360 Book of the Black Bass. 



giants must perforce use bait or the trolling-spoon. This 

 is a damaging admission to our piscatorial pride, but can- 

 dor compels us to acknowledge the correctness of it, though 

 we may find some guilitj' consolation or quasi-satisfaction 

 in exhibiting the huge piscine trophies to our admiring and 

 credulous friends with the usual remark : " Caught on the 



fly!" 



Seriously, it is entirely unnecessary, at this late day, to 

 argue that the black bass will or will not rise to the arti- 

 ficial fly. The fact is now known to most anglers, and con- 

 ceded by others, that the black bass is a game-fish of high 

 degree, and when of equal weight is the peer of the brook 

 trout or salmon in fighting qualities, when proper tackle is 

 employed, and will rise to the fly under the same favorable 

 conditions. 



In order to be successful in fly-fishing for black bass, 

 the angler must know the waters to be fished, or be pos- 

 sessed of that knowledge of the haunts and habits of the 

 bass that is bom only of much experience. He must know 

 when and where the fish are to be found at the different 

 seasons of the j'ear; when they frequent deep, and when 

 shallow water, for it is love's labor lost to cast the fly on 

 deep, still reaches of water. 



In stream fishing, which is by far more preferable and 

 enjoyable than lake or pond fishing, it is only when the 

 bass are on the shallows or on the riffles that the fly-fisher 

 will fill his creel, and on lakes when they frequent reefs, 

 shoals, bars, and the neighborhood of rushes and weed 

 patches. These times are usually in the spring or early 

 summer, and in autumn, for in midsummer the bass retire 

 to deep water, except in large, deep and cool lakes, when 

 this season is often the best, as the water has then become 



