490 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 18 1897 
m mid ^iv^r f^isf(ing. 
Books for Holiday Gifts. 
The Forest and Stream Publishing Co. invites attention to its list of 
works on outdoor life and sport as including many books which are 
admirably adapted to be given as Christmas or New Year's gifts. 
Mather's ' Men I Have Fished With," Whitehead's "Camp-Fires o£ 
the Everglades," Robinson's Banvis books, GrinneU's Indian books 
the Boone and Crockett Club's series, Kunhardt's "Small Yachts," 
and the ' Supplement" to it — these are some of the volumes which 
are in subject and examples of floe book making certain to be valued 
The list is given on another page. Orders should be sent in such, sea- 
son that I hey may he filled in lime for the holidays. 
POTOMAC BASS. 
Washington, D. C. — ^If one takes occasion to interview 
Washington anglers he will be surprised to find how many 
are inclined to the opinion that the Bmall-mouth bass of 
the Upper Potomac are decreasing to an alarming extent. 
The good work of the protective association in saving 
the bass in the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal last winter and 
returning them to the river, it was expected, would have 
some appreciably beneficial efiect upon the season's fish- 
ing. Then the new close law of last year, it was confi- 
dently hoped, would help the spring spawning and much 
increase the catch. To cap all, came the long- continued 
floods, which kept the river for months like milk choco- 
late, and spring and summer passed with never a day when 
the water was clear enough to cast a fiy, and "but few hours 
when it was fair bait fishing. As autumn approached and 
under the drought the river fell and cleared, we were all 
sure that records would be broken and that all who cared 
for it would get wonderful fishing, whether with bob or 
spoon or fly. 
Alas! The low water brought only disappointment. As 
a sample, two well-known clubmen, who claim they never 
had a water haul in any previous season, went twice to the 
Seneca Breaks and found nothing. On their last trip, in 
four days, with the water just as they wanted it, they took 
only one small bass. These two particular anglers are 
convinced the small-mouth bass of the Upper Potomac are 
gone. 
Of course some fish were caught up river, and individu- 
als at one or two localities had good days, ljut taken alto- 
gether all will admit the season was far from satisfactory 
, and far below the average of former years. 
Naturally the first solution of the difficulty which sug- 
gests itself is that the pollution of the Potomac waters, 
constantly increasing, has killed or driven away the bass. 
In line with this theory was an interesting paper by 
Prof. Davis, hydrographer'of the U. S. Geological Survey, 
read before the National Geographic Society Nov. 19. 
The subject under discussion was such pollution as led 
to disease in Washington's water supply, but incidentally 
the tanneries, pulp mills and paper raills along the banks 
of the river were shown and commented on; a single one 
near Cumberland was said to be turning daily into the 
stream 100,000 gallons of refuse, strong with sulphuric, 
tannic and other acids. To point the moral, a slide was ex- 
hibited showing boys in a boat picking up dead fish in 
the nearby waters. 
There can be little question that much is done in this 
way to the injury of the Potomac as a fish preserve, fatal 
not only to the fish themselves, but, what is nearly as im- 
portant, to their food supplies. 
History repeats itself, and it is odd to read that a quarter 
of a century ago the same trouble of the disappearance of 
the bass was exercising the anglers here and along the 
river, and that the Fish Commission, then commenting on 
their scarcity, said: 
"It must be remembered too that, however rapidly cer- 
tain fish, especially the black bass, multiply in new waters, 
there is a limitation to their increase, as shown by the ex- 
perience of the Potomac River. This fish was introduced 
into this stream in 1854. * * * Not many years after 
the young fish began to distribute themselves in numbers, 
and in time the entire river became stocked with the new 
game. Starting at the headwaters of the river, the bass 
found immense numbers of cyprinidse, such as chubs, 
minnows, suckers, etc., as also of crawfish, insect larvae 
and the like, which had been previously for the greater 
part undisturbed, except perhaps by the pickerel, and 
having an ample supply of food, in accordance with the 
theory of natural selection, they multiplied to a prodigious 
extent. Year by year they extended their limits toward 
the mouth of the Potomac, until at the present time they 
are found in great abundance near Washington and form 
a very attractive object of sport. • 
"I am, however, informed by residents on the Upper 
Potomac and its tributaries, that the bass are becoming 
scarce and that their numbers are much less than a few 
years ago, while as a concomitant the immense schools of 
smaller fry, formerly so abundunt, have disappeared, a 
minnow now in some localities being a rare sight. This is 
a very natural consequence and must produce its result. 
