256 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



decreasing in numbers and their establishment in other 

 states was still problematical. A 2-lb. Michigan gray- 

 ling is the maximum, so far as the experience of native 

 observers can fix it. A pound is an honest sample 

 for the creel. 



The black bass, as I have said, are prime favourites 

 in the angling resorts of the interior. They spawn 

 any time, according to locality, between April and 

 July ; but there is a brief spell of smart fishing before 

 they get on the shallows. This happens during what 

 is called the " spring run " ; that is to say, when they 

 are moving from the deep waters of their winter quar- 

 ters (some think that they hibernate) to the sandy 

 shallows (if they can get sand) of the streams and 

 lakes. Before this, however, the pike-fishers have 

 been having sport, if the waters allow it, in March. 

 The winters here are often open, that of which I saw 

 something, with a snow tempest of three days, being 

 the exceptional season of ten years at least. Some- 

 times the enthusiasts are piking even in February, get- 

 ting fish from 2 Ib. to 20 lb., which Dr. Henshall, the 

 well-known author and naturalist, pronounces true Esox 

 lucius. This is the fish we often read of as the pickerel, 

 and it is taken with a local minnow some 3 in. long, or 

 one of the spoons, of which America is the cradle. 



The black bass, it may be premised, has been trans- 

 planted to many states where it did not previously 

 occur, and has taken most kindly to the waters of 

 middle and eastern states, where the croakers predicted 

 it would and could never thrive. The fly-fishers 

 prefer wading, and use a fly large as a small salmon 

 pattern, gut of Mayfly strength, line of corresponding 

 size, and the light ten-feet built-up cane rods, whidb 

 were first brought into general action in this country. 

 The custom is either to cast across, with a tendency 



