THE BASSES: FRES H w ATER AND MARINE 



according to the anglers, the bass is not so dainty 

 a feeder as in the East; his appetite (voracity) ap- 

 pears to be more exacting, and he pays far less 

 attention to the details of placing bait upon the 

 hook. To use the expressive language of a recent 

 writer, " he can be caught with a big ' gob ' of clam 

 stuck on a hook so obviously that it would not fool 

 a cross-eyed crab." 



The limit of growth varies with the locality. Big 

 fish are plentiful in various waters, but more espe- 

 cially on our Southern coasts. The very largest 

 on record was caught many years ago in the town 

 cove at Orleans, Mass. This was said to scale 112 

 pounds. At Cuttyhunk, in 1860, an individual 

 weighing 104 pounds was claimed. In a fish- 

 market at Baltimore, Md., Dr. J. A. Henshall, in 

 his boyhood days, saw a bass weighed which ex- 

 ceeded 100 pounds. Near Norfolk, Va., about 600 

 of the fish landed in one haul averaged sixty pounds 

 each, and several of them attained 105 pounds. 

 On the Pacific coast the fish have not been so 

 long established, and do not run so large as in 

 Atlantic waters, seldom reaching forty pounds in 

 weight. 



Artificial Culture 



The striped bass is said to spawn naturally in 

 both fresh and brackish waters, but the work of the 



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