288 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



(Mat. 8, 1884. 



colossal figure of Franklin stood within a few yards of the spear, for he is progressive himself, aDd the steamers and 

 "blaze, with one hand extended, in the attitude taken hy Mr. ] sailing craft on our lakes and rivers are his familiars, and he 



Barnum when he gestures toward his sacred elephant and 

 uays: "Gentlemen, behold! behold!" Hook and Ladder 1 

 was the first to answer the alarm, and came up with sound 

 of gongs and rattle of wheels. Engine 7 was only a few 

 seconds behind, filling the square with denser smoke than 

 that from the blazing white elephant. Engines 12 and 29 

 thundered up, and Hook and Ladder 10 arrived. The in- 

 surance patrol was on hand, and last of all the water tower 

 came rumbling into the square. The chiefs of the First and 

 Second battalions rattled up iu their little red wagons. The 

 firemen seemed astounded. Oae of Engine 7's men was the 

 first to attack the flames. This he did with a small chemical 

 extinguisher just as High Priest Slee, Principal Keeper Hall 

 and volunteers from the crowd succeeded in toppling the 

 blackened frame of the elephant off the truck. It was a 

 noteworthy spectacle — Three fire engine companies, with 

 machines belching black smoke, two hook and ladder com- 

 panies, the water tower, hose carts, chiefs' wagons, the 

 patrol, a great crowd surging around, an array of policemen 

 in the midst of it, and one fireman playing a half-inch stream 

 out of a tin can on the charred wreck" of the elephant's 

 framework. He soon got the conflagration under control. 

 The high priest said he" thought he would know the small 

 boy if he should see his again. Odds of two to one were 

 freely offered that he wouldn't see him.— ift'w York Sun, 

 April 30. 



Mr. Henry 0. Squires, who has lately removed from 

 Cortlandt street to his new and more commodious quarters 

 at No. 178 Broadway, has just issued a voluminous cata- 

 logue of sportsmen's tools and luxuries. The primary pur- 

 pose of the publication is presumably to produce polyprag- 

 maty in Mr. Squires's store; butfapart from this the compila- 

 tion is valuable as a compendious and useful book of 

 information about the thousand and one things thai; the 

 gunner of the day needs, or thinks he needs. The illustra- 

 tions are numerous and lucid. Mr. Squires, we infer, does 

 a cash business, for he gives no credit lor the gems of senti- 

 ment mined from the Forest and Stream, which flash out 

 to illuminate his prosaic price lists. 



New York Game Districts. — Three new districts have 

 been formed under the law for the protection of fish and 

 game, and protectors will be appointed within a few days. 

 One district includes Jefferson and Oswego counties, one is 

 in the heart of the Adirondacks, and the third includes a 

 strip of territory extending from south of the Mohawk 

 Biver to the State line. The protector of this district is also 

 to be a protector of the State at large, and is to be under the 

 direction of Gen. K. U. Sherman, of the Board of Commis- 

 sioners. Gen. Sherman has taken a great interest in this 

 matter, and has given much earnest thought to it. 



Olean Sportsmam's Ci/ub. — At the anuual election at 

 Olean, April 25, the following officers were elected for the 

 year: Fred. K. Eaton, President; E. M. Johnson, Vice- 

 President; W. R. Page, Secretary; A. P. Pope, Treasurer. 

 Executive Committee— A. P. Pope, C. B. O'Donnell, F. H. 

 Oakleaf, H. W. Curtis. W. H. Simpson.— Y. 



Home-Made Hunting Suit. — A suit of the proper color 

 (for ducks) can be made of cheap material from coffee sacks, 

 which are just the right color. I think the poor success of 

 some duck hunters is undue movement on the approach of a 

 flock, aud too small time allowance ahead, for cross shots and 

 over, for ducks rising from the water. — H. E, H. 



Mountain Quail. — Lowell Hill, California, April 19. — 

 Mountain quail are whistling in all directions. Thousands 

 of them are cominar up from the valleys and are pairing off. 

