FLY FISHING FOE BASS. 61 



From eleven in tlie morning until five in tlie evening is, 

 generally speaking, the worst time for bass fishing — a fact 

 which has led some people to suppose that these fish are very 

 difficult to catch. If, however, the day is calm, and a breeze 

 springs up from seaward, the bass, if they are off the rocks, 

 will feed whatever the hour may be. The exact position of 

 the fish may often be determined by watching the seagulls, 

 for these birds follow and hover over shoals of brit, on which 

 the bass feed, and are often to be found near. 



The bass is a very ravenous fish, and its food is of the most 

 varied description. Small fry of almost any kind, marine insects, 

 and sandworms, probably form its staple diet. The live sand-eel 

 is a dainty morsel which it can hardly ever resist ; and in its 

 feeding generally it much resembles its handsome inland 

 cousin, the perch. 



Fly fishing for bass, which has been practised for about 

 half a century, is, when the fish are feeding close to the 

 surface, by far the most sportsmanlike and pleasurable method 

 of catching them. The sport aft'orded is, indeed, little inferior 

 to salmon fishing, for the bass are almost as strong as salmon, 

 and what little they lack in strength they fully make up for 

 in numbers. The great difficulty is in finding the fish, for 

 it is little use casting where they cannot be seen breaking 

 the surface and playing, or rather feeding, in the surf. The 

 time spent in searching need not be wasted if the angler 

 is in a boat, for, while he is being pulled slowly along the 

 shore, he can trail a dead sand-eel, a strip of mackerel skin, a 

 spinning bait, or any of the thousand-and-one devices which 

 pollack, bass, mackerel, and a few other sea fish seize when 

 in motion. Immediately the bass are sighted the spinning 

 rod is taken in, and the fly deftly cast into the middle of the 

 shoal, the boat in the meantime having been sculled very 

 quietly to windward of the fish. But this brings me to the 

 question of tackle, which subject merits a paragraph to itself. 



Almost any rod with which the line and fly can be " got 

 out" will do, for it is not difficult to cast a heavy line and 

 big fly with the wind ; but anyone who wishes to have the 

 weapon most suitable for the purpose, should provide himself 



