532 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 18, 1889. 



BASS CASTING CHICAGO STYLE. 



C CHICAGO, July 6.— Pursuing my investigation of 

 J Chicago's finking waters, I last week went to Loon 

 Luke, about fifty- five miles up the Wisconsin Central 

 R Uway, where the lately-mentioned large strings of bass 

 had been taken. The railway station for this point is 

 Autiocb, which is also the point of disembarkation for 

 C-imp Lake, Lake Maria, and if one likes, for Channel 

 Lake, D^er Lake, and I know not how many others, in 

 any of which a good angler can not go amiss. There is 

 a pass .b!e country hotel at Antioch, where a great many 

 anglers stop. I counted fifteen hacks, omnibuses, etc., 

 at the depot when the train pulled in, and each of these 

 bore off a load averaging six or eight, to the different 

 lakes of the adjacent region. Other trains brought other 

 anglers, and other stations also claimed their dues, for 

 fifty miles along the line. The general results of all this 

 I noticed in the countless baskets of fish which went 

 down on the city train the next day, but not being able 

 to be everywhere at once, I can only speak definitely in 

 regard to the limited field covered by our little party. 



The visit to Loon Lake was made at the instance of 

 Mr. J. M. Clark, of the John Wilkinson Company, whom 

 I have often mentioned as a successful angler, and as the 

 inventor of a bass rod which is growing to be the one 

 most in use in this lake system. Of course, nothing 

 would do but I must buy one of these rods and go along 

 with Mr. Clark, who kindly volunteered to show me all 

 about bait-casting as she is did, and also to give me 

 points on general sportsmanship, of which Mr. Clark felt 

 that I, in common with all the rest of the world, stood in 

 serious need. Somebody will just about kill him some 

 day in the middle of one of his arguments on the correct 

 style of tackle, or on the heinous offense committed by 

 an angler who catches anything but a black bass, or who 

 does that with anything but a frog, or on anything but 

 such and such a rod, a line of just such grade, or a reel 

 of any but just the sort that Mr. Clark uses. I had a 

 great notion to kill him myself, for I don't fancy having 

 the law laid narrowly down to me in an occupation 

 where all law should be broad and generous; but after 1 

 got on to his pitching, as the current slang goes, I con- 

 cluded to laugh instead of going down after aiy gun. 

 There is nothing so amiable, as the fellow with the hobby, 

 and if you don't find a plenty of such among anglers I'm 

 sure I don't know where you will. It is best not to kill 

 them. The chances are all in favor of the probability 

 that you have a hobby of your own, somewhere or other, 

 whose entire reasonableness it seems to you the world 

 should accept on your mere assertion, without further 

 argument or quibble. 



Inasmuch as this particular hobby is in the main after 

 all a protest against the unsportsmanlike methods of 

 taking fith, and inasmuch as Mr. Clark is a very fair ex- 

 ponent of the ait of bait-casting as practiced by the best 

 Chicago anglers, T shall be at pains to ventilate this 

 hobby and shall describe fully the outfit used and the 

 method employed in what I shall call the Chicago style 

 of bass fishing, that style being quite definite, successful 

 and distinct enough to merit a name of its own. 



The involution of the bass rod during the past five 

 years has been a curious study, and I have watched it in 

 the West with a great deal of interest. The fly-rod idea 

 dies hard, for almost any genuine angler loves and clings 

 to the lithe and steely action, which is the first jprizi- 

 cipie of the rod in upper anglerdom. Yet such a rod as 

 this is almost useless in our best Western bass waters. 

 Here we have broad lakes, deep in the middle and run- 

 ning out to say a 50yds. margin of shallow water filled 

 with rushes ana mos>! This bank of rushes may run out 

 a quarter of a mile into the lake and be broken by 

 numerous open spots of water locally known as "pock- 

 ets." The big bass lie in these pockets, or at the 

 edge of the rush bank fronting the deep water after 

 the general manner of the Percidm. The water is 

 clear and the least. mot : on among the rushes is apt to 

 disturb its surface to a considerable distance. The 

 plash of an oar, the shadow of a boat or of a rod would 

 be fatal, for it would send the bass ■ scurrying into the 

 deep water on one hand, or into the thick rushes on the 

 other. TIip bass can be reached by a long line and long 

 rod and by deep fishing or by skittering a frog. With 

 such tackle they are killed in quantities by the class who 

 are here known as "pot- fishermen." This, however, is 

 not a method which appeals to the more aesthetic angler. 