In the increasing scarcity of herbivorous fish the bass will 
be driven to feed more and more upon each other, and 
after a time a certain average will be established, perhaps 
the same as that existing in the waters of the Mississippi 
Valley and elsewhere, where, although indigenous, they 
are in proportion fewer than in the Potomac Eiver." 
This might have been written of conditions to-day. 
However, it does not necessarily follow that a decreased 
string means fewer fish in the river; on the contrary, the 
less taken out, the more ought to be left. 
In a recent English volume called "Angling Holidays," 
and very pleasant reading it is, the author, Mr. Gedney 
says of his last day on one of his favorite streams, the 
Darenth: "There have been times in which my vale- 
dictory notes on the closing season have been written 
with a sense of self-satisfaction and a consciousness that 
the depleted river deserved a rest; but no such feelings 
animate me at the present moment, for the season just 
closed has been the worst I have known in the past 
twenty-five years, notwithstanding that the stock of trout 
in the river was never so great as it is at the present time." 
Let us hope then that our case is not so bad; that the 
bass are not dead but sleeping; that they are still here,, 
and that with again saving those in the canal, and observ- 
ing another close season in the early spring, another year 
may bring us the old-time strings, No doubt something 
of the trouble with September fishing was due to the 
quantities of slime and fungus which filled the long 
reaches where the currents were sluggish, as a result of 
the low water and extended drought, which, if they did 
not destroy or run the fish away or sicken them, did in- 
terfere with their feeding and capture, and may have had 
something to do with the unwonted number of bass which 
made their appearance lower down and opposite Wash- 
ington. 
Unusual quantities of fine bass were taken in the Mon- 
ument Pool and at Long Bridge, and into November there 
were_ fishermen every day at both places. 
_ Coincident with the decrease of the small-mouth bass 
m the Upper Potomac was the almost miraculous plenty 
of the large-mouth bass in the tributaries of the Lower 
Potomac, way down to brackish water. 
_ They were seen in schools of hundreds, and here their 
increase and growth is not a question of food, for the tide 
waters will always be full, but rather a question of per- 
mitting them to grow. The creeks are even now being 
seined and stake nets are set, and nearly every morning 
may be found in the markets bass so small that their 
destruction becomes a crime, when it is considered that 
we spend more of the people's money annually to propa- 
gate and distribute food fish than all of heavily taxed 
Europe together does for the same purpose; and a jolly 
good job we make of it too, for our methods have been so 
improved for this culture on a gigantic scale that we beat 
the world in results. It is not wasted except what these 
poachers waste who destroy the little ones. 
Thousands of pounds of bass weighing but a few ounces 
each have been sold in the markets here this year at from 
2 to 4 cents a pound. (I am quoting one of the largest 
dealers, who denounces a trade in which he engages 
against his will.) If this destruction could be prevented 
it would make all the difl'erence between bad fishing and 
good in the waters thus robbed. 
And if nets are to be blamed for this slaughter of the 
innocents, what shall be said of men who call themselves 
anglers putting on their strings and carrying awav bass of 
6m. in length? 
Thomson in his ode to spring long ago said: 
"J.f yet too young and easily deceived, 
A worthless prey pcarce bends your pliant rod, 
Him, piteous of his youth and the short space 
He has enjoyed the vital light of heaven. 
Soft disengage and back into the stream 
The speckled infant throw." 
Of these pot-fishers it is some comfort to know that be- 
fore the season was over some of them were shamed into 
hiding their catches in their minnow buckets, where they 
belonged, and apologizing for them when detected. They 
were not to be envied, when even the small boys gibed at 
their strings of "speckled infants." 
I have neard it said that in a woman's letter the kernel 
is in the postscrfpt, and so with this paper. What I par- 
ticularly desire to urge is that in securing further supplies 
of stockfish for the Upper Potomac, especial attention shall 
be paid to getting large-mouth bass and crappies. The lat- 
ter make excellent sport, at times even with the fly, and 
are withal the best pan fish in the world. They multiply 
like rabbits and will afford additional feed for the bass. 
Then the large-mouth bass can feed on the young carp 
long after the small-mouth bass must give them up, and 
the carp is one of the most important food supplies left in 
the river. Besides this, the large-mouth bass will take a 
fly earlier, oftener and later than his small-mouth cousin. 
Henky Talbott. 
WHAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT BASS 
FISHING. 
