26 THE SMALL-MOUTHED BASS 



to seize a minnow or crayfish, but returning immediately to 

 their hiding-place. 



Nine times out of ten, when in common parlance the 

 fish ''begin to bite," it is simply because some slight change 

 of position has exposed the bait to their view. 



As an illustration of this I recall to mind a spot where I 

 have been in the habit of fishing for bass during the past ten 

 years. It is near a point of land, in shallow water, where a 

 current runs, and where there is a sudden deepening of the 

 w^ater to about eight feet, so that a small hole is formed, in 

 area about two feet by five, at the bottom of which lies a 



boulder with a little crevice, which 

 is perhaps a foot wide and two 

 feet in length. 



To the inexperienced eye it is 



the most unlikely spot in the world 



for bass. Passing it, one would see 



shallow water, a smooth, rocky 



^ r^ . . y, . bottom, no weeds, mud or anv in- 



1 omato (jrub and Moth 



dication of fish; and yet I have 

 taken so many bass from that small area of ten square 

 feet that I hesitate to mention the probable number. 



I found it useless to fish anywhere else in the vicinity. I 

 have tried for hours, and even for days, but without success. 



The hiding-place in which the bass lay was so confined, 

 and the fish remained so still, sometimes for hours at a time, 

 that, unless bait was dropped right under their nose, they 

 failed to see it; a distance of a few inches one wav or the 

 other was sufificient to prevent it being visible to them. All 

 of w^hich goes to prove the value of exact location. 



This habit of hiding is not confined to the small-mouthed 

 bass, being common to all predatory fish, such as the pike, 

 maskinonge, rock bass, etc., which prefer live bait; but it is 

 more marked in the case of the bass, because this fish, unless 

 very hard pressed by hunger, will refuse dead bait of any 