The problem, therefore, is how to reach these bass with 

 lighter tackle at distances which must usually be at least 

 20 to 30yds. It takes an exceedingly skillful fly-fisher 

 to make any record under such conditions. The Corn- 

 stock brothers are the only ones I know of here who stick 

 to the fly altogether and still get good catches. They 

 catch bass on the fly at Fox Lake, and the bass up 

 there, are educated citizens. When it came to casting 

 the bait with the light and flexible rod, it did not take 

 long to show that neither distance nor accuracy could be 

 attained. Slowly, and with reluctance, the bass rod 

 began to shorten. It shrank to 8ft. 8in., 8ft. Gin., 8ft. 

 2in., and stopped at 8ft., while everybody laughed at it 

 for its Ftubby clumsiness. At this point split-bamboo 

 was still a favorite material, "because it was so springy, 

 you know." It took quitca while to eradicate the idea 

 that this springiness was just what was not wanted. 

 To-day the man who carries a spfit-bamboo casting rod to 

 the bass lakes is set down at once as being no expert. 

 Ash, or ash and lance, also have practically disappeared 

 as rod materials among our bass cracks, and solid, lance- 

 wood, in three equal pieces, seems now the favorite and 

 very practical rod. The backward journey of the rod 

 has gone on until now 7ft. 8in, is standard length. A 

 few of our gilt-edged anglers have gone lower than that, 

 and I know of two rods of 7ft. which kill plenty of bass. 

 Our little party, on the trip referred to, all had 7ft. Sin. 

 rods of lancewood, weighing 8-^oz. I found my rod capa- 

 ble of doing better casting than I could, tough, stiff, a 

 splendid sling for the 2oz. frog, and withal very killing 

 when the fish was hooked, although necessarily destitute , 

 at that stage of the game, of the diviner qualities of the 

 ideal angling rod. I do not wholly like bait casting, for 

 this reason, although undoubtedly it is the only practical 

 way of kihing these bass. It is a business man's sport, 

 and there is no poetry about it. The skill required in the 

 use of the casting reel is the only claim this style of ang 

 gling has to be called sportsmanlike. Barring that, it is 

 simply murderous. My friend who loudly protests against 

 the catches of the pot-fisherman does not reflect that he 

 himself catches more, and under circumstances barely 

 better, so far as the rod is concerned. When it comes 



right down to brass tacks in the argument, the bait-caster 

 must hide behind Ms reel, and that is all there is to it. 

 I caught ten bass whose total weight, was 8(Ubs., and 

 out of the lot there was only one bass to which 

 I gave the least fighting chance. As quick as a fibh 

 was hooked the cry was, "Pull him in; don't let him 

 run or he'll get into the weeds!" I don't know what 

 others call it, but I call that yanking 'eha. The tackle is 

 strong enough to stand it; and although at the end of the 

 day I found my gallant little rod warped and crooked by 

 the heavy w r ork it had had, I never for a moment had a 

 doubt of its staying together when I put it against a rush- 

 ing bass, keeping the point well down to divide the strain 

 between rod and line. I must confess, however, that I 

 enjoyed the fun, and gloried ranch in the grand fish we 

 took. It is my privilege to be inconsistent, and yet my 

 privilege to laugh at the. inconsistency of the others who, 

 cowering behind their easting reels, deplore the depletion 

 of our waters by pot fishermen and those unspeakable 

 men who will take pickerel and croppies home with them 

 in their baskets. I know very well that the man who 

 cannot cast cannot catch many large bass in these lakes, 

 and I beg permission to turn up my nose at him for fool- 

 ing with little fish. I beg permission also to brand him 

 as a destroyer of our noble game fish the black bass. 

