39° Black Bass Fishing. 



Ignatius proceeded farther out into the stream, but parallel with 

 the shelving rock. Then selecting a minnow four inches long, be 

 passed the hook through the lower lip and out at the nostril. Reel- 

 ing up his line to the snell of the hook, and with his thumb on the 

 spool of the reel, he turned his left side to the riffle below ; then 

 swinging his rod to the right, the minnow nearly touching the water, 

 he made a sweeping cast from right to left and from below upward, 

 starting the minnow on its flight just before the tip of the rod reached 

 its greatest elevation, by relaxing somewhat the pressure of his 

 thumb on the spool, but still maintaining a certain light and uniform 

 pressure to prevent the reel from back-lashing and the line from 

 overrunning ; the minnow was neatly cast, in this way, some seventy- 

 five feet, and just beyond the riffle. Then he reeled slowly, keeping 

 the minnow near the surface (there being no sinker), and just as it 

 was passing through the broken water of the riffle, a bass seized it 

 on the run and continued his rush up-stream toward deep water. 

 Ignatius reeled his line rapidly until he felt the weight of the fish, 

 which then gave a short tug or two, when he was allowed to take a 

 few feet of line, though grudgingly and sparingly, so as to keep it 

 taut. Ignatius then, feeling the bass pull steadily and strongly, 

 drove in the steel by a simple turning over of the rod-hand, while 

 drawing firmly on the line ; this set the hook. 



The bass continued his race by swimming rapidly between 

 Ignatius and the shore and then up the river, describing a half 

 circle, the line being the radius. The bass, finding his progress thus 

 stayed, sprang clear of the water several times in quick succession ; 

 but Ignatius, instead of slackening the line, skillfully turned the bass 

 over in the air by a slightly increased tension as it left the water, 

 thus preventing, by another method, his falling across the taut line. 

 This latter mode requires more adroitness than the plan used by the 

 Professor, of lowering the tip of the rod to slacken the line as the fish 

 falls back, but it can be more successfully and safely accomplished 

 with the shorter and stiffer minnow-rod than with the fly-rod. The 

 bass was sooner exhausted and brought to creel than if he had been 

 down-stream, not having the strength of the current to aid him. 



"That is the best fish yet taken, Ignatius," said the Professor; 

 " he will scale fully three pounds, and you landed him in two minutes." 



" One should hold hard and kill quick." 