 They will follow up the Sienmtp their very summits as fast 

 as the snow disappears. — J. W. B. 



CONCERNING BLACK BASS. 



BY A. N. CHENEY. 



[Read before the Anglers' Association of the St. Lawrence River.] 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Angle.)'*' Association of 

 the St. La/arence Biver: 



While your worthy corresponding secretary could have 

 asked many anglers far more competent to ''prepare a paper 

 in regard to the" habits of the black bass, the various means 

 of catching them by angling, the baits used, and the places 

 where they are to be found at different seasons of the year," 

 he could not have asked one who is a greater admirer of the 

 good and game qualities of this fish, which is destined to 

 stand in the not far away future, if it does not already, at 

 the head of the list of game fishes that are to be found in 

 the greater area of the waters of our State. Long may the 

 glorious So.lcelinusfontinalit be spared to us by the exertions 

 of anglers' associations, like your own, to enforce just laws, 

 and a liberal State government to provide the fry by arti- 

 ficial means. 



But the black bass has even now, in many sections, in- 

 vaded the haunts of this patrician beauty, and he is ener- 

 getically and constantly seeking new fields. He is the 

 embodiment of independence, and wherever he finds a home 

 he locates to stay, provided the murderous netter and the 

 worse spawning-bed thief, leaves him unmolested, for he 

 fears no fish that swims, and is the only one of our so-called 

 game fish that guards and cares for its young. In this year 

 of grace, 1884, the black bass is pre-eminently the game fish 

 of the people. The trout streams — greatly diminished in 

 volume — still run or trickle through the farm lands of our 

 sires or grandsires, but the trout took their departure soon 

 after the "wood lot" was cleared, or remain ouly iu story. 

 Trout and progress are, in a measure, incompatible. 

 Naturally secluded iu their habits, the constant hacking of 

 the lumberman's axe and the screech of the locomotive 

 whistle jar upon their sensitive nerves, and they retreat be- 

 fore civilization, and the modern savage— he of the net and 

 spear — and are now only fdund, or mostly found, in places 

 that are inaccessible to the mass of the people, either by rea- 

 son of the distance to the favored location, or the expense 

 necessary for comfortable sojourn in these remote haunts, 

 or lack of knowledge of the comparatively few profitable 

 fishing waters, or want of time for an extended journey, or 

 all combined. 



The black bass, on the contrary, fears only the net and 



is on pood terms with the mule-propelled vessels in the great 

 ditches, yclept canals. He is a thorough Yankee and proud 

 of every acre of this great "land of freedom" that gave him 

 birth, aud he is a game fish, whether found in the great lakes 

 and rivers or small ponds and streams, for he is equally at 

 home in the still waters of one and the rapid current of the 

 other. The latter, however, heightens his game qualities, so 

 that therein he is seen at his very best. But a species of tish 

 that produces young in still water that will, when two and 

 one-quarter inches long, impale themselves on the hooks of 

 a trolling spoon in their efforts to swallow it, requires very 

 little heightening of game qualities. 



I have thus far spoken of the black bass without other dis- 

 tinguishing descriptions, but as there arc two species of this 

 dusky fish, it may be well to separate them. I trust the 

 veteran anglers of this association will bear with me while I 

 briefly note a few of the marked differences between fi e 

 small- mouthed black bass — the Micropterus dolomieu — and 

 the large-mouthed black bass— the Micropterus salmoicles — 

 the adjective in each case fitly describes the mouth. In the 

 former the maxillary bone or mouth does not extend back to 

 a vertical line drawn through the posterior part of the eye; 

 while in the latter it reaches to and passes such a vertical 

 line. The small-mouth has also smaller scales, there being 

 eleven rows of scales between the lateral line and the dorsal 

 flu, while the large-mouth has but eight rows of scales be- 

 tween the same points. The former again has seventy -five 

 to eighty scales along the median line, and the latter sixty- 

 five to seventy. The scales of the small-mouth are much 

 smaller on the opercle, breast and back of neck than on the 

 sides of the nsh, and on the cheeks they are minute. The 

 scales of the large-mouth are little, if any, smaller on the 

 breast, back of neck and gill covers than on the sides of the 

 body. The notch between the spinus and soft-rayed dorsal 

 is deeper in the large-mouth than in the small-mouth. 