 Meanwhile I shall join the army of righteous bait-casters, 

 who every week lug in thirty or forty pounds of bass. 

 Whenever I want to go fishing on business principles, 

 and for the purpose of getting bass, 1 shall take just the 

 sort of outfit used on this trip. It is practical, no ques- 

 tion of that. All that worries me is that it is too practi- 

 cal. This will not worry so very many, perhaps, and for 

 those I would continue a description of the Chicago style, 



I found Mr. Clark the most skillful castor I ever saw. 

 He cast over my head with perfect ease, and with an ac- 

 curacy which seemed to me perfectly marvelous, Mr. 

 Clark thinks so much of his own casting that he says 

 next year or the year following he will issue a challenge 

 to the entire country, preferring to meet Dr. Hensball. 

 He uses only one make of reel, and declares that to be 

 the only perfect reel, and all others worthy of nothing 

 better than contempt. This, of course, is all nonsense. 

 There are three or four makes of reels quite as good as 

 his. I shall let the angler choose unassisted from among 

 the standard casting reels, any of which will do better 

 work than he himself. Mr. Clark has bored an oil-hole 

 in his reel, and declares that airy casting reel needs fre- 

 quent oiling. This is directly contrary to the advice of 

 the Kentucky reel-makers, who claim that oil is harmful 

 to the working of a finely-made reel. I did not find that 

 my reel needed any oil. but that may be due to the fact 

 that it had plenty of time to get cool while I picked out the 

 back-lashes when it got away from me. This latter state 

 of affairs is called in the vernacular of the lakes "catch- 

 ing a buck." I caught several. The question of oil or 

 no oil is for individual taste. I imagine that few casters 

 will call oil a necessity, although I should think constant 

 heavy casting would be apt to warm up the bearings of a 

 reel considerably. 



All sorts of lilies have been tried by our bait-casters, in 

 linen, oiled, pure and raw silk. No. G, raw silk, of 

 Mansfield's make, is coming to be thought best. I paid 

 $1 for a pure silk line, and found that it was no good. It 

 flattened out when wet, and did not run well. Fifty 

 yards of the No. G raw cost 50 or GOcts. It wears out 

 rapidly in the guides, and at the end of two days' fishing 

 it is best to lay the line aside and get another. No. F is 

 heavier and wears longer, but is not so artistic in its 

 work. 



My friend Mr. Clark last year declared that a No. 6-0 

 Limerick hook was the only one fit to use in these lakes 

 for bass. When we talked about using that hook I 

 always told him that I would die first. This year Mr. 

 Clark says that a Sproat hook is the only one fit to use in 

 these lakes for bass; and I wish I might think it was I 

 who corrected him. No. 5-0 Sproat will do. Some pre- 

 fer 6 0. I used 4-0 and believed that large enough. On 

 this trip there was a marked percentage in the matter of 

 lost strikes in favor of the Sproat model over the Limerick 

 and side-bend models. The latter sometimes fail to hold 

 the fish. The straight-draught of the Sproat makes it 

 very deadly. In buying the Sproat hooks or any other 

 kind for bass fishing, the angler should get the double 

 snelled make of the very highest quality and price. Then 

 they will not pull off the snells. 



It is necessary that the apparent connection between 

 the hook and the line be broken, and for this purpose a 

 short bit of' doubled leader of the very best quality, 

 heavy, is used, the total length of gut including the 

 snell being about 15in. This is the distance the frog will 

 hang below the tip of the rod in the act of the cast, and 

 it is not too far. There should not be any swivel used on 

 the gut for frog-casting, and the young angler should 

 remember this, in spite of any "authority" he may have 

 read. The swivel is desirable for minnow casting, not 

 for frog. You do not want a particle of metal showing 

 about your cast if you can help it. 



The immature caster will wonder why the expert will 

 outfish him with the same tackle, and take larger fish. 

