124 American Fisheries Society 



In California 1 have had many communications from the President 



of the San Francisco Anglers' Club, who was very much interested 

 in the introduction of the bass out there, and in the fishing. Mr. Worth 

 says they use herring for bait, but he writes that they hud the best bait 

 for striped bass out there to be the large clam, and when they cannot 

 get this particular Pacific clam they troll for the bass with a spoon ; 

 and they claim that they will bite one curiously shaped spoon and will 

 not look at another. Personally, I think the striped bass is a most 

 extraordinary fish, as to what he will take. T have caught striped bass 

 with pretty much everything, even with a finger-stall. T caught one 

 that looked so fat that we cut him open on the rock and be had 5 or 

 o menhaden heads in him, and mnssels and all sorts of things, together 

 with the stall that had been around a fisherman's finger to protect a 

 cut. I had this stall tied on my hook and caught a bass with it. 



If we could only persuade the legislators of the various states to 

 pass a law forbidding the killing of bass on their spawning grounds, 

 it would be a most excellent thing. You go into the New York and 

 Washington markets and you will see cow bass loaded with spawn. 

 You will see in the New York markets today bass offered for sale 

 which are less than six ounces in weight. 



The striped bass is a foreign fish to California. It was introduced 

 in 1879 when 135 were turned out; in 1882 a plant of 300 more occurred 

 and the biggest weighed only 8 ounces. In 1902 1,200,000 pounds of 

 striped bass were sold in the San Francisco markets alone. It is the 

 most successful introduction of a foreign fish that has ever been 

 known. The people of California have protected their bass; they have 

 a closed season for the bass during the spawning season, and it is 

 against the law to take a bass under a certain size. On our coast we 

 do that after the lish are all gone and there are none to protect. 



Mr. Meehan : Like Mr. Fearing I am a great friend of the striped 

 bass and very fond of angling for them. It may interest some to know 

 that I was probably one of the first half dozen persons to use the blood- 

 worm for bait in the Susquehanna River. The first man to use it was 

 Mr. Dercks, the gentleman mentioned in Mr. Worth's paper. Prior to 

 that time clams and crabs had been used to catch the striped bass in the 

 Susquehanna. A week after Mr. Dercks was there another man came 

 from Xew York and fished, and I happened to see him going home. 

 He had quite a bunch of bass and told me about the bait. We secured 

 the bloodworms and used them with great success. In the first trip 

 two of us caught in the neighborhood of 350 pounds in a trifle over a 

 day's fishing, the average run of the fish being from 3 to 9 pounds. 

 The heaviest bass that I caught myself was 15 pounds, and generally I 

 would average one or two, possibly three, 12-pound fish in the months 

 of July and September. It was pretty nearly a rule for men fishing 

 there afterward to throw back everything under three pounds. The 

 bloodworm was used in connection with a small trolling spoon, about 

 a no. 4, and casting became quite prevalent there, especially in the 



