34 SUPPLEMENT TO THE BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



head, tail and skin ; aiid, after being stripped of these; if you 

 find any meat left, it is muddy in taste ; any thing but a gamy 

 fish to catch, or a game fish to eat." 



" Syracuse," of Syracuse, New York, shares this general 

 opinion, as the following shows: 



"There is more fight and more game, more cusseduess and 

 more endurance, in a one and a half pound small-mouth Black 

 Bass having barred sides, than in a three-pound large-mouth ; 

 and both will deceive when first hooked, the first by being less 

 weight, and the other being more ; and, while both are good 

 enough, I prefer the small-mouth every time." 



Mr. S. 0. Clarke, a veteran angler of fifty years' experi- 

 ence, and whose opinion is entitled to great weight, says : 



' ' I will say that, from an acquaintance with both species for 

 more than forty years, from Minnesota to Florida, I have found 

 little or no difference between them. I have taken them with 

 fly, spoon, and bait, as many as fifty in a day (in early times), 

 and up to six and a half pounds weight." 



" Salmon Roe," of Newport, Arkansas, offers the follow- 

 ing testimony : 



" Last year I spent some time investigating the comparative 

 gaminess of the small-mouth and the big-mouth Black Bass in 

 the Little Red River of Arkansas, where both species exist in 

 about equal numbers, the one in the swift shoaly places, and the 

 other in the slack water or 'holes' of that stream. I started in 

 without prejudice, and came out with an impression favorable to 

 the big-mouth. 



" Of course, there is a difference in the * manner* of the* two 

 fishes. The big-mouth, for instance, in the stream to which I 

 have alluded, takes the fly much more freely than his neighbor, 



