SMALL MOUTH BLACK BASS. 



From Photograph. 



Weight, 6}i Lbs. 



Caught by W. D. Boyce, 



August, 1894. 



" In shallows of the river-reach 



Where rock and pebbles chafe the tide, 



Where o'er white gravel and the sand 

 The rushing waters foam and glide, 



There oft the angler with his flj 

 Takes the black rovers where they lie." 



The above lines from the poet-sportsman, Isaac McLellan, run 

 smoothly and bring to the mind a picture of black-bass fishing with the 

 artificial fly. This bold game-fish, formerl}- little known and less prized 

 by the majority of anglers, has within the past ten years been accorded its 

 proper place in the first rank, by reason of the spirited essays and graphic 

 descriptive sketches in the sportsmen's journals, and more particularly the 

 excellent " Book of the Black Bass," from the pen of our modern apostle 

 on this subject, Dr. James A. Henshall. 



Two species of this distinctively American game fish, the large- 

 mouthed black bass and the small-mouthed black bass, are found in the 

 lakes and streams of the United States. The distinguishing features of 

 the two, as described by the author previously quoted, may be easily 

 observed, as " the angle of the mouth in the small-mouthed bass reaches 

 onlv to, or below, the eye ; While in the large-mouthed bass it extends 

 considerably beyond, or behind it." He also adds that the angler who will 

 bear in mind the difference thus : small mouth and small scales ; large 

 mouth and large scales, — will never be at a loss to identify the black bass 

 species. 



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