152 THE FINE ART OF FISHING 



found wanting, and even then it is quite possible that 

 they wanted something else. The angler who favors 

 the small-mouth bass, discrediting the merit of the large- 

 mouth, should prospect only in certain places, while 

 the angler who is satisfied with any sort of bass has a 

 much larger field to cover. 



It is not merely a bookish theory that the small-mouth 

 in streams favors swiftly running water much the 

 same localities as are sought by the brook trout while 

 the large-mouth seeks quiet, weedy places. This has 

 been proved to the writer many times and some times 

 very strikingly. On the Housatonic in Connecticut, as 

 an instance, where the dam of an electric power plant 

 affords swift-water fishing below and still-water above, 

 you will take exclusively small-mouth bass below the 

 dam and large-mouths above it. 



In lakes also the habitats of the two black basses are 

 almost equally well defined, the small-mouths being 

 found about the spring-holes, on rocky bars, and pos- 

 sibly at the inlet or outlet of the lake if there is an 

 appreciable current at these places, or where, as at the 

 mouth of a mountain brook, the water is of a lower tem- 

 perature. Often the two basses co-exist in the same 

 lake when the large-mouth is usually found in quiet, 

 weedy bays, among lily pads and rushes, and where the 

 bottom is soft. 



As a method of quickly trying out new waters bait- 

 casting is quite equal to trolling provided the caster 

 does not spend too long a time in whipping out any one 

 spot. As a matter of fact repeated casting over a re- 

 stricted piece of water is seldom of use anyway; almost 