 This lies very largely indeed in the matter of choosing, 

 hooking and handling the frog. The biggest bass do not 

 bite the biggest frog. You want the smallest frog, about 

 two ounces in weight, of the sort known here as»"meadow 

 frogs." Our anglers here take all their frogs up. to the 

 lakes with them, buying them here in the city. There is 

 a man by the name of Grossman, down at Sixty-seventh 

 street and Cottage Grove avenue, who catches and sells 

 the bulk of the frogs sold in this market. He supplies 

 the Palmer House, Grand Pacific, Kinsley's, and other 

 crack cafes with their frogs. He sells from 200 to 400 

 dozen every week. Go to him, and he will tell you what 

 size frog to get for bass fishing. He will seli you the 

 "fishing frogs" at thirty cents a dozen. You will, of 

 course, if you are a regular Chicago bait-caster, have a 

 little "frog bag," made of cheesecloth, in which you will 

 carry your frogs, thus keeping them fresh and strong. 



The frog should be hooked close to the lips, not back 

 between the eyes. The hook must be passed from below 

 up. The weight of the shank of the hook has a tendency 

 to pull the frog over and make it swim belly down, as it 

 always should. The young angler would not think of 

 this Very vital point, perhaps, nor reflect that a large 

 frog would not so easily turn over. It is all-important 

 that the frog should swim belly down. As it is kept in 

 motion, it does not make so much difference whether it 

 is dead or alive then; but a bass knows the normal 

 position of a normal frog is with the white side down. 



The largest bass do not bite right at the surface. The 

 frog should be allowed to settle down before it begins its 

 journey into the boat. A small sinker is therefore neces- 

 sary. This should be a split buckshot, and should be 

 fastened on the line just above the top of the leader. It 

 should not be put closer to the hook, as it would tend to 

 frighten the fish. It should not be a long sinker, as it 

 will then make more splash. Arranged just as above, it 

 will keep your frog swimming beautifully at just the 

 right depth . 



I have in the foregoing described a perfect outfit for 

 bass fishing in the Chicago style. It is simple, compact, 

 neat and not so very expensive. Its cost is from $25 to 

 $30, the reel being the main item. That it is serviceable 

 and perfectly practical, I know very well, and I only wish 

 it were less deadly. In regard to the use of it, I wish I 

 had more space to expatiate. The constant catches of 

 large bass by our leading frog casters (the minnow is not 

 used on these lakes) is evidence of the skill they have. 

 Bait-casting is by all means the only way to catch these 

 big bass here, and the followers of this style of angling 

 now number hundreds where formerly they did tens. 

 These Chicago casters, with customary originality, have 

 cut loose entirely from all rules and precedents, and have 

 invented a style of their own. The casting is done almost 

 entirely from the boat, owing to the nature of the coun- 

 try, although a few expert casters wade and take good 

 strings. An expert caster disdains to stand up in the 

 boat, but keeps low down, to allow no shadow to fall on 

 the water. He cannot, therefore, follow the rules and 

 diagrams set forth by Dr. Henshall in his "Book of the 

 Black Bass." He laughs at Henshall with Western 

 audacity, and with Western vigor and practicality in- 

 vents a style of his own. He casts with the forearm and 

 wrist, making the snap of the stiff and sturdy litte lance- 

 wood rod do the work, and bringing the tip of the rod up 

 and over in what is piactically an overhead cast. This 

 he does so lightly and easily that the boat is not even 

 jarred, and the distance, to which the speckled frog flies 

 is a matter of simple wonder. Our better casters lay out 

 30 and 35yds, of line, cast after cast, and go over 40yds. 

 easily. When the frog alights away out in the coveted 

 "pocket," a quick upward turn of the wrist tightens the 

 long line and makes the frog take a most enticing hop. 

 Then, slowly, and allowing the frog to swim well down 

 in the water, the angler begins to reel in. As many bass 

 are taken in the reel-up as on the drop. The old big- 

 mouths love to swallow a lazily -kicking frog. While the 

 latter is navigating the rush-grown depths between the 

 ultimate splash of the cast and the hither safety of the 

 boat, there comes a mighty swirl boiling up to the surface, 

 and a lightning-like rush that tests everything there is in 

 the boat. You know how that is yourself. 