As to the game qualities of the two species there is a dif- 

 ference of opinion. Some anglers hold that pound for pound 

 there is no difference in their activity when on the hook. 

 Others contend that the large-mouth is not for a moment to 

 be compared to the small-mouth as a game fish. Of those 

 who hold the latter view are two members of the medical 

 profession, well known as angling writers, each having an 

 experience with rod and fine of more than half a century. 

 One says, in a personal letter: "The big-mouth smells and 

 tastes of the muck, and we do not fish for them," The other 

 writes: "1 do not bother with the big-mouth, for they will 

 not fight. When hooked they give a flirt, open their mouths 

 and come in like a log of wood. " The author of "The Book of 

 the Black Bass" champions the cause of the big-mouth, and 

 considers him the peer of the small-mouth. Some years ago 

 a prominent fishculturist, in writing me about the black bass 

 of certain waters, said it was barely possible that they were 

 a cross between the large and small mouth, but I have never 

 been able to gather any evidence that the two fish would 

 cross: on the contrary, there is every reason to believe they 

 will not, even when the two varieties are confined in circum- 

 scribed waters. 



The record of the experiments in black bass propagation 

 by Major Isaac Arnold, Jr., U. S. Army, is very interesting, 

 and I quote the following from it: "The black bass — both 

 species confined together in a small pond — hatched out by 

 the thousand, and I think there will be more in a few days. 

 The young fish are all healthy, but they eat each other. Yes- 

 terday my foreman, in less than fifteen minutes, saw nine of 

 the young fry swallowed by fish of apparently the same size. 

 The large-mouths seem to do the greater part of this work. 

 Each day the number of this year's fry grows less as the 

 strong ones destroy the weaker. The first hatchings are now 

 nearly three-quarters of an inch in length, and can probably 

 protect thems3lves." From the dates given, I judge that the 

 small fish referred to were about three weeks old. 



The large-mouth thrives in waters with mud bottom, 

 wherein are rushes, reeds and flags; but the small-mouth de- 

 lights in clear, cold w T ater, with a bottom of rocks, gravel 

 and clean sand, or resorts, during the heat of August, to the 

 long, fine grass in deep water. The large-mouth, if sur- 

 rounded by as favorable conditions as to habitat as the small- 

 mouth, might be a more vigorous fighter than he is by many 

 supposed to be, but I shall hereafter speak only of the small- 

 mouth. 



In coloring, the black bass varies from a pale green to 

 almost black, growing lighter from the dark back to the 

 dusky white belly, and tiTey are spotted, mottled and barred, 

 transversely or longitudinally. I have also seen them when 

 they appeared almost white in the sun as they leaped from 

 the water. Color, however, is a very fallacious guide. If a 

 number of black bass of various colors, or shades c*f color, 

 are confined together alive, they will all become, in a short 

 time, of the same hue, and the color will be like that of their 

 surroundings. This change takes place evidently at the will 

 of the fish, and it is part of a wise provision of nature that 

 enables them to thus cloak themselves by assuming a line in 

 harmony with their abode for the time being. 



They spawn iu running water earlier than in the still 

 waters ©f a lake. In rivers they generally spawn in May or 

 early in June; but in lakes or ponds they are on or near their 

 nests with their young far into July; and last season I saw 

 them with their fry early in August, and heard of them on 

 their beds as late as the 21st of the same month. But last 

 season they were, for some unknown reason, unusually dila- 

 tory in attending to their domestic duties. The spawn of 

 the black bass is surrounded by a gelatinous fluid that causes 

 it to adhere to the stones or gravel of the spawning beds in 

 ribbon-like strings; and for this reason the bass cannot be 

 spawned with profit artificially, and there is no necessity for 

 attempting it. They only require to be left unmolested at 

 the breeding season' to thrive and multiply. At this season 

 they refuse all food, but they keep their beds swept and 

 dusted, and quickly remove any foreign substance that may 

 fall upon them. The pot-fisher avails himself of his knowl- 

 edge of their cleanly habits and drops a bare hook or hooks 

 into the nest; at once the bass takes it into its mouth to carry 

 it from the bed and is ruthlessly snatched out of the water. 

