QUALITIES OFTHE BLACK BASS 



ages of the bass in the swift currents than in the 

 stUl waters of the pools. I have noted — on the 

 Delaware River particularly — that whereas some 

 twenty-five years ago, before the black bass became 

 sovereigns of that water, the chub swarmed in the 

 pools and large eddies, at the present time a chub 

 can very seldom be taken on hook and line in 

 such waters. As an old angling friend, resident 

 upon the banks of this great black-bass stream, 

 expressed it: 



" The chub appear to be stealing up the river by the 

 way of the shallow rapids near the shores, and can never 

 be found when the bass lie in the deep water." 



But the black bass is not to be cheated of his 

 favorite food, for as the shadows fall he may be 

 found lying in wait in the circling eddies on the 

 edge of these rapids, and woe betide the hapless 

 cyprinoid that chances to come within jaw-reaching 

 distance of a ravenous bronze-backer, or within 

 the possible compass of a sudden dash into the 

 tumbling water, in which, however, the black bass 

 does not linger a minute, returning at once to the 

 eddy. 



85 



