QUALITIES OF THE BLACK BASS 



Strength 



The black bass is endowed with strength, for its 

 size, beyond that of most fresh- water fishes; more- 

 over it seems to possess the intelligence (or an acute 

 development of instinct) to use its strength to the 

 best advantage in its efforts to escape from the 

 rod, to throw the hook from its mouth, or to sever 

 the gut of the leader by getting it around jagged 

 and sunken rocks. Frequently it will sink — sul- 

 lenly, as it were — to the bottom, and nothing wiU 

 dislodge it except main strength and the utmost 

 strain of the tackle by which it is held in restraint. 

 All the devices of an old salmon-angler wiU not 

 budge it from its lair: the throwing of stones, 

 lashing of the water, knocking on the butt of the 

 rod, even the jabbing of a stick at him unseen in 

 a pool (but doubtless not touching his body), have 

 failed, as have all other attempts, to make him move 

 an inch. Nothing but a steady strain sufficient to 

 overcome his strength of muscle will have any 

 effect, and frequently even that will be only tem- 

 porary, as under such conditions the bass wiU some- 

 times move but a few feet and then " sulk " again. 

 So persistent and determined is this action of the 

 fish, that one would be inclined to think that he 

 evidently braced his strong pectoral fins on the 

 sides of two stones between which he was " sulk- 



21 



