The Black Bass as a Game Pish. 345 



Mr. S. C. Clarke, a veteran angler of sixty years' experi- 

 ence, and whose opinion is entitled to great weight, says: 



" I will say that, from an acquaintance with both species for 

 more than forty years, from Minnesota to Florida, I have found 

 little or no difference between them. I have taken them with 

 fly, spoon, and bait, as many as fifty in a day (in early times), 

 and up to six and a half pounds weight." 



A few years before his death, Pred Mather wrote as 

 follows : 



"A bad name, given to the big-mouth when black bass first 

 began to attract the attention of anglers, has stuck. It may 

 interest a younger generation of anglers to know that forty 

 years ago these gamy fishes were hardly known to angleirs, and 

 as soon as they began to attract attention some persons, to 

 show their exquisite discrimination, began to praise one to the 

 detriment of the other. Dr. Henshall and I have had the courage 

 to fight this, and to say that in game qualities there is little 

 difference, and that what there is depends on the weight of the 

 fish, two pounds being its fighting weight. Further than to say 

 that the big-mouth is not so capricious about taking the fly as 

 his brother — i. e-, will usually take it more freely — I have not 

 room to go into this subject here. I have written all this be- 

 fore and intend to keep at it until justice is done to a noble game- 

 fish." 



Mr. Henry Talbott, an angler of wide experience, and 

 who has written so entertainingly and instructively on 

 black bass angling in the Potomac, says : 



" There are some anglers who consider there is but one black 

 bass, the small-mouth, and that the other is useless for food, 

 lacking in gamy qualities and only fished for by the misguided. 

 In this they are mistaken, and it is a theory they will abandon 

 and resent when their experience is wider. 



" It is possible that in the Florida lakes they may be tame 

 sport, and there seems to be a general agreement that in some 



