F L Y F ISHING IN THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER 



covered with water, except at intervals of about 

 twenty feet, where the water swept between them, 

 making a series of swift currents that swirled down 

 stream for some distance. At the tail of these 

 channel-ways, and in the still water and the curl 

 of the eddies behind the protruding rocks, experi- 

 ence told our friends were likely places for the 

 bass to lie. 



' The largest black bass that ever struck my 

 fly," said the Doctor, " did so at Flat Rock Dam. 

 You know the spot well, Gills, for we have had 

 some glorious sport together at the dam, and Tuck 

 once told me that he believed you knew each peb- 

 ble at the bottom of those pools by its front name; 

 and you too, Mendy, as I remember you flushed 

 and worried over your maiden effort at fly-casting 

 some ten years ago, standing on that big rock that 

 reaches a line level with the breastwork of this 

 same dam. Well, my mammoth bass it must 

 have been a four-pounder rose to my point fly in 

 the rush of that surging rapid, the water of which 

 came dashing over the end of the rocks of the big 

 pool just below the dam on the eastern side of 

 the river, the half of which is jammed by the rocks 

 and the bank into a space not more than ten feet 

 wide, making a rapid for about twenty-five feet. 



" I had alternately waded and jumped from rock 

 to rock until I reached the shallows in midstream, 

 then waded down, with ankles scarcely covered, 



95 



