CASTING LURES 93 



lates the minnow, one of the natural foods of the 

 fish. Every angler has discovered that it is almost 

 useless to use artificial lures when bass are lying 

 deep, as in the middle of the day, hence they cast 

 early in the morning and again at evening when the 

 fish are feeding in the shallows. Some writers 

 assert that bass attack the splashing lure because it 

 interferes with their feeding, and I am sure that nine 

 times out of ten the attack is made because the fish 

 is hungry. It will be said at once in answer that bass 

 are taken with undigested fish in their maws ; indeed, 

 even with tails of late captures protruding from 

 their mouths. Granted, but live bait fishermen, still 

 fishing, report the same thing. Obviously in still 

 fishing there is no compulsion of excitement. The 

 bass will glut itself just because it is a bass. We 

 measure fish from a human view-point, and I beg to 

 remind you that it is a long journey from that low 

 form to our present high estate. If we could place 

 ourselves in the fish's place, thinking ( ?) and seeing 

 as does the fish, its ways would not be so mysterious. 

 As already remarked in the preceding paragraph, I 

 have always found the minnow shaped body the most 

 successful. No, it does not seem to be an important 

 matter whether the large or small end travels ahead, 

 or whether one end be larger than the other. The 

 elongate form the minnow shape is the most at- 

 tractive. Just glance over any representative collec- 

 tion of lures and you will at once discover that 99 



