July, 1922 
FOREST AND STREAM 
^93 
THE CHIEF OF THE TRIBE OF BASS 
MASTER OF A HUNDRED TRICKS AND A STUBBORN FIGHTER THE 
SMALL -MOUTH KEEPS THE ANGLER CONTINUALLY GUESSING 
T he small-mouth bass is certainly 
one of the most distinctive fishes 
inhabiting North American wa- 
ters, and it is probably not exag- 
gerating to say that it is the gamest fish 
that we have to contend with when we go 
out with rod and lure. This is not to 
forget the rip and tear through the water 
of the rainbow trout, nor is it meant to 
disparage any other fish ; but surely when 
Henshall classed the bass as “inch for 
inch and pound for pound the gamest 
fish that swims” he was thinking of the 
small-mouth, for in this respect the fish 
in question commands wide respect and 
some anglers place it at the head of the 
list — the finest one of the lot. 
Those who are powerful exponents of 
the fighting ability of the large-mouth 
bass cannot see where the small-mouth 
leads as a battler, contending that two 
specimens of these fishes, the same weight 
and the same length, out of the same 
water, will uniformly give about the same 
showing and one will be no easier to land 
than the other. There was a time when 
I held the same view, but later experi- 
ences — the catching of these two species 
in the same water gave me a chance to 
compare the merits of each under some 
rather exciting conditions. I would 
frankly say that the small-mouth is easily 
the winner. 
When a long drawn-out contest is 
looked for, with a stubbornly prolonged 
struggle — when you want a fish that will 
use a hundred tricks and keep you guess- 
ing all of the time — and when you are not 
certain you have got the fish even when 
you have him in the boat — then the palm 
goes to Micro pterus dolomieu, the high 
potentate of the sunfish family. 
He can seize a fly in a twinkling and 
unless your wrist is educated to the set- 
ting of the barb he will spit it out and go 
back to pulling out crabs from under the 
rocks ; but if he is well-hooked he will 
come forth time and again, bending the 
rod to an arc ; now diving to the bottom 
to stand on end and whack at the leader 
By ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN 
ISHERMEN will welcome this 
frank discussion of the relative 
merits of the large and small-mouth 
bass. Mr. Lincoln has fished e.rten- 
sively for both in the finest bass ivat- 
ers of the country, and his conclusions 
are eminently sound . — [Editors.] 
with his tail; now boring again to the 
surface and breaking through the water 
like a bolt. From the moment he is 
caught until he is netted there is the 
same force in him — he does not give up 
so easily ! 
■t 
Rapid water on the upper St. Croix 
Consider now the large-mouth. In all 
probability he will rise once— that being 
shortly after he is hooked. No doubt he 
will go higher into the air than the small- 
mouth, but he spends his strength fast. 
A small large-mouth of three pounds, or 
say two and one-half pounds, may last 
longer but very nearly always he comes 
in side up. Where he is found in cool, 
running water he may be equal to the 
small-mouth, but never in the lakes. 
There are times in the year, say at the 
beginning of the season, when the large- 
mouth is particularly spontaneous in his 
actions; but July and August dulls him 
considerably, and even September ; but 
October sees him again in trim. Com- 
pared with this, however, is the record of 
the small-mouth bass, with a creditable 
account of himself through all the fine 
weather from spring to freeze-up ! 
TN a recent consideration of the small- 
mouth bass I made the statement that 
I believed the maximum weight of the 
small-mouth is no more than four and 
one-half pounds — and in making that 
statement I was going not by hear- 
say but from specimens 1 have caught 
and others ha\e caught and weighed — 
and also from versions of the matter 
drawn from small-moutli fly-fishermen on 
the Upper Mississippi waters, like which 
there is hardly an equal. However, since 
my weight assertion was made I have 
had some letters and my set maximum 
weight has been made to seem very small 
indeed. It has been pointed out that 
many small-mouths exceeding five pounds 
and some up to nine pounds have been 
recorded in the columns of 1'orf.st and 
Stream ; and it is also said that a state 
fish and game commissioner of Michigan 
had one that weighed over nine pounds 
that was caught some ten or twelve years 
ago in a lake in Michigan on a live frog. 
Also an affidavit reached me telling of 
the exploit of Mr. Raymond \'an Camp 
of Indianapolis, Indiana, who caught a 
small-mouth bass in one of the smaller 
