THE ANGLER AND HUNTSMAN 85 



her streams, her rivers, her lakes, her shrubs, trees, bushes 

 and her acquatic peoples? 



Think it over what single sport offers a greater op- 

 portunity for personal action, recreation, pleasure, health 

 and excitement; what other sport destroys as little and yet 

 provides so much? 



The originator of the buck-tail bait was an ardent fish- 

 erman. So ardent in fact, that his business never grew in 

 proportion to the genuine merit which the baits possess. 

 The inventor of the South Bend Anti-Back-Lash Reel still 

 uses the grandmother's funeral excuse very frequently in 

 order to go fishing. 



The Origin of Artificial Minnows for Casting: 



The legend has it that many years ago, after a lot of 

 hard work with nothing to show for it, a disgusted and very 

 much disgruntled fisherman sat in his boat wrestling with 

 that old theorem, namely : ' ' Why don 't they bite ? ' ' After 

 divers remarks about fish, fishing luck and everything 

 connected with the fishing sport, he punctuated his final 

 decision by throwing an empty cigarette box into the water 

 with no little show of temper. As the box lit there was a 

 slight riffle on the surface, then something happened 



It looked as if an unseen hand had reached out of the 

 depths and punched the empty box a vigorous jab; it went 

 into the air some four feet. The angler was astonished. 

 He watched the colored box float away, suddenly something 

 rose and lunged at it again. This time he saw it all. It 

 was a big, black bass that had smashed up through the sur- 

 face and hit the vari-colored box with such vigor. This 

 gave him an idea, from which originated the use of artifi- 

 cial minnows as a bait for game fish. 



This incident showed that a quest for food was not the 

 only incentive that impelled game fish to bite; but the lust 

 for play or fight was an inherent instinct in the fish, th<; 



