102 CASTING TACKLE AND METHODS 



have satisfied his hunger. (Parenthetically: I be- 

 lieve that I am largely successful in angling simply 

 because I attribute almost human powers of reason- 

 ing to the game I seek. "Absurd?" Well, maybe, 

 but think it over.) 



Another much discussed question is the attractivity 

 of commotion making lures, those lures with splash- 

 ing paddle-wheels, so to speak. All depends upon 

 the mood of the fish. There are days when nothing 

 is quite so good as a certain lure much affected by 

 me, which makes all the disturbance of a Mississippi 

 River steamboat of the stern wheel type, a lure good 

 along the edges of weed-beds when the water is 

 glassy and the bass disinclined to bite. It actually 

 would appear that such a lure compels the fish to 

 rise; they must attack, willy nilly. Somehow these 

 steamboat lures have never appealed to me from 

 the view-point of sportsmanship, though that is 

 probably mere sentiment. However, one does not 

 see so many of the type these days, which is a matter 

 worthy of comment. Looking over my collection, 

 which while large is in nowise complete, I see but 

 few of the commotion variety. As already re- 

 marked, I find them good along the edges of weed- 

 beds early in the morning and again late in the 

 afternoon when a midsummer calm has glassed the 

 water and all Nature seems to withdraw within her- 

 self. As a river lure I have not found it very 

 efficacious, the current playing havoc with its motion. 



