April 30, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
347 
LAEGe-moUthed black bass (Microptertts sahnoides). 
SMALL-]MOUTHED BLACK BASS {Microptenis dobuieu). 
yOUN(3 OF SMALL-MOUTHRD BLACK ^ASSi 
speckled hen as names applied to one or both species. 
As railroads take anglers into all parts of the Union 
where fish are to be caught, these various local names 
will disappear, and the name of black bass for both spe- 
cies will take their places, because by that name the 
great body of anglers know them. Yet the fish are not 
black, nor anywhere near that color, but a name is a 
name, no matter how absurd. In parts of New York the 
provincial and non-progressive angler calls only one spe- 
cies "black bass" and the other he designates as "Os- 
wego bass," and this to a fish which has a greater range 
than its congener and is found from Canada to Florida! 
But as I always get hot under the collar when a man 
talks of "Oswego bass," which the boatmen on Green- 
wood Lake — partly in New York and partly in New 
Jersey — who call themselves "guides," have corrupted 
into "Swago." "Guides," forsooth, where one could not 
get lost under any conditions. 
Distribution and Habits. 
The range of the two species is nearly identical. The 
big-mouth covers the most territory, ranging further 
north and south than its brother. Jordan gives its range 
as: "Dakota to New York, south to Florida and Mex- 
ico, everywhere abundant, preferring lakes, bayous and 
sluggish waters." The same authority limits the small- 
mouth to: "St. Lawrence River to Dakota, Bouth to 
South Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas, preferring clear 
and running streams, hence less common South than 
the next species," meaning the big-mouth. My asser- 
tion that the b. m. ranges further north than Dakota 
rests on a statement made to me by an English angler 
whom I met while fishing in Louisiana some years ago, 
who was familiar with both species, and said that he had 
taken the b. m. in Lake Winnipeg, in Manitoba. If my 
informant was correct, then the b. m. should be found 
in Lake of the Woods and other waters flowing off to 
Hudson's Bay. I do not say that the fish is found in 
Manitoba, I tell it as 'twas told to me. * * * After 
this was written I took down Henshall's "More About 
the Black Bass," to see what he said, as he was not 
very definite about the range of species in his first work. 
He says, p. 41, "The geographical distribution of the 
black bass is remarkable for its extent; the original habi- 
tat of one or other of the two species ranging from 
Virginia to Florida and from Canada and the Red River 
of the North to Louisiana and east Mexico." As the 
Red River of the North flows into Lake Winnipeg, we 
may presume that the b. m. ranges as far as that system 
of waters does, until it meets the brine, for which the 
fish has no use. 
The two species are often found in the same waters, if 
the waters be a lake of some size. They are taken side 
by side in many lakes, but the b. m. is not fond of swift, 
clear rivers. 
There were no black bass in the Hudson River until 
the Erie Canal was built, some time in the 30s, and then 
they followed down and were locked through i"nto the 
river. We boys occasionally caught one, but they did 
not seem to become plenty, and it is a singular fact 
that they only breed freely in the lower fresh waters of 
that river, say about Kingston, which is something like 
fifty miles below where the bass came in at Albany and 
Troy. Neither species of black bass is frequent enough 
between the city of Hudson and the Troy daip, a dis- 
tance of nearly forty miles, to entice an angler to fish 
for them. Apparently there are spawning grounds and 
waters suitable for both' species, and there is food in 
plenty. The river is rich in eels and suckers, and unless 
these fish despoil the nests of the bass I cannot guess 
why they do not thrive between Hudson and Troy. The 
upper Hudson, from Troy to the rapids of North Creek, 
looks like good grazing and spawning for the s. m. bass, 
but they are not there in numbers. To a superficial ob- 
server, like myself, the contrast between the Hudson 
and the Potomac as bass streams is a puzzle. The con- 
ditions appear to be the same — but they must differ, 
somehow. It does not seem to be a difference of food 
nor temperature, and if not these conditions, what is it? 
The two species were not indigenous to the Potomac 
any more than they were to the Hudson. They were 
native to Carolinas, but not to waters further north on 
the Atlantic coast. 
