92 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Fish Chat. 
A Grand Game Fish. 
Although there still remains much to be learned re- 
garding the habits of that magnificent game fish, the 
striped" bass, it is unquestionably the greatest favorite 
among salt-water anglers of all the species found on the 
Atlantic Coast. It may lack in a measure, the great popu- 
larity of the squeteague, or weakfish, as it is called by 
many anglers, but with those who delight in battling with 
a fish that possesses the greatest strength and activity, the 
bass will hold its own against all comers. Genio C. Scott, 
in his "Fishing in American Waters," in treating of this 
species, truly says : 
"Nearly every American angler of a tidal river regards 
the striped bass as the fish of fish par excellence to be 
singled for. * * * It is great game when weighing any- 
where from ten to thirty pounds. In muscular power 
the bass equals the salmon, but it lacks the caudal power 
for leaping which is so palpable in the form of the sal- 
mon back of its adipose fin, including the crescent- 
shaped tail." 
In its distribution it ranges from Georgia northward 
all along the Atlantic Coast as far east as northern 
points of Nova Scotia, and in many localities of the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence it is more or less abundant, the Mira- 
michi River, which empties into the Baie des Chaleurs, 
being, so far as I know, its western limit on that shore, 
the fish entering that river in great numbers in the 
autumn and remaining there until the following spring. 
From New Jersey southward it is popularly known as 
the "rock fish," but elsewhere it is recognized by its 
proper title, the striped sea bass. 
Characteristics of the Bass. 
And what a beauty it is ! Its sides covered with silvery 
sheen, through which its stripes of black appear like the 
warp of a beautiful fabric, the woof of which is yet to be 
woven; the brilliancy of its colors, which is at its height 
when the fish is in full activity in its ocean home, is 
dimmed very considerably after it has entered the fresh • 
or brackish water of rivers and ponds, and it also loses 
a share of the gaminess it possesses in its marine home. 
Scientific Angling. 
The perfection of bass angling, is attained only by the 
angler who, by reason of long experience and practice, 
is enabled with rod and reel to cast his menhaden-baited 
hook from his standing place upon the surf-beaten cliffs 
or rocky shore afar into the ever throbbing waves. 
My experience with this glorious fish has been varied, 
and has been acquired in many localities, and as I recall 
the incidents of more than one hard fought battle, my 
fingers involuntarily clutch at rod and reel, and I can 
in fancy behold the beautiful silvery sides of a vigorous 
fish that has taken my lure and is darting with almost 
electric speed through the briny deep. There is no other 
angling that compares with it so far as fierce and strenu- 
ous resistance from the fish is concerned, except, possi- 
bly, that which is enjoyed in the great rivers by the 
salmon fishermen; between the methods of angling for 
these two fish there is hardly any comparison, for the 
conditions under which they are pursued are diametrical- 
ly opposite. 
Salmon vs. Bass Anglicg. 
The salmon rivers are almost always picturesque, and 
their forest-covered shores from which come the songs 
of birds and the perfume of thousands of fragrant wild 
flowers, appeal to all there is of the aesthetic in the 
nature of the angler, the ever-varying mood of the water, 
from the dashing, foaming rapids to the comparative 
tranquillity of the deep, broad pools, also add their 
charms, and it is all these, together with the peculiar 
characteristics of the fish, which make salmon angling 
one of the most royal of sports. 
The angler for striped bass casts his lure amid differ- 
ent surroundings; the vigorous sea breezes full of life- 
giving ozone wafts to his ears no songs of bird; he hears 
only the roaring of the tumultuous surf, and sees noth- 
ing before him but a broad expanse of ever restless 
water. I am referring only to those anglers who follow 
the bass in the most approved methods, still-fishing from 
boats being different in every way. It is true that the 
latter practice is very popular, perhaps more so than 
is the other, but the fish average much smaller in size, 
and consequently do not furnish anything like as grand 
sport. ■ ■ 
It is very true that a two or three-pound bass on light 
tackle gives good play, and when the fish are biting freely 
they furnish an exhilarating recreation that often be- 
comes quite exciting; but think of what a battle a 
twenty-pounder puts up! His strength is something 
wonderful, and his stubbornness and endurance are al- 
most beyond compare; his long and rapid, runs are ex- 
celled by those of no other fish, and had he the salta- 
tory powers possessed by the salmon, he would unques- 
tionably be crowned, the king of American game fish, 
My fortune has never been so beneficent as to permit 
me to take one of these that exceeded thirty pounds in 
weight, and I have often envied those anglers who can 
boast of their forty and fifty-pound bass ; those must 
have given a battle royal, indeed; but what would the 
struggle be with a hundred-pound fish, such as is spoken 
of in Mr. Scott's book on angling? 
