178 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 



evening by seeing them jump for flies or coming up 

 into sight during the day to bask in the sun. The 

 next problem was a bait they would take. Grass- 

 hoppers swarmed about the adjoining banks and 

 minnows were so thick that the bass would turn tail 

 and leave their customary food as though insulted 

 if offered one. 



STRIKES ON NO. 8 SPOON 



" September i, if you remember, was a rainy, 

 nasty, no-account day, that brought on the tired feel- 

 ing people so often complain of in the spring, and, 

 being no exception to the rule, I strung up the old 

 casting outfit of musky fame in Wisconsin waters 

 in preparation of a little try for some fish. 



" Having arrived at the quarries with grass- 

 hoppers and plenty of artificial bait I started out 

 with a fine hopper and fished as though my life de- 

 pended on it with no sign of any results. They were 

 full of them. A change of bait is the only remedy 

 a fisherman has to rely on if they won't bite and I 

 had just finished putting on a No. 8 South Bend 

 Bucktail Spoon when the ' Old Boy ' expressed his 

 high state of feeling by breaking water two or three 

 times in rapid succession. Needless to say I was 

 with him right off and skittered the spoon from a 

 slanting rock on the opposite side of the pool. 



" You could accuse anybody of meddling with the 

 truth if he tried to tell you how fast that fish got 



