass angling heretofore de- 

 scribed by our angling authors, and practiced by most 

 anglers, are open to the same objections. 



Until within the past few years such primitive rods as 

 the cane-pole of the South, the alder or hemlock of the 

 Middle States, or the tamarack pole of the North-west, 

 were, when well selected, light, and of true taper, equal 



