Plt-Fishing. 353 



scorn and contempt of all good and true disciples of the 

 gentle art. 



The literature of black bass fishing may truly be said to 

 have been evolved during the past thirty years. Previous to 

 this period very little mention w^as made of the two species 

 of black bass by our angling authors^ and that little wa.i 

 misleading, incorrect or glaringly false in most instances, 

 and related, almost without exception, to bait-fishing. 

 Fly-fishing for black bass, although then practiced by a few 

 anglers, was apparently unknown to writers on angling. In- 

 deed, it was doubted by man}', and denied by most anglers, 

 that the black bass would rise to the artificial fly; but this, 

 in my opinion, was due more to prejudice than to the result 

 of actual experience, and viewed in the light of our present 

 knowledge of the subject, this opinion is certainly strength- 

 ened, if not confirmed. 



Up to that time the brook trout was deservedly the pride 

 and idol of the fly-fisher, and it was deemed heresy to cast 

 the fly for any other fish, with the exception of the salmon. 

 But while yielding to none in my love and admiration for 

 the brook trout, I regard it as a matter of justice for me 

 to state that, in my opinion (based on a large experience), 

 there are no waters inhabited by the black bass, large- or 

 small-mouth, where it will not rise to the artificial fiy at 

 some season of the year, subject to certain states and con- 

 ditions of the water, etc., and this is much as can be said 

 for the brook trout as all unprejudiced trout-fishers must 

 admit. 



It is true that the black bass rises to the fly more freely 

 and uniformly in some waters than in others, but this fact 

 holds good also as to the brook trout. And likewise is it a 

 truism, that the largest fish, trout or bass, do not, as a rule, 

 take the artificial fly. Those who wish to lure the finny 



