of America — viz.: "Frank Forester," Genio C. Scott, Hon. Robert B. 

 Roosevelt and Francis Endicott— derived their practical knowledge of bass 

 casting from fishing bouts among the swirling eddies of Hell Gate. Large 

 fish were frequently taken there, twenty-five to thirty years ago, but the 

 average catches now are much smaller in numbers and in size, as the fishers 

 have increased ten- fold and the fish have decreased in these waters in 

 almost like ratio. 



The term " rock-fish " is often applied to the bass, by reason of the 

 pertinacity w^ith which this game fish clings to rocky channels and reefs, 

 where the waters are churned into spray and foam by changing winds and 

 tide. The smaller bass run together in considerable numbers, and are 

 therefore known as school bass, w^hile the larger specimens are more " sub- 

 lime and solitary " in their movements. 



Of the various methods of bass-fishing, the prime favorite among 

 skilled anglers is surf-fishing, or chumming as it is sometimes called, 

 although the " chumming" is really the work performed by an assistant, 

 in scattering pieces of menhaden broadcast over the waters to be fished. 

 One of the first requisites to success, on the part of the angler, is the abil- 

 ity to make a long and accurate cast in any direction desired. A bona fide 

 cast of two hundred and sixty and one-tenth feet was made by Mr. W. H. 

 Wood, at the tournament of the National Rod and Reel Association, at 

 Central Park Lake ; the tackle being such as is commonly used in bass 

 casting, substituting a two and one-half ounce sinker (the average weight 

 of a lobster tail or menhaden bait), in place of the ordinary lure. A cast 

 of less than one hundred feet is seldom successful in surf fishing for striped 

 bass, and long casting will always win, other chances being equal. The 

 angler uses a strong pliant rod, nine or ten feet long, with a large triple 

 multiplying reel holding about four hvuidred feet of line, best linen make. 



The bass fisher usually takes his stand on a small platform, a short 

 distance from shore, enabling him better to reach the haunt of the striped 

 bass at flood tide. Poising his rod, and throwing it back with perhaps 

 three feet of line for play, the angler makes a slow but firm movement 

 forward of the tip, the line spins out rapidly in a graceful curA'c, and the 

 bait falls easily some two hundred feet away. When hooked, the striped 

 bass is game to the last, and the acrobatic feats he performs, leaping, div- 

 ing, darting here and there among jagged rocks, struggling for liberty like 

 a runaway race horse with the bits between his teeth, give the excited 

 angler no rest till the fight is won — or lost. 



Trolling for bass is another popular style, sometimes with the rod, and 

 occasionally with the line and bait trailed behind the boat. The veteran 

 Louis O. Van Doren says of a peculiar method of fishing witnessed by 