The sum total or aggregate of what I would like to 
know and don't know about bass fishing is simply im- 
mense, 
I have been trying for about twenty years, on and off, to 
find out the rules or laws which govern the feeding of the 
black bass of our fresh waters. If I ceuld ascertain just 
when, as to time or under what circumstances or conditions, 
they take their feed, 1 feel at least reasonably confident that I 
could make as big catches and as many of them 1 read about 
in the piscatorial journals of the day, or hear about, 
"When the day is done 
And yarns are spun. 
And the camp-flre burneth low." 
I have tried all times, all waters, all ways of hook-and- 
line fishing; have tried in all conditions of wind, weather 
and temperature, from 96° or over in the shade to one of 
those early autumn blizzards in which the snow goes straight 
across without stopping; and the sum total of the positive 
knowledge thus acquired, gathered together and added up, 
includes just two facts, neither of which is of much practi- 
cal importance, and both of which it will not take verv lone 
to tell ^ ^ 
Eirst. — As a general rule our fresh-water black bass wDl 
not bite at all during a thunderstorm or violent windstorm, 
nor for a somewhat variable and indeterminate time imme- 
diately before such a storm. A summer shower does not 
-seem to disturb them much, if at all; and a light breeze, 
sufficient to ruffle the surface of the water slightly, is usual- 
ly favorable to free biting. But when a violent storm is 
coming, fish, like most other animals, seem to have some 
way of their own of finding it out some hours in advance; 
and, like other animals, they are then apt to go for shelter; 
and with them the best shelter is deep water, or water so 
deep that it is disturbed but slightly, if at aU, by the wind. 
After a storm is over, if they are hungry, they seem to get 
back to their feeding grounds without much delay, and 
then the fishing is usually good : but if for any reason they 
are not in immediate want of food, they seem to come back 
Tery leisurely — that is, the next day, or the next week, or 
some other time — in f&ct, just when it pleases them. 
Now this fact as to the non-biting habits of the black 
bass pending or during a storm is of no pai'ticular value as 
regards catching fish. I cannot catch any more fish on ac- 
count of knowing the fact referred to. I have merely 
learned one time when I need not try; all other times remain 
as bsforc. 
Second — ^Another fact which I have learned is this: A black 
bass sometimes, and apparently when he is not hungry, will 
grab a minnoA^ bait across its body, squeeze or chaw the life 
■out of it and then spit it out, acting thus much as a cat does 
when killing a mouse which it does not want for food. Its 
natural animal vindictiveness (or cussedness) apparentlf 
leads it to kill everything killable (smaller than itself) which 
comes in its way. The fish is a wild animal, and seems to 
possess the leading instincts which belong to the brute crea- 
tion. Wild land animals frequently kill just for the sake of 
killing, even when not hungry. And both the cat and doe, 
though domesticated from the earliest periods of recorded 
human history, still retain this disposition to kill as an in- 
heritance of their wild ancestors of several thousand years 
ago. 
Now this second fact is not of much more practical impor- 
tance than the other. It does not help one iota in catching 
fish. I merely learn from it one reason why at times I can't 
catch fish— not how I can. And it may be proper to add 
right here that no man really knows what "disappointment is, 
until he has had his choice minnows chawed up by the black 
bass when they are in this killing mood. 
But it sometimes happens that a bass in thus chawing and 
killing a minnow bait will— perhaps accidentally— get the 
minnow's head in his mouth, and if the minnow is hooked 
through the lipSthe bass is then liable to be hooked accident- 
ally. And if there is any fun to be had at all in bass fishing, 
it is apt to begin just then. 
Now these two facts are absolutely all that I feel reason- 
ably sure that I know about bass fishing— that is to say, I 
have found out that there is one time or condition of things 
when or during which, as a general rule, the black bass of 
our fresh waters will not take either fly or bait. And I have 
also found out that such fish are sometimes hooked acci- 
dentally as the result of monkeying with a bait they do not 
want. But as to all other times, circumstances, conditions 
and surroundings, my ignorance of the laws or rules which 
govern the biting of the black bass is dense in degree and 
colossal in magnitude. 
Nor is my ignorance due to any failure on my own part to 
try. 1 have tried all the rules which I have been able to find 
in fishing books and in the fishing journals of the day, and 
besides these I have gotten up a few of my own; but I have 
never yet found any which, as a guide either as to time when 
fish would bite, or as to the conditions of wind, weather or 
water m which free biting could confidently be expected, 
were worth three smells at the dried-up cork of an empty 
bait bottle of last year's vintage. 
