CHAPTER VIII 



PROSPECTING WITH A CASTING ROD 

 On the Trail of the Black Bass 



IT is a fact well known to students of human nature 

 and angling, that a fisherman will often turn his 

 back on good fishing near at hand for the sake of 

 trying his luck on little, inconsequential ponds and 

 rivers which no one ever heard of particularly but are 

 darkly rumored to "swarm" with huge bass. Sometimes 

 you do, indeed, catch a few bass; oftener you do not. 

 Always you put in many hours of hard work tramping 

 the woods, swinging a paddle or pulling the oars, and 

 at the end of the trip invariably "Never Again" is your 

 slogan. 



Some little time thereafter, running over in your 

 mind the various events of your latest prospecting fiasco, 

 you realize that, after all, you have had a mighty good 

 time; that it is not all of bass fishing to kill bass; and 

 that on these little prospecting tours you experience to 

 the fullest extent all of the things which make fishing 

 really worth while although you do not catch even 

 one small bass. 



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