FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



THE OSWEGO BASS. 



This fish is similar to the black bass in all outward marks, 

 except that it has a larger head, lacks the double curve at 



" The black bass seldom attain to more than four and a half pounds. a I 

 have taken hundreds, and have never seen one weighing more. They are 

 distinguished from the Oswego bass by a faculty of changing color in and out 

 of water sometimes yellow, or yellow^ with dark bands across, and often 

 black as ink. All these changes I have seen in the same individual after 

 landing him ; and they invariably emit a disagreeable musky odor. I have 

 never known them to be taken in winter, and I think they seek a particular 

 location and remain torpid during winter. My attention was directed to this 

 fact about thirty years since. At that time I was in the habit of spearing 

 fish in a mill-dam on the outlet of the Seneca Lake, at Waterloo, in Seneca 

 CotMity. From April to November I found numbers of bass ; from Decem- 

 ber to March I found all other varieties, but no bass. 



"In the winter of 1837 the water was shut off at the lake for the purpose 

 of deepening the channel to improve the navigation. This was considered a 

 favorable time to quarry the limestone in the bed of the river ; and, upon re- 

 moving the loose rock in the above-named mill-dam, where the ledges crop- 

 ped out, there were found hundreds of bass imbedded in their slime, and pos- 

 itively packed together in the crevices and fissures of the rocks. My subse- 

 quent experience has done much to convince me that my theory is correct. 

 The black bass appear in the waters of the Cayuga Lake in April. They make 

 their beds and spawn between May 10th and June 20th, and disappear in No- 

 vember. The trolling commences in the early part of May, and continues 

 until July 1 st, after which time we find great annoyance from the weeds. 



"In the Seneca and Canandaigua Lakes the bass make their appearance 

 at a later date usually about the middle of May and spawn between June 

 10th and July 25th. This is the best time to take them. They locate in 

 great numbers upon shoals and bars where there are large boulders. The 

 Seneca Lake, unlike other lakes in this region, is very deep. It has a clean 

 beach and bottom ; no weeds or grass except in the little coves and bays. In 

 these places we find small patches of grass filled with all sorts of small fry, 

 and it is about these grass patches that we have the finest sport in August 

 and the fore part of September. By the 1 st of October the bass have disap- 

 peared from their usual haunts, and the next we hear from them is at the 

 'Bass Grounds,' near Big Stream, where they congregate in immense num- 

 bers about the middle of October. The manner of fishing is with the hand- 

 line and rod and line, using crawfish and minnows for bait. -Hundreds are 

 taken in a day in this place. This sport continues until the middle of No- 

 vember, when it ceases. The appearance of the bass in this locality I con- 

 sider as another fact in corroboration of my theory. The shore is a bold, 

 rocky cliff, and the water very deep. 



The black bass of the great chain of lakes range from three to nine pounds. G. C. S. 