In the early days of my inexperience I read sundry articles 
written by men who claimed to be post-graduates, as it were, 
in the science of angling, wherein early fishing was ad* 
vocated before breakfast — from 4 to 8 A. M., while lazy 
folks were asleep, while air and water were cool and fresh 
and balmy, and while nature was in her pristine purity and 
beauty (whatever that may mean); that this was the feeding 
time of our fresh-water game fish ; that along about daylight 
they would climb over each other in their efforts to make 
counection with an enameled, waterproof silk line depend- 
ing from a 7oz. split-bamboo rod ; that early in the forenoon 
they usually quit feeding, and of course would quit biting ; 
that during the middle of the day they were off in their hid- 
ing places or lairs— asleep, I suppose, or repenting of their 
sins, or perhaps studying up some devilment for the next 
day. One writer said that after 8 A. M. one might as well 
fish in a garden 
Another writer said that during the time of full moon fish 
feed largely at night, and that then— that is, by moonlight 
— is the time when big catches can be had ; and a lot more 
"tommy-rot" of the same kind. 
Following these and sundry other Hke solemn directions, 
which seemed to come from experienced anglers (though, as I 
now think, more experienced with the pen than with the hook), 
I tried to reduce fishing to an exact science. I found that one 
might as well try to teach Blackslone to a bumble-bee. In 
different waters and at different times I tried early fishing 
and late fishing. I fished by night in the light of the full 
moon, and tried fly-casting when it was too dark to dis- 
tinguish between a first-class fish yarn and an act of Con- 
gress; I spoiled my temper (what there was of it) and spoiled 
many a delightful dream by allowing myself to be wakened 
at 4 A. M. to go fishing, I all but paralyzed a healthy 
stomach, and got my head into the miserable habit of ach- 
ing, simply by doing without breakfast for four or five long, 
mortal hours, in order to take advantage of the alleged early 
feeding habits of the fi-h. I have also^fished all day, and at 
all hours of the day (Sundays excepted). I have fished in 
every variety of atmosphere and wind known north of the 
Ohio River and west of the Alleghenies to the Mississippi, and 
have tested a pretty large percentage of the waters within 
those boundaries, as well as some outside. 
And what is the net result? Or, as Holy Writ puts it, 
"Let us hear the cocclusion of the whole matter." 
It is briefly this: "The way of a man with a maid," which 
so puzzled the wisdom of King Solomon, is "dead easy" as 
compared with the way of a fish with a bait. 
1 have had equally good and equally bad catches at all 
hours from 4 A. M. to 10 P. M., and the distribution of good! 
and bad luck, or no luck at all, along during these hours, 
has been practically so nearly uniform that 1 actually arm 
unable to name one time of the day as materially better than 
any other time. And as regards the direction of the wind, 
whether north, south, east or west, or somewhere along be- 
tween these points, given a lee shore and equally good fish- 
ing waters, I h^vve found one wind to be as good (or as bad) 
as another. About the only wind that I especially dislike is 
a head wind, when the line is reeled up and the bow of the 
boat points homeward at the end of the day. At that time 
a head wind is positively harmful. 
To a man up a tree it would seem that fish, like other ani- 
mals, might reasonably be expected to bite when they are 
hungry. I thought so once, but while it may be true, I 
really am not at all sure of it. But if so, when are they 
hungry? That is the question, and not being able to answer 
that question, my piscatorial intellect up to the present 
time is nothing but "a waste, howling wilderness." 
A few years ago, when fishing in the St. Lawrence near 
Clayton, I found that the bass were at least moderately 
plenty, as we could see them quite frequently. The spawn- 
ing season was over and natural food was plenty. My oars- 
man and I fished faithfully all forenoon in what appeared to 
be the best waters and under what are regarded as favorable 
conditions, and caught one — just one — black bass, no more. 
We naturally attributed our poor luck to the fact that in the 
abundance of natural food the bass were already gorged, 
and not hungry; but on cutting open the fish we caught, 
preparatory to eating him for diuner, we found that his 
stomaeh was absolutely empty. Though natural food was 
abundant, he hadn't eaten anything for probably twenty- 
four hours. Why ? I don't know. 1 give it up, and meekly 
take my place at the foot of the class. 
Such incidents as this are not at all rare, and I mention 
this particular one simply because I happen to remember 
time and place, and the facts as I have narrated them, with 
rather more than the usual clearness. 
