LET US GO AFIELD 



ness for sport in this country we never take meas- 

 ures to better ourselves until very late in the game. 

 We figure all things on a commercial basis; and one 

 day we will pay a terrible, a disastrous price for 

 that. 



Fish culture offers the greatest encouragement in 

 the world to the bait caster. It is difficult to in- 

 crease our game birds and game animals, but it is_ 

 perfectly simple to increase our game fishes. The 

 commercial fisheries of the Great Lakes would have 

 been exhausted long before this had it not been 

 that the state hatcheries continually renew the stock 

 of food fishes. The black bass the usual object of 

 the bait caster is one of the fishes which can be 

 bred artificially in large numbers. 



It is almost fair to say that bait casting in twenty 

 years has degenerated from a sport to a business. 

 You could almost measure that much difference 

 between the gear used then and now. When the 

 middle-aged sportsman of today began to fish for 

 bass he used a rod which then was new-fashioned, 

 a recently invented bait-casting rod a trifle over 

 eight feet in length. Today there are bait casters 

 who use a rod not more than four feet in length ; and 

 five feet, five and a half, six, six and a half feet are 

 about the limits in length for the typical short, stiff, 

 highly efficient and highly nonsportsmanlike in- 



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