CHAPTEE V. 



THE BASS, 

 {BASSE, SALMON-BASS, WHITE SALMON, or SEA-DACE). 



Appearance — Habits — Food — Methods of Angling for — Fly-fish- 

 ing — Spinning — Drift-lining — Nottingham TacMe — Ground- 

 fishing. 



HE bass decidedly holds tlie highest place 

 among those sea-fishes which afford sport to 

 the angler. It belongs to the perch family ; 

 but when the prickly dorsal fin peculiar 

 to perch is not erect, it may be, and, indeed, 

 sometimes is, mistaken for salmon, and sold 

 under that name, by cunning fish-hawkers, 

 to unsuspecting visitors to the seaside. The 

 back of the fish is a dark blue, the sides and belly silvery. 

 The mouth is leathery, and hooks stuck in it rarely come away; 

 but on the tongue and along the jaws are sharp-pointed teeth, 

 which frequently fray or cut the stoutest salmon-gut, as many 

 a bass-fisher knows to his sorrow. Bass vary from a few ounces 

 to 151b., or more, in weight, and there are tales told of much 

 larger fish even than that; but 101b. or 121b. fish are not 

 common, the average size being somewhere between 21b. 

 and 41b. 



Bass are not commonly found in the more Northern portions 

 of Great Britain, but abound on the South and South-West 

 coasts. They have been noticed in Berwick Bay and the 

 Firth of Forth, but are not common there. They are taken 

 on the East coast of Ireland, between "Waterford and Belfast 

 Bay. 



