A Wise Old Bass 



Mr. Gus E. Munch has here spun for us a great 

 fishing tale. It's " a pippin, a daisy, a ducky, a lamb." 

 What's more, it comes to me written "on the spot." 

 This very tragic thing happened on Balsam Lake, 

 Polk County, Wisconsin, and it's " hot off the bat," 

 as the story was written June thirteenth, the day 

 of the tragedy, about two weeks before the opening 

 of the bass season in Wisconsin. Could anything 

 be more harrowing? And what do you think of the 

 angling spirit of Munch and Lee ? 



The chances are that the seven and three-quarter 

 pound bass was teaching the newly spawned babies 

 how to paddle their own canoes and how to survive. 

 Some day your boy or my boy may hook one of them 

 and have the time of his young life. More power 

 to you, "Gus" Munch and Albert Lee. "Long 

 may you live and prosper." Here is the story: 



For thirty years I have fished and fished, hoping 

 that some day I would hook a bass better than seven 

 pounds. I have searched in many unknown lakes 

 throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota, always in quest 

 of the one prize I still needed to complete the col- 

 lection of trophies in my fisherman's den. Countless 

 thousands of big bass were netted and turned loose 

 again none qualified. 



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