Hibernation. 87 



I have taken the large-mouth bass in Florida up to 

 fourteen pounds on the artificial fly, and as heavy as twenty 

 pounds with bait. It is obvious that where the large- 

 mouth black bass does not hibernate, as in Florida, and is 

 active all the year and constantly feeding, its size and 

 weight will be much greater than in northern waters. 



Hibernation. 



Black bass undoubtedly hibernate, except in the extreme 

 southern and south-western states; but in the colder 

 climate of the north and west it has been . proven in 

 numerous instances that they bury themselves in the mud, 

 in the crevices of rocks under masses of weeds or sunken 

 logs, in the deepest water, and remain dormant until 

 spring. 



This habit has been doubted by some, inasmuch as an 

 occasional bass has been caught through the ice, though 

 such instances are rare indeed, and all those of which I 

 have any knowledge occurred late in the winter, or early 

 in the spring. As one swallow does not make a summer, 

 these unusual cases must be considered as merely excep- 

 tions to the general rule. 



During a residence of ten years in Wisconsin, where 

 fishing through the ice was constantly practiced during 

 the winter, and where tons of pickerel, pike-perch and yel- 

 low-perch were so taken in a single season, I never knew 

 of a single black bass being taken in that manner except 

 very late in the winter, or in edrly spring, say in March, 

 ]ust before the breaking up of the ice; and even those in- 

 stances were of rare occurrence, and happened only during 

 unusually mild weather; and these same waters, be it 

 remembered, afforded the finest black bass fishing during 

 the summer and fall. 



