THE BASSES: FRES H-W ATER AND MARINE 



contest ends then and there. It is an excellent fish 

 for waters, artificial or otherwise, located near a 

 household of fish-lovers, as it will thrive in most 

 waters, especially those having rocky bottoms, and, 

 as our angling mentor, Seth Green, once said to 

 me: " It does not take a dancing-master to catch 

 them." Light tackle and almost any kind of bait 

 worms, minnows, pieces of fish, grasshoppers, 

 and artificial flies, or even a small trolling-spoon - 

 will prove effective either in trolling or casting. 

 Yet these bass have the vim and the courage to hold 

 their own against the black bass, the pickerel, and 

 other predacious fish. If you have a pond of five 

 or more acres in area, fed by springs, put in fifty 

 to one hundred adult rock-bass, and " fish on Fri- 

 days " and on many other days will be an accom- 

 plished fact. 



The rock-bass spawns in the latter part of May 

 or in early June. In weight it reaches upward of 

 two pounds, sometimes rather more, but the aver- 

 age is not over quarter to half a pound. It is 

 nearly as prolific as the sunfish, to the family of 

 which it really belongs. It is a handsomely colored 

 fish, with a brassy tinge and markings of yellow 

 and green, with a dark spot at the base of each 

 scale, which after death becomes more distinct, giv- 

 ing a striped appearance to the body. 