The habits of the two species are much the same; they 
feed on the same kinds of food, and only dift'er in the 
fact that the big-mouth will thrive at both colder and 
warmer temperatures than his brother, and will also 
live where the water is quite brackish, which the s. m. 
will not. The s. m. prefers the clearer and cooler water 
of the heads of Southern streams, while the other fellow 
seems indifferent to temperature. The black bass of 
Florida and eastern Mexico are all of the b. m. species, 
and grow to a weight of i61bs. or more, while in the 
country north of Pennsylvania one of half that weight 
is a big one, no matter what may be the length of its jaw. 
Black bass spawn when the waters warm up, in New 
York from about May 10 to the middle of June, and 
earlier or later north and south. The law of New York 
allows them to be caught on May 30, when perhaps half 
of them have spawned; but as the fish guard their nests 
and young for at least a week after spawning, the date 
is too early. All attempts to fix a later time for opening 
the season have failed. Anglers have held off about 
as long as they can stand it; the trout season has been 
open for at least six weeks, and the trout are usually far 
off, while the bass are close at hand; May 30 is 'Me- 
morial Day and a State holiday. It was formerly called 
Decoration Day, and was set apart for the semi-religious 
purpose of placing flowers on the graves of Civil War 
veterans, and has been adopted in many States both 
North and South, hut as a holiday few observe it in the 
manner that it was intended to be, while the masses find 
that ball games, horse races, etc., are more to their taste, 
and the observant angler, noting all this perversion of 
the day, naturally asks: "Why can't I go a-fishing for 
black bass?" 
The question is a natural one. He has no particular 
interest in dead men who persist in remaining dead, 
and he sees others making merry on that day, and why 
may he not fish? He also sees that the black bass hold 
their own when they are given what I have shown to 
be half a chance, and why should he miss a hoHday, or 
why should he wait until July before he can wet his' line 
in the clear, cool waters of Champlain and other lakes 
and streams? 
These are questions that an angler asks. Personally 
I do not fish on Memorial Day. As a member of the 
G. A. R., there are duties to be performed in "God's 
Acre," and I am one of those who heartily applauded 
the Mayors of Bridgeport, Stratford and other cities in 
Connecticut for refusing circus licenses on that day — and 
I dearly love a circus; but while the racer races and the 
baseballer balls, surely the peaceful angler may angle 
without protest from any. When we can't make our 
neighbors think as we do, the next best thing is to com- 
promise. Puritanism, like all crankism, allowed no com- 
promise; but to-day we are more liberal. With these 
things in mind it seems best to let the black bass fish- 
ing open on May 30 in the State of New York, the 
main argument being that, having restrained their ardor 
until this date, you had better not try to pull the curb 
too hard, for if you do there will be a kicking over the 
traces, and there may be a demand for an earlier season 
from men who do not care whether there is a bass left 
when they have shown their string in the bar-room, but 
who have political "inflooence." 
It is a fact that in the New England States, which the 
late Prof, Louis Agassiz called a "Zoological Island," 
the s. m. bass has tlirived while its brother has been 
neglected because of an absurd prejudice which we will 
consider later, but will here say that I mean the preju- 
dice, which has become popular, of considering the big- 
mouth black bass to be an inferior fish. A man can 
only speak from his own knowledge, if he speaks author- 
itatively, but he may talk like a parrot. 
Parrot talk has hurt one of the best of American game 
fishes. It has denounced it as a "vulgarian" (see my 
sketch of "Virginia Men and Fishes" in Forest and 
Stream of March 12). The only men who have written 
of the two species of black bass, and who have not 
spoken slightingly of the game qualities of the big- 
mouth, that memory recalls are Dr. Henshall and myself. 
Dr. Henshall did more to bring the gamy qualities of 
the black basses to the notice of the angling world than 
all the American writers on fish put together. In his 
splendid volume, "Book of the Black Bass," he has 
reared a monument to these fishes and to himself, and 
when we read the last of his 460 pages the subject seemed 
to be perfectly covered; but under the title "More About 
the Black Bass" he gave us 200 pages more, and as full 
of interest as the former work. 
