340 Book of the Black Bass. 



will go further. I consider he is the superior of the two, for he 

 is equally good as an article of food, and much stronger, and 

 untiring in his efforts to escape when hooked." 



ISTow, while salmon fishing is, im questionably, the high- 

 est branch of piscatorial sport; and while trout fishing in 

 Canada, Maine, and the Lake Superior region justifies all 

 the extravagant praise bestowed upon it, I am inclined to 

 doubt the judgment and good taste of those anglers who 

 snap their fingers in contempt of black bass fishing, while 

 they will wade a stream strewn with brush and logs, catch 

 a few trout weighing six or eight to the pound, and call 

 it the only artistic; angling in the world ! While they are 

 certainly welcome to their opinion, I think their zeal is 

 worthy of a better cause. 



The black bass is eminently an American fish, and has 

 been said to be representative in his characteristics. He 

 has the faculty of asserting himself and making himself 

 completely at home wherever placed. He is plucky, game, 

 brave and unyielding to the last when hooked. He has 

 the arrowy rush and vigor of the trout, the untiring 

 strength and bold leap of the salntLon, while he has a sys- 

 tem of fighting tactics peculiarly his own. 



He will rise to the artificial fly as readily as the salmon 

 or the brook trout, under the same conditions; and will 

 take the live minnow, or other live bait, under any and 

 all circumstances favorable to the taking of any other fish. 

 T consider him, inch for inch and pound for pounds the 

 gamest fish that swims. The royal salmon and the lordly 

 trout must yield the palm to a black bass of equal weight. 



That he will eventually become the leading game-fish 

 of America is my oft-expressed opinion and firm belief. 

 This result, I think, is inevitable; if for no other reasons, 

 from a force of circumstances occasioned by climatic con- 



