152 PRACTICAL FLY FISHING 



WHERE TO CAST 



The swift, gravelly, sandy or rocky stream is the 

 home of the small mouthed bass and there is some 

 similarity between fishing for him and for trout. 

 Both fishes seek cover and food but the bass never 

 hangs poised in fast broken water like the trout. He 

 may dash into the rapids after food, if hungry, but he 

 won't stay there. Of course during a freshet when 

 the fish work up stream they go through the rapids but 

 are seldom taken on flies maybe because fly fisher- 

 men so seldom fish there at such times. When the 

 water is rising the eddies at the edge of swift water 

 often yield well as the fish lie there on the watch for 

 surface food. The bars formed by eddies behind or 

 below obstructions are often favorite hunting places 

 for bass feeding on minnows. 



At a normal stage of water a bass will often lie on 

 the down stream side of a boulder in quick water where 

 the current has scooped out a hole in the bed of a 

 stream and here you will often " connect " with a big 

 one. This hole usually shows as a big, dark patch 

 on the stream bed and it is good strategy to first cast 

 up to its edges before floating a fly directly through it. 



In the average river most bass will be taken near 

 the shore line. Overhanging banks, trees or bushes 

 that lean over and admire themselves in the reflection 

 of the surface; docks, piers, fallen trees, partially or 

 totally submerged stumps (river men call 'em "dead 

 heads") wing dams, boulders, brush heaps anything 