Before quoting from the Doctor on the comparative 
gameness of the two species I will say that he uses the 
term "large-mouth," which I never do, because it seems 
awkward, bookish, or is not, to me, so expressive as big- 
mouth, yet the word "large" is the antonym of "small," 
and a captious critic might say that if I use "big" I 
should also speak of the "little-mouth," but that seems 
awkward and not euphonious, and there is a heap in 
euphony, sometimes. 
In his first book, pp. 140, 141, he says: "Where the 
two species coexist in the same stream or lake, the large- 
mouthed bass always grows to a larger size than the 
other species, and an angler having just landed a 2lb. 
small-mouthed bass after a long struggle next hooks a 
large-mouthed bass weighing 4 or Slbs., and is surprised, 
probably, that it 'fights' no harder, or perhaps not so 
hard, as the smaller fish — in fact, seems 'lazy;' he there- 
fore reiterates the cry that the small-mouthed bass is the 
gamiest of fish. 
"But now, if he succeeds in hooking a large-mouthed 
bass of the same size as the first one caught, he is certain 
that he is playing a small-mouthed bass until it is landed, 
when to his astonishment it proves to be a large-mouthed 
bass; he merely says 'he fought well for one of his kind,' 
still basing his opinion of the fighting qualities of the two 
species upon the first two caught. 
"Perhaps his next catch may be a small-mouthed bass 
of 4lbs., and which, though twice the weight of the large- 
mouthed bass just landed, does not offer any greater re- 
sistance, and he sets it down in his mind as a large- 
mouthed bass; imagine the angler's surprise, then, upon 
taking it into the landing net, to find it a small-mouthed 
bass, and one which, from its large size and the angler's 
preconceived opinion of this species, should have fought 
like a Trojan. 
"NoAV, one would think that the angler would be 
somewhat staggered in his former belief; but no, he is 
equal to the occasion, and in compliance with the popu- 
lar idea, he merely suggests that 'he is out of condition, 
somehow,' or 'was hooked so as to drown him early in 
the struggle,' and so, as his largest fish will necessarily 
be big-mouthed, and because they do not fight in pro- 
portion to their size, they are set down as lacking iii 
game qualities — of course leaving the largest small- 
mouthed bass out of the calculation." 
There you have Dr. HenshaU's opinion, and I indorse 
it. Years ago I wrote that the fighting weight of a 
black bass is 2lbs., and it is true to-day. By this I 
mean that a 2lb. bass will often make the angler believe 
that he is over twice that wfeight, while a larger one will 
not put up as stiff an argument, certainly not in pro- 
portion to its avoirdupois. My own experience is that 
at 2lbs. weight the two species are equal in gameness. 
In the second paragraph quoted Henshall says, "still 
basing his opinion of the fighting qualities of the two 
species upon the first two caught." To this I would 
add: if not prejudiced by what others have said. There 
is an old adage about giving a dog a bad name, and 
another which says: "A lie will travel round the earth 
while Truth is pulling on his boots." These two say- 
ings fit the case. Men follow like sheep where one leads, 
and anglers are men, with few exceptions. The big- 
mouth has been so lied about by well-meaning anglers 
who would never lie about the size nor weight of a fish 
that an action for slander would lie. The Spanish have 
a sajdng that Inferno is paved with good intentions. T 
have paraphrased this by often saying that it is full of 
well-meaning people; who on earth can work more mis- 
chief? The well-meaning angler has heard some older 
one declare that the b. m. is lacking in game, and re- 
peats the slander partly to show his own knowledge and 
partly because it is easier to have opinions alread cut 
and dried for us than it is to work them out in an origi- 
nal manner. 
If — stick a pin in that "if'-^it can be proved that the 
big-mouth is not quite as gamj' as its brother, say only 
able to stay for a dozen rounds in a finish fight, to which 
I do not agree, then let me ask what other fresh-water 
fish, barring the trout, if you will, compares to him? 
Surely not the perch nor the pike, and all Europe has 
riot his equal among what they call "coarse fish," a term 
meaning all but the salmon tribe. 
