26 



I find that from the peculiar construction of the bass that in being hooked 

 it suffers neither nervous or bodily shock, unless the hook pierces the eye^ 

 stonaach or gills, and therefore suffers nopaiia. 



It can be retaken with the same lure again and again unless barbarously 

 treated or carlessly handled by the oarsman. I have been so fortunate dur- 

 ing the past ten years to have a true sportsman, John G. Olson, who as 

 Isaac Walton says, '"treats them as if he loved them." It is a very voracious 

 fish when feeding, but there are many days, especially during the midsum- 

 mer season when they will refuse bait of all kinds. 



I find that bass are migratory in their habits and life, and range around a 

 great deal, especially after the spawning season is over. I have retaken the 

 same bass three and three-quarter miles from the locality of its first capture, 

 and once took a two and a quarter pound bass in Lake Miltona that I had the 

 season before taken in Lake Ida six miles away, the two lakes being con- 

 nected by a large stream about two miles long. My research has been en- 

 tirely confined to Lake Miltona and the contiguous waters in northern Min- 

 nesota, and therefore my record may not coincide with what might be es- 

 tablished by proper investigations in Illinois waters. 



In Lake Miltona the black bass are of very slow growth. They are a 

 hibernating fish, and therefore in that far northern latitude can possibly have 

 no more than six months of the year of active life in which to feed and grow. 



Dr. Henshall in his work, "Book of the Black Bass," says that a bass at 

 two years of age will be from eight to twelve inches long, and will weigh a 

 pound and that it will grow about a pound a year thereafter, arriving at ma- 

 turity in two or three years. My investigations do not show this to be the 

 case. In Lake Miltona the May and June spawn do not grow to be exceed- 

 ing two and a half inches in length before winter sets in, and when a year 

 old win be about five inches long and very slim and flat — at two years old 

 about nine inches long, beginning to grow thick, and will weigh about ten 

 ounces. During his second year he changes food and begins to live on min- 

 nows. I have a bass mounted that I know to have been six years old and 

 when last hooked was badly gilled. It weighed just twenty-nine ounces. I had 

 caught this fish from my pier fly, casting with small trout flies, at two years 

 of age when it was only nine inches long and weighed ten ounces. This was 

 a small mouth bass. Possibly the fish referred to by Dr. Henshall is the 

 large mouth variety. 



My record certainly disputes Dr. Henshall's theory that a small mouth bass 

 attains maturity at two or three years, as I know that bass continue growing 

 for at least twelve years and increase in weight until they get to three and 

 three quarters to four and a quarter pounds. 



Young bass in their third summer, weighing from eight to twelve ounces, 

 are always found in the shallow water along the shore attacking the schools 

 of minnows and feeding constantly, which accounts for their great growth 

 during the third and a few subsequent yeai's. 



The findings as shown by my record force me to the opinion that from the 

 time a bass is three years old and weighs twelve ounces he grows very rap- 

 idly until he reaches six years of age, and weighs from twenty-eight to thirty- 

 two ounces, being then a very tireless ranger and a voracious feeder, and 

 that after tlaat period he grows much less rapidlj' in weight. 



I conclude that when a bass gets to weigh two pounds he does not gain to 

 exceed three ounces a year, and that after he gets to weigh three pounds he 

 does not gain more than an ounce a year, and almost ceases to gain in 

 weight. A four pound bass in Lake Miltona does not gain perceptibly in 

 weight, and consumes years of time to gain each additional ounce, having 

 reached absolute maturity. I believe that a four and a half pound bass in 

 Lake Miltona and its contiguous waters to be not less than twenty-five years 

 old, and I believe that if I had sufficient time to properly digest the records I 

 have made that I could conclusively prove that it is nearer fifty years old. 



While fishing with Governor Tanner, of Illinois, in Vermont lake, two 

 miles north of Lake Miltona in the summer of 1897, I caught with hook and 

 line a small mouth bass that weighed four and a quarter pounds. When 



