CASTING AFTER DARK 221 



are obtainable, and there cast. The marge of weed- 

 beds, especially where they are found fringing deep 

 water, is nine times out of ten a good location. Sand 

 and gravel shallows, especially where creeks disem- 

 bogue or near outlets are good spots for the night 

 caster, for they are the feeding places of cray-fish, 

 the piece de resistance of a bronze-back banquet. 

 Sometimes the angler will find the hungry fish mak- 

 ing their way well up on the shallows, three or four 

 of them, vying with one another to be first at the 

 feast. To locate such a spot is to be lifted into a 

 piscatorial heaven. 



After all it is the romance of the thing, the lure of 

 the unusual, the enticement of the night, the blan- 

 dishment of the silence, which places night casting in 

 a class by itself. Be it said, however, that not every 

 angler can endure it, any more than every man can 

 camp by himself in the silent places. Perhaps some 

 are to the manner born, but most of us must culti- 

 vate a liking for the unusual. Believe me when I 

 say that of all varieties of angling tried out by me 

 for romance, unusual situations and sheer piquancy, 

 I give first place to night casting for bass. Love for 

 it grows on one as he becomes accustomed to the all 

 pervading Quiet that word must have a capital let- 

 ter, Caliban was right and the stilly night sounds. 

 In the night, frog songs and the low trill of the 

 seldom night bird, are not noises or noisy. Even 

 the harsh laughter of the loon, once you are in har- 



