HOW TO CATCH THE BLACK BASS 41 



to get not more than about four bass with a dozen frogs, 

 unless the fish are very large and are biting freely. 



Only once have I succeeded in getting as many bass as 

 I had frogs; but, in this case, the fish were ravenously hungry, 

 and all conditions favourable: the frogs were very small, 

 and there were no rock bass in the vicinity to strip them 

 from my hook. I was lucky enough to catch ten bass with 

 nine frogs. 



Another time, in 1878, on Four-mile Lake near Cobo- 

 conk, I took twenty-seven bass with thirty-six frogs, in less 

 than an hour ; but at that date this lake was alive with bass, 

 and it was no uncommon feat to catch two or three hun- 

 dred bass in a single afternoon. 



But, tempora mutantur: such occasions now are few and 

 far between; and the chance is 

 that the beginner will probably 

 spend an hour in catching a 

 dozen frogs and then lose them 

 all in about ten minutes and 

 be thankful if he succeeds in Green Grasshopper 



capturing two or three bass. 



In angling with frogs, the greatest nuisance is the rock 

 bass, which is at times as voracious as the pike, and will 

 attack a frog of any size and mangle it to such an extent 

 that it becomes useless as a bait. Under such circum- 

 stances there is only one course open to the angler, unless 

 he happens to have a change of bait, and that is to seek new 

 fishing grounds. 



In running streams, especially where there are shallow 

 places filled with broken stone, casting with natural or 

 artificial flies is a most fascinating, but at the same time 

 a most uncertain, mode of angling, on account of the diffi- 

 culty of keeping the natural bait alive, and, when using 

 artificial flies, of imitating the attractive motions of Nature. 



I have never had much success when angling for the 



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