 It is this nefarious practice that does more to destroy our 

 black bass than any other means used by those who have no 

 fear before their eyes of the law or an hereafter. Thousands 

 of fish are destroyed, while a few mature bass, unfit for food, 

 are thus cruelly killed. I have always to curb my pen when 

 writing of this vile murder and those who do it. A fish that 

 affords such grand sport will be allowed by all honorable 

 men a bare month, or such u matter of time, in which to 

 produce their young in peace 



The spawning of a pair of black bass extends over two or 

 three days, and the parent fish remain with their young 

 until they are ten days Or two week's old, and the firy prey 



upon each other until they are two or three weeks old. Their 

 cannibalistic proclivities cease when they have gained a 

 little discretion, but their pugnaciou qualities grow with 

 their growth. A black bass will vanquish a pike of a mucli 

 larger size than himself by swimming swiftly under the 

 enemy and cutting him across the belly with a rigidly erect 

 dorsal fin. The black bass grows rapidly under favorable 

 conditions of water and food, and reaches maturity at three 

 years of age. Only a few years a<ro a black bass of six 

 pounds was considered to have attained the maximum 

 weight, but more recently small-mouthed bass have been 

 cauffhed of eight pounds in weight for a single fish. Paren- 

 thetically, let me say that we have it on good authority that 

 the big-mouth has been taken in Florida waters weighing 

 eighteen pounds. The larger fish — small-mouth — are so ex" 

 tremely fat, however, that they do not display the activity 

 of a two and one-half or three pound fish. These weights 

 are, as a general thing, the size of fish that gives the angler, 

 the most sport when on the rod. 



Judging fr»m personal experience, the largest bass are 

 caught at an early hour in the morning— the earlier the hour, 

 if it be daylight, the better the fishing or catching. When 

 the black bass have spawned in the shallow of a iiver, they 

 move seemingly in a body to swift water on the foot of a fall, 

 if such there be, and are there caught in numbers iu the 

 down pom or boil of the rapids. Alter a few days in this 

 rough water, which perhaps reinvigorates them, aftei the ex- 

 haustion attendant upon spawning, they fall back and dis- 

 perse, to be found just at the foot of the rapids, behind 

 some boulder in mid-stream that forms a little eddy, and 

 along the shores, just in the edge of deep water. When the 

 season advances and the water becomes warmer, they rest in 

 deep pools and eddies, and with the approach of winter, 

 they retire to broken rocks or submerged logs in deep, still 

 water, there to become torpid aud hibernate, until released 

 by the warm sun of spring. After severe cold weather in 

 the fall, a few days of warm sun will awaken them so that 

 they will take the hook, if it is let down upon their winter 

 quarters. During the fishing season they lie in wait for 

 small fish just off the rocky shores, or near a weedy or sand 

 points, where the water deepens rapidly, or near a weedy shoal 

 shore that harbors bait fish. They make a rush into the shoal 

 shore water or weeds, and grasp their prey and return to 

 deep water only to repeat the operation as often as hunger 

 demands. 



Rocky shoals in midwater are also favorite places for black 

 bass in" June and early July, and there they may be found 

 nearly the whole day, as the water is comparatively shallow. 

