CHAPTER XXIII. 



BLACK BASSE ANGLING IN MICHIGAN. 

 Kindly furnished for this work by a friend at Detroit. 



BLACK BASSE are found in all the great Western lakes, and 

 in all the rivers connecting them or tributary to them. They 

 abound also in the picturesque and beautiful lakelets with which 

 the peninsula of Michigan is studded. There are several spe- 

 cies of fish which pass by the general name of Black Basse, but 

 two or three of which appear to be described by naturalists 

 The Black Basse (Huro Nigricans) of Lake Huron, the Black 

 Basse (Centrarchus Fasciatus) of Lake Erie and the Ohio 

 River, and Labrax Nigricans, or Small Black Basse. They 

 differ in different localities in form as well as in color. They 

 all belong to the great Perch family, and are a game fish, afford- 

 ing fine sport to the angler. They, with the White Basse, Pick- 

 erel, Pike, Yellow Perch, and Catfish, comprise the list out of 

 which the Detroit River angler is to find his sport ; but the one 

 which will most reward him for his toil, is the Black Basse. 

 He is shy and capricious, yet when feeding bold and voracious. 

 In size and shape he strongly resembles the Blackfish (Tautog) 

 of salt water, and like him is found among rocks and reefs, and 

 stones, and rapids, and eddies.* In weight they range from 

 one to five pounds. 



On the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, and in Green Bay, 



* Another variety of this species does not appear to have been described 

 by naturalists. It is never black. The back of the fish is a dark color, 

 shading gradually into green on the sides, and from that into a whitish 

 cream color on the belly. The characteristic mark of this variety is two 

 broad longitudinal parallel lines running the whole length of the body. 

 They are commonly called the Green Basse, and are found where there 

 is grassy bottom. Their weight ranges from one to five pounds. 



