The Blace Bass as a Game Fish. 343 



contrary, a bass of two or two and a half pounds weight 

 will usually make a more gallant fight than one of twice 

 the size, and this fact, I think, will account in a great 

 measure for the popular idea that the small-mouth bass 

 is the "gamest" species for this reason: 



Where the two species co-exist in the same stream or 

 lake, the large-mouth bass always grows to a larger size 

 than the other species, and an angler having just landed a 

 two pound small-mouth bass after a long struggle, next 

 hooks a large-mouth bass weighing four or five pounds, 

 and is surprised, probably, that it " fights " no harder or 

 perhaps" not so hard as the smaller fish — in fact, seems 

 "logy;" he, therefore, reiterates the cry that the small- 

 mouth bass is the ganiest fish. 



But, now, if he next succeeds in hooking a large- 

 mouth bass of the same size as the first one caught, he is 

 certain that he is playing a small-mouth bass until it is 

 landed, when to his astonishment it proves to be a large- 

 mouth bass; he merely says, "he fought well for one of 

 his kind," still basing his opinion of the fighting qualities 

 of the two species upon the first two caught. 



Perhaps his next catch may be a small-mouth bass of 

 four pounds, and which, though twice the weight of the 

 large-mouth bass just landed, does not offer any greater 

 resistance, and he sets it down in his mind as a large- 

 mouth bass; imagine the angler's surprise, then, upon 

 taking it into the landing net, to find it a small-mouth 

 bass, and one which, from its large size and the angler's 

 preconceived opinion of this species should have lought 

 like a Trojan. 



I^ow, one would think that the angler would be some- 

 what staggered in his former belief; but no, he is equal to 

 the occasion, and in compliance with the popular idea^ he 



