NORTHERN INLAND FISHES. 28 1 



leather was used with wonderful success in the trout streams of 

 Western Virginia fifty years ago. 



In the early season, from June to last of August, the best 

 success is had in deep pools, or under shadow of dams and falls 

 where the water is quieted a moment after its plunge, casting the 

 flies into the tumbling waters and giving the current its own way 

 with them, simply keeping them on the surface. In the later 

 season, from middle of September to end of October, the bass 

 seem to live more in rapid, deep currents well out in the stream 

 where it is less disturbed by obstructions, lying in the eddies 

 formed by boulders, etc., but if the water's surface is disturbed 

 by winds, as is usual at that season, they are taken about as read- 

 ily in mid-current, where the water is from two to three or four 

 feet deep, and running over a pebbly bottom. 



In lakes, cast from a boat in-shore, or tish from the banks. 

 Where lilypads line the shore, if you have no boat or raft, wade 

 out so that you can cast just beyond the edge of the pads. 



If trolling from a canoe or light craft, a two-knot breeze will 

 drive the canoe with sufficient rapidity to prevent the necessity of 

 using oars or paddles, and inci easing one's chances of success in 

 raising the fish, as there is no disturbance of the water, and a 

 shorter line can be used. Ordinarily one hundred feet are required. 

 Trolling should be done along shore, and fish are most likely to be 

 raised when the spoon passes over a reef or bunch of rocks. In 

 swift running water, or in the quick currents that flow between isl- 

 ands lying close to each other, as in the St. Lawrence River, one 

 can fish from boat or shore ; and the best method is probably to 

 anchor the boat in mid current at the head of the race, and grad- 

 ually drop it down as the ground becomes fished over. In min- 

 now fishing give the bait plenty of play, but let the running water 

 do this as much as it will, while the tip of the rod guides it to all 

 parts of the ground to be fished over. 



Valued as the brook trout is for its game qualities ; widely 

 distributed as it is ; and much extolled in song as it has been ; 

 the black bass has now a wider range (at least of latitude) and be- 

 ing common to both cold and warm waters, and to northern and 

 southern climes, seems destined to become the leading game fish of 

 America, and to take the place of the wild brook trout which van- 