Messrs. Clark, Porter and myself brought down twenty 

 magnificent black bass, of which four went over four 

 pounds and a half. I also added to my basketful a big 

 croppie which had got tangled up with my new fishing 

 rod, whereat Mr. Clark contemptuously remarked that I 

 wasn't as much of a sportsman as he thought I was. I 

 shall certainly have to kill that fellow yet. 



I shall add to even so imperfect a glance at our bait- 

 casting interests a word more on the casting reel. The 

 only model of reel used by our casters is the balance- 

 handled. The single-crank reel, popular in the South, is 

 not tolerated here. I used a single-crank for an hour or 

 so on my first evening's fishing, being obstinately deter- 

 mined to show my autocratic friend that it would work 

 as well as any. I had to give it up, and after that used a 

 heavy old fall-down Sexton reel which I picked up down 

 in Kentucky, and which, by the way, is a mighty good 

 casting reel, though, not on the market to any extent. 

 The single-crank reel jerks too much, no matter how 

 smoothly it is made. 



There is no line of sport growing more rapidly in this 

 section than bait-casting. It has a field which calls for 

 it, and a field which yields astonishing results. It is a 

 fascinating sport, and grows on one to that extent he 

 soon loses sight of its more immoral attributes and be- 

 comes a blind devotee, making all sorts of excuses to his 

 wife every Saturday for just one more trip up to the 

 lakes. I have been as severe as I could with it, but I 

 confess that if there were no fish in the house, and we 

 had to have fish, 1 should take my casting outfit along 

 with me; albeit breathing high scorn for all pot-fisher- 

 men. 



Much as I regret it, on account of that croppie inci- 

 dent, I should be obliged to head any partial" list of our 

 better bait- casters with the name of the amiable crank 

 whom I have chosen in this article as a type. Mr, J. M. 

 Clark has been the apostle of bait-casting here, and is 

 the one who did most toward forming the little army 

 that goes north out of this city every week, Mr. Clark, 

 however, got his first lessons from Mr. Elmer Wilkinson, 

 the artist, who is a beautiful caster, but not above, or 

 below, using a fly for bass, which he is now doing at 

 Camp Lake with success. Among our better men who 

 go into Fox Lake are Messrs. Chas. F. Hills, Geo. E Cole, 

 Robert Miller, Geo. R. Davis, Coroner Hertz, Dr. Fuller, 

 Mr. Dwen and Mr. Smith, of Shea, Smith & Co. These 

 men all get fish, even in the hard Fox Lake fishing in the 

 lily -pad pockets. Among those who favor Antioch Sta- 

 tion are Dr. Carson, Mr. Lee, Mr. Chas. Hyde, Mr, Fr,ed. 

 Ray, Mr. W. H. Brown, Mr. Lawrence Earl and Mr. W. 

 Cutler. Mr. Miller and Mi". Hyde took their boats over 

 from Fox Lake on the day that our party struck Loon 

 Lake, and left the latter water just as we started 

 in. They had thirty-three black bass. There were four in 

 their party, but the two mentioned did most of the fish- 

 ing. I should say they had enough. In the Silver Lake 

 and Camp Lake districts prominent figures are Mr. Chap- 

 pelle, of Giles Bros., Messrs. Frank Noble, Edward Van 

 Bergen, Capt. Ramage, Thos. McKee, Thos. Waters, Jos. 

 Hislop, Edwd. Hewfurt, H. Dunkinson, Mr. Sturgis, of 

 Proctor & Gamble, and Mr. Jenkins, of Shea, Smith & 

 Co. E. Hough, 



"Trouting on the South Boardman." — Petoskey, 

 Mich., July 10. —Editor Forest and Stream: I inadvert- 

 antly "made a mistake in the heading of my letter, the 

 first part of which was published in your issue of July 4. 

 It should have read "Trouting ontheBoardman," instead 

 of South Boardman.— Alex. Staebuck. Mr. Starbuck 

 writes that he is on the way to the north shore of Lake 

 Superior on a trouting expedition, and may at the same 

 time go to the famed^Nepigon for big trout. 



The revised and abridged edition of the A. O. U. Cheek List of 

 North American Birds, including the additions and changes made 

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