An Exciting Contest, 
As I recall the incidents of many a hard fought con- 
test, the recollection of an encounter I once had with 
an eighteen-pound fish comes back to memory most 
vividly, and it seems to me now. it was among the 
proudest achievements ever vouchsafed me with rod and 
reel. I was fishing for tautog at Eastern Point, Glouces- 
ter, Mass., that bold and rocky cliff upon which the surf 
dashes, oftentimes with a roar like thunder. My tackle 
was not well adapted to the capture of so large a fish, 
and I have often wondered at my success in saving him. 
My rod was a pretty stiff bait rod, such as I often used 
in tautog fishing, which at that time was very satisfac- 
tory at that place; it was of good lancewood throughout; 
fortunately for me, this was many years ago before the 
split bamboo came into general use, but I would not dare 
to pit it against an eighteen-pound bass nowadays. 
Luckily I had my salmon reel and a hundred yards of 
line, or I could never have withstood the fierce runs my 
fish made before he was conquered. My bait was a small 
crab, such as is usually used in tautog fishing, and I 
had given it a long cast out beyond the dashing surf. As 
I was withdrawing it, I felt a strong tug_ at my line 
quite different from the bite of a tautog, which, no mat- 
ter how large the fish may be, is at first rather perfunc- 
tory. By tautog I mean that species taken off Staten 
Island, Long Island, and in the Sound, commonly called 
the blackfish, and when the first dash was made, as I 
struck the hook well home, I saw at once that I was fast 
to one of my old favorites, and a good one at that. 
For a good half hour I literally had my hands full with 
that fish, for the rod was not heavy enough to permit me 
to check him very severely in his wild runs, and I was 
so unfortunate as to have only a small shelf on the rock 
to stand on, upon which the wild surf, that increased in 
volume with the strong breeze that was blowing, dashed 
with such force as to throw the spray completely over 
me in drenching showers. The runs that fish was able to 
make were wild ones, indeed, and they caused my old 
salmon reel to sing vociferously. Down deep in the 
water he ranged far and wide, and had he leaped above 
the surface, as would a salmon, the excitement of the 
struggle would have been greatly increased; for I hold 
that it is the leaping fish which furnishes the most ex- 
citing sport, and many of. my brother anglers will no 
doubt agree with me that if the salmon, grilse, oua- 
naniche, or other landlocked species of salmonidse, 
always fought doggedly below the surface of the water, a 
large share of the sport that is derived from their pur- 
suit would be lost: 
Leaping Fish give the best Sport. 
This view of the matter I expressed to a gentleman in 
New York a few weeks ago, who is probably one of the 
most expert and experienced striped bass anglers _ in 
America, and he agreed with me, practically declaring 
that the greatest sport was to be had with the barracuda, 
a salt-water species that attains a weight of twenty or 
thirty pounds or more, and which, notwithstanding that 
size/leaps so frequently after it has taken -the hook that 
it seems to be out of the water fully as much as it is be- 
neath the surface. I never had any experience with that 
fish whatever; in fact, I do not remember ever having 
seen it. My bass was a very strong, vigorous fish, and 
I soon became convinced that, providing the hook held, 
my only chance for success in landing him would come 
solely after a protracted struggle, and protracted it was, 
indeed ; the minutes seemed to lengthen into hours before 
he relaxed his efforts and slowly came to the surface, 
where, after a few faltering struggles, he remained upon 
his side, offering but a feeble resistance to my efforts to 
reel in my line. At that moment the question came to 
my mind how I was to land him, for I was alone, and 
my landing net, even if I could use it and handle him, 
too, would not be large enough to encircle him; there 
was nobody in sight or hearing, but I wanted to save 
that fish if I possibly could; and so clambering along 
the rock in the midst of the drenching surf, I led my 
captive gently and cautiously, keeping him away from 
the rock weed which grew abundantly from those ledges, 
until I reached a depression or basin whose edge was 
but a little above the waves, and into this, taking ad- 
vantage of a comber upon whose crest the captive lay, 
I dragged the bass ; but even then he nearly regained his 
freedom, for as he landed in the shallow basin the hook 
sprang from his mouth, and to save him I was forced 
to throw myself upon him bodily, and seizing him by the 
gills, I held him securely until he was conquered. Ah, 
what a beauty he was, and what a monster he seemed be- 
side the pair of three-pound tautog I had taken a 
short time before ! 
