ARTIFICIAL BAITS 121 



The black-headed worm, which can be identified by 

 the absence of the knot on the body, is the best worm. 

 It is found in good garden soil. The "night crawler" 

 is also good. 



Mice, especially young field mice, are excellent bass 

 and pickerel baits, but using animals as highly organ- 

 ized as mice strikes us as being cold-blooded. They 

 are especially good along wooded shores and for cast- 

 ing under over-hanging banks, particularly after a 

 rain. There is an artificial mouse covered with real 

 mouse fur and equipped with a single hook that is 

 often successful under these conditions ; mouse colored 

 plugs are also obtainable. 



The helgramite, dobson, or grampus, is the larvae 

 of the horned Corydalis. It is a dirty brown in color, 

 and has three pairs of legs and a number of leg-like 

 hairs on the sides of its body. It is found around old 

 piers and under flat stones in the riffles of a stream. 

 It is caught by raising the stone and holding a land- 

 ing net so the current will carry it in. Helgramites 

 can be kept indefinitely in damp, rotten wood. The 

 helgramite is an excellent bass bait for bait fishing 

 in rapid or shallow water, but is too small and incon- 

 spicuous for casting under ordinary conditions. How- 

 ever, it can be used very successfully at times with a 

 small spinner to which two hooks and two helgramites 

 are attached. 



Just how many lures to carry on a fishing trip can 

 be learned only by experience. We know a caster 

 who uses only two baits: the spinner, red fly, pork 



