BLACK BASS AND TROUT COMPARED 



bamboo fly-rod, nine feet long, will kill with ease, 

 and in ten minutes or less, any black bass that is 

 apt to rise to a fly in fluvial waters; they seldom 

 weigh more than two and a half to three pounds. 

 A leader of single gut, six to nine feet in length, 

 that will lift a dead weight of three pounds, is 

 generally used, and upon it are tied or looped two 

 flies. Thus equipped, with the addition of a creel 

 slung over the shoulder, the stream is entered, with 

 a long-handled landing-net to be used as a staff*. 



Fly-Fishing 



The courses of most of the upper waters of the 

 Eastern rivers alternate in rapids, or rifts, and 

 large, comparatively deep pools (ten to twelve feet) 

 locaUy called eddies. At the head of these pools, 

 where the swift water subsides into the deeper 

 reaches, and aU along the stretches of the river 

 where the current is somewhat sluggish and the 

 depth from three to four feet, are found black bass, 

 particularly when the sun has dipped behind the 

 western hills and long-drawn shadows are cast upon 

 the water. The density of these shadows is peculiar 

 to many sections of the Eastern States where bass- 

 waters are found. The hills are almost precipitous 

 to the water's edge, and their thickly wooded sides, 

 covered with deep-green foliage, intensify the dark- 

 ness thrown over the streams, which in many places 



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