Baits and Methods of Using Them. 
Now, to cast the bait with rod and reel requires no 
small degree of patience; it is not in every hour of the 
day that big bass are to be found, and the angler is 
sometimes forced to cast his lure throughout a whole 
tide before it is accepted, and not only thisy most of 
the good localities from which such casting can be made 
are pretty generally preempted by such clubs as the 
Cuttyhunk, etc., with whom bass angling has become 
what might be termed a fine art. The general angler, 
therefore, is obliged to pursue his sport from a boat, and, 
fortunately for him, there are very many localities where 
success may be had. 
On more than one occasion I have enjoyed in a very 
high degree the exhilarating sport that I obtained in 
trolling for bass with squid, artificial minnows, and even 
a spinning spoon. It is almost always a free biting fish, 
and takes the bait with considerable vigor as it moves 
through the water behind a yacht or sailboat. While it 
is not as fierce a fighter as the bluefish, when it is 
hooked on the troll it gives very lively play, and if the 
fish are reasonably abundant, two or three rods in the 
boat — and I greatly prefer the use of the rod to the 
hand-line — will be kept pretty busily employed. 
I have also had no little sport in still-fishing from a 
boat that was anchored in a tideway or over a reef or 
near a rocky shore, the bait used being a piece of lobster 
or shedder crab, a small sand eel, and when smaller fish 
were running, shrimp or minnow bait proved very 
successful. But although these methods creeled the 
largest number of fish, they averaged rather small in size, 
and were not much more gamy than the squeteague, 
even if they did display as much vigor as that fish usually 
shows. And not only that, my preference has always 
been for the use of the rod and reel in casting; sdll-bait- 
fishing being, as a general thing, rather pottering and 
tedious sport. It is true, there are hundreds who enj,oy : 
it, and many of them, perhaps, would not care to do ,so 
even if they had the opportunity to cast from surf-beafen 
shores; they would not enjoy a sport which entails a 
very considerable amount of hard work. 
More than once have I been on the rocks casting, hour 
after hour, without obtaining a single fish, and whole 
days even have sometimes been blank ; but when a good 
fish was struck and successfully played and landed, I felt 
very much more than repaid for the labor I had 
expended. 
In Fresh Water. 
The striped bass, unlike the bluefish, squeteague, and a 
number of other marine species, leave the salt water for 
brackish estuaries of rivers, even ascending the latter" 
sometimes for a considerable distance to lakes or ponds 
where they spawn and pass the winter in a state of semi- 
hibernation; there are many localities on the coast where 
the bass have entered the fresh water and taken up per- 
manent homes in them ; but after they have become thus 
domiciled, they lose much of their beautiful metallic 
lustre, and the gaminess which they display in their 
ocean homes. 
I have a friend who has taken with rod and line a con- 
siderable number of these fish in fresh water, using 
smelts or minnows for bait, and he declares that they 
are sluggish in the highest degree, being not nearly as 
strong and lively as an ordinary codfish, as he ex- 
pressed it. 
While ordinarily they leave the fresh water in the 
spring and return to the ocean, they are obliged, in some 
instances, by the action of the elements, to remain dur- ; 
ing the entire summer and ensuing fall and winter away 
from their natural hatitats. 
At Little Harbor, which is ten or twelve miles distant 
from the quaint little town of Lockeport, Nova Scotia—' 
which town I would say for the benefit of visiting anglers, 
is reached by steamer from Boston to Yarmouth, rail) 
from Yarmouth to Barrington, and thence by stage 
through Shelbourne and a very picturesque country to 
Lockeport— is a lake two or three miles in length, and 
about a mile or more in breadth; its water is brackish, 
owing to its very near proximity to the sea. Between, 
this lake and the harbor there is annually cast up in the 
spring by the high tides a barrier of sand, which very \ 
often effectually dams the water of the lake. During the j 
fierce storms of autumn, the tide beats with resistless! 
force upon this barrier, sweeping it away, so that the 
bass have free ingress to the quiet waters within, and 
they take advantage of this opportunity, entering the- 
peaceful haven in very great numbers and remaining 
there through the. winter. In . the early spring the tides 
again throw up another barrier which remains through- 
out the summer unless the water in the lake by reason 
of heavy freshets rises high enough to force an opening 
through the sandbar. Through this opening a river of] 
considerable size carries the water into the bay, and by 
means of this channel the bass escape; few, if any,' r&4 
maining in the lake during the summer. 
Landlocked Bass. | 
But if the water in the lake is not high enough in thd 
spring to break through the sandy dam, the fish remain 
