THE BASSES: FRES H-W ATER AND MARINE 



be the angler's creel. Subdued colors in the dress- 

 ing of flies are, I think, the best, and of these 

 my preference is for one of which body, head, 

 wings and feet are made of the feathers plucked 

 from the brownest of turkeys. 



I have caught black bass in numbers with the 

 ordinary black, gray, and brown hackles, and 

 often use no others, except, indeed, when the fish 

 are not biting. At such times, where is the fisher- 

 man who does not go earnestly through his book 

 down to the last feather, hoping against hope that 

 this or that bug will do the work, until he has 

 fruitlessly spent perhaps half a day in whipping 

 the stream, and at last gets hold of a nondescript 

 fly which has lain unused and unvalued in an out- 

 of-the-way corner of his fly-book for several sea- 

 sons. With it, then and there, he fills his creel, 

 and ever after swears by it, brags of it, and be- 

 lieves it to be the fly, forgetting that his ha 1 f- 

 day's unsuccessful work was made during the 

 basses' off-biting hours, and that his infallible non- 

 descript chanced to fall among eager, hungry fish, 

 who were ready for bug, minnow, or gogglegoy. 



It is said that when black bass are gorged 

 hence " off feed " - a red ibis fly with a live 

 minnow on the hook will lure them if anything 

 will. 



