90 THE FINE ART OF FISHING 



furnish good bass fly-fishing, should have no trouble in 

 connecting with a satisfactory catch. But, as noted, 

 this favorable time is rather short, the bass soon moving 

 into deep water with the coming of the true summer 

 weather. Follow then some six or seven weeks, the 

 good old summer time, when bass angling is at its 

 worst and the vacation fisherman at his best. And then 

 comes the best time of all the year for bass fishing, the 

 first few weeks in the fall, while the weather still holds 

 comparatively warm, but the water has grown some- 

 what cooler. 



At some time during the summer, the exact time dif- 

 fering with the locality, every bass lake begins to 

 "work" or "bloom"; that is, the aquatic vegetation 

 growing upon the lake bottom has reached maturity 

 and begins to throw off seeds. In a short time the 

 water takes on a milky appearance, is almost opaque, 

 and filled with floating particles. Naturally fishing is 

 at a standstill. Prior to this time also almost every lake 

 becomes very weedy, the weeds eventually reaching the 

 surface of the water along shore in the shallows and 

 often coming within a foot or two of the surface in 

 water from fifteen to twenty feet deep. 



This makes the bass fishing rather more like raking 

 hay than angling, and fishing at this time, especially 

 bait- or fly-casting, is productive principally of smashed 

 tackle and lost tempers. Later in the season, however, 

 the lakes cease working, and the water clears; the 

 weeds, too, die down considerably. With weather clear 

 and just cool enough to be pleasant, the conditions 

 generally prevailing in the early fall, with water also 



