FIFTY LARGE-MOUTH BASS 161 



used as much as the other lures, owing to the fact 

 that it is hard to procure at times and is not as handy 

 as the plug or pork rind. For deep-water fishing 

 when the bass seem off the feed it has no equal. 



FROGS GOOD FOR WEED-BEDS 



To the hopping little green-backed, white-bellied 

 frog, eight bass passed the time of day and were 

 hooked for their curiosity, and again July and 

 August stand out as the months in which this natural 

 food made the strongest appeal to the bass. Three 

 of the frogs were dressed up with a little piece of red 

 flannel and five of the fish were taken from weed 

 beds and three from alongside of logs and wind- 

 falls. In the late season fishing in August the cast 

 was made right into the weeds and the frog given a 

 chance to sink a bit, then slowly reeled in, then an- 

 other slow-up, and so on until the waiting bass struck 

 him in his slow move among the weeds. Of course 

 a weedless hook was used in most cases and on three 

 of the frogs a small spoon was carried as a special 

 inducement to the bass. 



The flash of the spoon was the swan song of four 

 of the bass and one of these was an eight-and-one- 

 half-pounder. This old granddaddy bass had 

 passed his palmy days in a quarry hole, as clear and 

 cool as any North Woods spring-fed lake, and the 

 fisherman who was skillful enough to land this 

 whopper had tried out everything in the bait line, 



