FISHING A WADEABLE STREAM 177 



greater when cast against the current, provided 

 always that the angler is in a position to strike at 

 the first intimation of a rise. I have experimented at 

 length, both when wading and when breasting the 

 current in a boat, and speak from long experience 

 when I say that more bass will be taken when the 

 casts are made right and left, quartering against the 

 current. It is possible to simulate the upstream cast, 

 working right and left, even when following the 

 foam. 



Wherever drift has accumulated, an undermined 

 stump offers refuge, a sunken log makes the water 

 curl, or a pole six inches in diameter lies half buried 

 in the silt, there look for a bass. Each season I am 

 surprised over again by discovering perdu fish where 

 apparently there was not sufficient covering to con- 

 ceal a three inch minnow. How they accomplish it 

 is beyond me. Recently I was fishing shallow water, 

 it actually was not over eight inches deep. Ap- 

 proaching a submerged pole, six inches or so in 

 diameter, I drew my lure along its upper side with 

 little expectation of a strike; but, and I must empha- 

 size the point, I never pass any snag, no matter how 

 small, without testing its "fishableness." Imagine 

 my surprise, then, when a two pound small-mouth 

 came from somewhere beneath or along that snag 

 and took my lure with a viciousness to delight the 

 heart of any battle-loving angler. Mind you, the 

 whole length of that pole was in plain sight and I 