 These are the places and this is the time for fly-fishing in 

 lakes and deep livers. Nevertheless, the bass will come on 

 to the shoals to get food at morning and evening during the 

 entire slimmer, so that a little fly-fishing may be had at feed- 

 ing time, although one must be prepared* for many disap- 

 pointments. In September and October the bass are 'moving 

 about in an aimless sort of a fashion, and may be on the 

 shoals, shores, off the sand points, or in deep water, or in all 

 of these places. This is the time to catch the largest fish, 

 and they are in prime condition. Let one catch a black bass 

 in a cold, clear lake, and he thinks it about the most vigorous 

 fish to l»e found in fresh water, but when he catches one of 

 the same fish in the current of a rapid river, he discovers his 

 mistake, for river bass afford the finer sport. This is owing, 

 in a measure, to the fact that the swift water, sunken bould- 

 ers and possible snags add to the chances of the bass to 

 escape. Therefore, the angler's satisfaction is greater if he 

 succeeds in saving his fish after a closely contested light in 

 which the chances are nearly equal. A pound bass may 

 afford more pleasure in the catching than one of twice the 

 weight. To quote my own words, used when writing of the 

 black bass on another occasion '. 



"It is the play that the fish affords that warms the cockles 

 of an angler's heart, not the fish itself; and as one looks 

 back over other days, it is the gamy, hard-fighting fish that 

 rise up in one's memory like mile stones along a pathway. 

 Greater fish there may be between, but they live only like 

 so many pounds and ounces, and occasion no thrill, no 

 tremor of the muscles, no increased beating of the heart, no 

 particular joy or exhilaration at the retrospect, except that 

 they may have beaten some other fellow's fish. If the mere 

 pounds and ounces lived, there can be no thrill of pleasure 

 at the remembrance, for there never was one; nothing— but 

 pounds and ounces." 



I have had excellent sport catching black bass in the 

 autumn when the water was covered at an early hour in the 

 morning with a dense fog, and in no single instance has 

 such a morning failed of good results. But one has to 

 choose, I am informed by a female member of my family, 

 between the danger of malaria and a good score. I can say 

 that to date 1 have not suffered from malaria because of ex- 

 posure in fishing. 



At the season when the bass are roving I have had splen- 

 did returns from baiting certain fishing places. For instance, 

 I save all crayfish that die on the hook during an afternoon's 

 fishing; and just before leaving the lake or river, I throw 

 them into the water at the best fishing places; the next morn- 

 ing I fish these points and again bait them tor evening. The 

 baits used for bass are many, including the artificial fly for 

 casting and for trolling, the trolling spoon or spinning bait, 

 the minnow gangs, with live minnow, and the artificial 

 trolling minnow; the live bait, including all small fish which 

 are classified as minnows, and small perch which are best of 

 all, particularly for large bass; the grasshopper aud cricket, 

 live frogs, crawfish or cravfish, dobsons or helgramite, in 

 both the black and white state, and the common earth worm. 

 In still-fishing, a dead bait is useless, and the sooner it is 

 taken from the hook, and a fresh, lively bait substituted, the 

 better. Dobsons and crayfish, both excellent bait when 

 native to bass waters, are indifferent or worthless in waters 

 where the bass are not accustomed to feeding on them. In 

 two large lakes in this State is good bass fishing. In one, 

 the grasshopper is a prime bait, and the cricket is of second 

 importance; and in the other the reverse is the case. Around 

 the first lake 'hoppers are more plenty than crickets, and 

 around the second crickets are more plenty than 'hoppers. 



I think the greatest pleasure is derived from casting the 

 artificial fly, and perhaps the next best mode is casting the 

 minnow. Trolling or still-fishing is much, if not most, 

 generally practiced. In trolling with artificial flies, two, 

 three or four flies of a large, gaudy pattern, are Ubed on a 

 single leader that terminates in a small fluted trolhug spoon 

 on a small minnow gang, bailed with a minnow. Black 

 Bass are very capricious, in some waters taking a certain 

 bait with avidity one day. and refusing it utterly the next. 

 Of live baits, the minnow is the standard for the season 

 through, although at times in the autumn the crayfish or 

 frog is better. In trolling with flies it is necessary to weight 

 the leader and sink the flies when the bass are in deep water 



