ARTIFICIAL LURES FOR BLACK BASS 



pleasant to handle, either alive or dead; and can be 

 counted upon for only a very few casts, when its 

 usefulness ends. 



The ingenious American, alert for improve- 

 ments, humanely inclined, and impatient of the 

 time wasted in obtaining live bait, has set himself 

 assiduously to the production of artificial lures 

 which would take game-fishes. He has found them. 

 * Will take more fish than live bait," the phrase 

 employed by not a few of the manufacturers of 

 these lures, may have furnished the unthinking 

 with cause for merriment; but the critical expert, 

 who carefully tests each new device, will find that 

 in many cases the claim is fully justified by results. 

 The writer is among the enthusiastic converts to 

 the modern artificial black-bass lure. He has per- 

 sonally tested every new lure which has come into 

 prominence during the last five years, on waters 

 ranging from the famous Belgrade Lakes, of 

 Maine, to ponds within sight of New York's sky- 

 scrapers, and has compared results, side by side, 

 with anglers using the best of native live baits. 

 The modern artificial lures, properly rigged and 

 handled, need fear competition with no live bait so 

 far discovered. 



Yet the curious fact remains that, although we 

 have many champions of the exclusive use of the 

 fly for trout, salmon, and ouananiche, we have very 

 few champions of the exclusive use of the artificial 



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