164 THE FINE ART OF FISHING 



dormant state which, under certain circumstances, may 

 be temporarily interrupted. Thus the basses, both 

 large- and small-mouthed, when the water reaches a 

 low temperature, seek refuge in the interstices of rocks, 

 in hollow, submerged logs, and places of like nature, 

 sometimes even burrowing into the mud of the lake 

 bottom, where they remain for long periods inactive and 

 without feeding. 



But if several days of unseasonably warm weather 

 should come, melting the ice and raising the tempera- 

 ture of the water, the bass would again become active. 

 Also it is fairly certain that individuals remain active 

 all winter; that is, all the bass in any given lake are 

 not inactive at any one time. Ice fishermen quite often 

 during the winter report catching a single, sometimes 

 two or three, black bass. On one occasion a friend of 

 mine, fishing through the ice of a river cove, took eleven 

 black bass, large-mouthed, the heaviest weighing two 

 and a half pounds. This is the heaviest catch of black 

 bass through the ice that has ever come to my notice. 

 The winter bass seeks the deep waters of stream or lake, 

 coming to the shallows when the water grows warm in 

 the springtime. 



The winter habits of pike, pickerel, and perch are 

 much the same as in the warmer months, although they 

 are not so frequently found in shallow water. These 

 fishes feed all winter and are quite active at all times. 

 Ice-fishing for pickerel and perch, although hardly in 

 the same class with fly-fishing for trout, is good fun 

 and widely practiced. 



