BLACK BASS FISHING IN INDIANA. 



Colonel W. T. Dennis. 



At the risk of being considered reck- 

 less I will say that I consider 

 Indiana one of the best states in 

 the Union for the satisfactory employ- 

 ment of the angler. 



While Maine has its Penobscot for 

 salmon and its smaller streams for brook 

 trout ; while Oregon boasts its Columbia 

 river and its charming mountain trout 

 streams : while Wisconsin, Michigan and 

 Minnesota glisten with hundreds of 

 beautiful lakes, yet Indiana, in its Wa- 

 bash and White rivers, its Kankakee, 

 Tippecanoe and Massasinnevva rivers, in 

 its crystal lakes and in all its smaller 



in every effort to free himself, finally 

 give up and follow unresistingly to the 

 boat's side, when, as you reach out in an 

 exulting mood to lift him in, he throws 

 his whole energies into a last grand 

 struggle and fairly churns the water in 

 his last effort, — any man, I say, who 

 has had this experience needs no proof 

 of the truth of my assertion. I have ex- 

 perienced the delicate and almost elec- 

 tric thrill of the " snap" of the brook 

 trout ; I have felt the " yank " of the 

 striped bass of the Potomac, and the 

 hungry " grab " of the blue fish at Plum 

 island ; the sluggish surge of the salmon 



SMALL MOUTHED BLACK BASS. — Microplertis Dolomira. 



streams — each and every one of which 

 is prolific of bass can furnish the angler 

 with the most exciting sport. It affords 

 him as thorough and genial satisfaction 

 and as full and fair consideration for his 

 labors as any bit of country over which 

 the stars and stripes float. 



The black bass is the game fish of 

 America par excellence. Any man who 

 has ever felt the rush of a black bass, 

 listened to the scream of the reel and the 

 hissing of the line through the water ; 

 who has ever seen the gleam of his vic- 

 tim, as, darting to and fro, he strains the 

 tackle and doubles up the rod ; who has 

 watched him spring from the water like 

 a rocket and with extended fins shake 

 his open jaws to dislodge the barb that 

 threatens his life and liberty ; and, failing 



trout in Cayuga lake, and the " thud" of 

 the muscalonge in Scugog lake, Canada. 

 Yet these are tame sports compared 

 with the force and vim which character- 

 ize the " strike " of the black bass. It is 

 only within a few years that the attention 

 of the angler has been directed to the 

 black bass. The New York Fish Com- 

 mission distributed bass from Lake 

 Champlain into the smaller lakes and 

 streams, and into the state of Connecti- 

 cut in 1868-70. 



In i860, the Quaker angler and natu- 

 ralist, Edward Stabler, of Sandy Springs, 

 Md., while on a visit to Ohio, got a taste 

 of bass fishing in the Miami river. On 

 his return to Maryland he procured a 

 coffee sack and putting in a number of 

 bass placed them in the tank of the en- 



