50 THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 



I have sincerely thanked since reading the book by which 

 he brought into prominence this gamest of the fishes in any 

 water. I was raised in a trout country, but since my 

 experience with the black bass I have yielded to him the 

 palm for being the gamest fish that I have ever encountered. 

 The interest and intense excitement never ceases from the 

 moment he is hooked till he is brought to grass or shakes 

 the hook out of his mouth, which with me frequently 

 happens. Other anglers may boast of never losing a fish, 

 but I think he who never loses one must be entirely devoid 

 of sensibility. There is something more than mechanical 

 manipulations in handling this fish. It is impossible to 

 avoid some anxiety in the operation, which tends to unman 

 a very nervous angler, while the phlegmatic one may be 

 able to carry a steadier hand ; you never know what a black 

 bass is going to do after he is hooked. He sulks, he runs, 

 he tries to extricate the hook by rubbing against any 

 substance near at hand ; he rushes toward you to see what 

 a slack line will do ; failing in this he leaps two or three 

 feet out of the water, opens his mouth, shakes his head and 

 then, if he gains any slack, is the point of danger against 

 which it is difficult to guard, and there is where I have lost 

 many a fish. I tell you, Mr. President, a five or six pounds 

 small-mouth bass, well fed upon crayfish in the cold waters 

 of Lake Superior, is an ugly customer to encounter. After 

 employing all his tactics to disengage the hook from his jaws 

 he seems to yield (only playing possum) and may be quietly 

 led to the boat, and when you think it safe to apply the 

 landing net he gives a spring, frequently landing in the 

 boat, but quite as frequently going clear over it and 

 escaping. I often in trout fishing, on the north shore of 

 Lake Superior, have hooked a black bass, though they are 



