IX. 



THE trout with his shrewdness and wily 

 habits, his strength and gameness, lacks at 

 least one special stratagem the bass often 

 employs effectively. He apparently has little 

 conception of the efficacy of a timely deliv- 

 ered blow, that dangerous and oftimes dam- 

 aging one, that has made many a black bass 

 angler take the count, putting him temporar- 

 ily out of business, the strike that comes like 

 a flash of light, and which the bass sometimes 

 succeeds in landing on a taut line, a blow be- 

 yond the knowledge of a speckled trout. 



When the trout does land one, it is more 

 in the nature of an accident pure and simple, 

 and is easily guarded against, for he rarely 

 makes that supreme effort to free himself 

 from the restraining hook. But with the bass 



it is an entirely different proposition. He has 

 67 



