LET US GO AFIELD 



than any other form of outdoor sport. Golf comes 

 down to us practically unchanged. Canoeing, rifle 

 shooting, snowshoeing these things have not much 

 changed. Fly-fishing retains something of its old 

 ingredients. But bait casting today is only in name 

 what it once was. 



The bait caster of today has perhaps a hundred 

 different varieties of lures from which he may 

 choose. Customarily his casting baits are armed 

 with a series of gangs or treble hooks which fisher- 

 men buy avidly but which not the wildest imagina- 

 tion can call sportsmanlike. 



It always has been a secret known to all who 

 know the habits of the black bass, that bait casting 

 for the bass is most efficient in rather shallow water. 

 Bass are in shallow water usually in the early part 

 of the season. They feed there in the evenings and 

 lie there during the spawning season. Plug-casting 

 for black bass is most efficient during the spawning 

 season or just before it. Later in the summer the 

 bass go down in the deeper water and bait casting 

 then is not equally productive. I have seen bass on 

 the spawning beds in the lakes of northern Wiscon- 

 sin as late as the middle of August, although in 

 lower latitudes the spawning season would be over 

 perhaps by the middle of June. When it comes to 

 the matter of ethics, therefore, we need not rely 



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