FISHM 



BASS THAT ARE COY. 



Editor Recreation : 



There is a pond near here that was stocked 

 with bass in 1890 and from all appearances 

 the bass are quite plentiful, but as I am a 

 novice at bass fishing, I have had very poor 

 luck at catching any. 



In fact very few persons have caught any 

 to speak of, except a gentleman from San 

 Francisco who has fished the pond every Sun- 

 day this year since the season opened, June 1. 



The pond was formed by throwing a dam 

 across a small canon about a mile from San 

 Pablo Bay. 



The pond is about 200 yards wide and 400 

 yards long, and is quite shallow, about 4 feet 

 deep, except along the face of the dam, where 

 it is 8 or 10 feet deep. It is entirely open ex- 

 cept for a live oak tree on one side near the 

 dam and a few bunches of cattails scattered 

 around the pond, and the bottom is sediment 

 washed in from the surrounding hills. There 

 is no question but what the bass have all and 

 more than they want to feed on, as the pond 

 is also stocked with a small fish that the fish 

 commissioners call white fish. They are called 

 chub or splittails around here, and there are 

 thousands of them in the pond. 



I have caught two bass with live minnows 

 by still fishing, and a few have been caught 

 with earth worms and young tree toads and 

 wart toads. The bullfrog, or red leg frog, is 

 scarce in this section of the country. Of arti- 

 ficial baits I have used a spoon, Shakespeare 

 revolution spinner No. 2 ; Shakespeare Wor- 

 den bricktail spinner, Coaxer bait No. 2, and 

 an imitation frog cut out of a piece of lemon 

 rind. I don't think artificial minnows or flies 

 have been tried, except a\red hackle fly. A 

 few have been caught on the fly. The first 

 time I tried the bacon-rind frog I got two 

 bass and had several strikes in less than an 

 hour one evening, but since that they have 

 hardly ever even rise to it. 



The spoon seems to be the best bait so far. 

 I caught two with a spoon this season, and 

 the gentleman from San Francisco that I re- 

 ferred to above uses a spoon exclusively. 

 He uses a spoon of the Wilson type, and 

 about the size of a twenty-five-cent piece. 

 They don't seem to prefer any particualr 

 color of spoon. 



There is a knack in using the spoon that 

 I can't get on to. This gentleman uses a 

 brick shot on his leader about a foot above 



the spoon, and a red buckle fly above the 

 sinker. He fishes entirely from the shore, 

 reels off twenty or thirty feet of line, casts 

 out and draws the line in slowly with the 

 fingers of his left hand. The spoon works 

 very near the bottom. 



The largest one that I have caught was 

 seventeen inches long, but I understand that 

 some larger ones have been caught. In the 

 evening or early morning the bass may be 

 seen breaking water all over the pond, evi- 

 dently after minnows. 



We have cool weather most of the time 

 during the summer and fall, as we get the 

 west trade winds and fog from the ocean. 



Do you think flies would work, and can 

 you suggest a few patterns and size of hook? 

 Any information on the subject will be very 

 thankfully received. 



Claude A. Cummings, Prindle, Cal. 



There is really no use in our trying to an- 

 swer the letter from Mr. Cummings. He 

 has already displayed what amounts to 

 genius, inventing ways coaxing those bash- 

 ful bass. Nothing that we can say can pos- 

 sibly offer suggestions which he has not al- 

 ready tried. 



"The gentleman from San Francisco" who 

 seems to fish constantly and with such in- 

 different luck, ought to be an object lesson 

 to him as to the futility of trying to pull fish 

 out of a pond where they are already gorged 

 with natural food. — Editor. 



FROM SODTJS POINT, N. Y. 



Editor Recreation : 



The pickerel fishing is just commencing; 

 several small catches are reported (from 3 to 

 8 fish) a day. Black bass fishing is excellent. 



E. C. Morley, 



MANY MASCALONGE. 



Editor Recreation: 



Many perch being caught about Strawberry 

 Island, Niagara River, the writer enjoyed a 

 fish dinner from a mascalonge weighing 

 19^ pounds. Seven caught by Mr. Felix 

 David at the head of Strawberry Island. One 

 mascalonge of 27 pounds was caught in the 

 same neighborhood by Mr. Thomas Smith. 

 Known of three others caught in the same 

 neighborhood by Mr. Thomas Smith. Know 

 of three others — 12-15, 7. l 9 pounds — caught 

 this month, all caught by trolling with spoon 

 and feather. C. E. Sterling, Buffalo, N. Y. 



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