18 
FOREST AND STREAM January, 1920 
JAMES ALEXANDER HENSHALL 
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE APOSTLE OF THE BLACK BASS, 
FATHER OF THE GRAYLING AND DEAN OF AMERICAN ANGLERS 
I N THE preceding chapter I mentioned 
that the first and only black bass I had 
ever seen was one caught by a compan- 
ion in the Little Miami river, not far from 
Cincinnati, on the Fourth of July, 1855. 
It was a small-mouth bass weighing about 
one and one-half pounds. I was an eager 
and excited spectator of the contest which 
ended in the capture of the brave fish. 
Although my part in the affair was en- 
tirely impersonal, I learned enough to 
convince me that a fish so fully endowed 
with finesse, strength and determination, 
and so fertile in expedients, made it 
necessary for me to adopt an entirely dif- 
ferent plan of fishing from that to which 
I had been accustomed. 
I witnessed with unabated interest and 
delight the capture of another bass by 
my friend, seemingly its mate, when I 
concluded to try my luck farther up the 
stream, where it was wider, somewhat 
shallower and quite rocky. I hooked a 
minnow through the lips, as I was wont 
to do when trolling with menhaden for 
striped bass or bluefish. I waded out 
far enough to reach the current and 
threw in the bait, allowing it to float 
down-stream by stripping a few yards 
from the reel. When the minnow reached 
an eddy beside a large rock, directly 
below me, I worked it back and forth a 
few times, but met with no response. 
I reeled in the bait slowly for another 
cast and as it came within view I ob- 
served a fine fish following it, but seeing 
me he backed slowly down the stream. I 
paid no attention to him, but cast again, 
as well as I could with a click reel, far- 
ther out in the stream towards a log 
lodged against a flat rock. When the 
bait floated down the length of the line 
it swerved with the current to the rock 
first mentioned, and I began to reel it in 
very leisurely. Again I saw the bass fol- 
lowing it, but seeing me he desisted as be- 
fore. I cast again toward the flat rock, 
and when the minnow floated to the end 
of its tether I began reeling as rapidly 
as I could when the bass, not to be foiled 
again, made a vicious lunge and seized 
the bait. 
Then followed a battle that I will never 
forget, so vividly was it impressed on my 
senses. The bass lunged forward to- 
ward his rock but I checked him when 
within a foot of it, whereupon he bounded 
into the air twice in quick succession, 
then headed for the flat rock in mid- 
stream, giving a series of short, savage 
jerks on. the line. In response I gave 
a little line when he began to cross and 
recross the current, the line cutting 
through the water like mad. Suddenly 
he sprang out again and threw himself 
across the taut line, when I involuntarily 
lowered the tip of the rod. This was a 
new experience for me. I then discov- 
ered that I had a fish to deal with that 
was capable of no end of original and ef- 
NINTH PAPER 
fective fighting maneuvers that kept me 
guessing as to what he would do next. 
His quick rushes and sudden twistings 
and turnings reminded me of the brook 
trout of the Pennsylvania hills; but his 
frantic leaps and violent shaking and 
whirling of his strong body in mid-air, 
with wide open mouth and the rotatory 
play of his powerful tail were character- 
istic, unique and unequalled. 
Salt water fishes that inhabit deep or 
open water know of no enemies but other 
and larger fish. Unlike fresh water 
fishes they have no lair, or shelter of 
rocks, weeds or hollow banks or other 
places of refuge in case of trouble. 
Striped bass, bluefish or weakfish live 
entirely in the open, and when hooked 
know of no means of escape but a brave, 
A likely spot for bass 
valiant and determined resistance to 
capture by boring toward the depths, or 
by pulling against the rod unceasingly, 
or by jerking or twisting, using, mean- 
while, all their strength in the effort; 
but otherwise exhibit no finesse or in- 
telligence. 
On the other hand, fresh water game- 
fishes live in comparatively shallow wat- 
er, are exposed to more vicissitudes and 
changes of conditions and environment 
than .salt water fishes, and have more 
enemies to contend with ; consequently 
they require more intelligence, and are 
constantly on the lookout for danger. 
They have their haunts or places of 
refuge which they hold by right of con- 
quest, and to which they retire when 
trouble is apparent. When hooked, 
however, if they cannot reach their 
own lair, they endeavor to hide in any 
convenient patch of weeds, or to gain 
the shelter of rocks, submerged roots 
or other objects within sight or reach 
where they may hide, or peradventure 
foul or break line or hook. Their knowl- 
edge of the advantages of these various 
objects in the stream adds to their re- 
sourcefulness and intelligence in elud- 
ing capture. 
After our mid-day luncheon, and when 
enjoying our post-prandial pipes, we 
talked of fish and fishing, but more es- 
pecially of the gameness of the black 
bass. My companion, being a reader of 
the old classics, compared his fierce and 
intrepid battling to that of Horatius at 
the bridge. Now the comparison was 
not so far-fetched as it might seem, es- 
pecially in a poetical sense. It was not 
altogether unnatural or unreasonable, 
inasmuch as a black bass may be com- 
parable in fighting ability and endur- 
ance, in some circumstances, even with 
such a world-renowned hero as Hora- 
tius Codes. 
Some twenty years ago, in Tampa, 
Florida, at an exhibition of aquatic 
sports at the Natatorium, in the pres- 
ence of five hundred spectators, I con- 
quered the professor of swimming. Cap- 
tain LaPenotiere, on an eight-ounce rod 
and “G” line tied to a collar around his 
neck. With a lead of one hundred feet, 
the length of the pool, I brought him to 
gaff in ten minutes. He was so ex- 
hausted and fatigued that he had to 
be helped from the pool. 
On the preceding evening at a re- 
hearsal I landed him in seven and a half 
minutes, but on the night of the per- 
formance I did not push him so hard, 
in order to give the audience more time 
to enjoy the novel spectacle. With the 
same rod and line it had sometimes tak- 
en me from ten to twelve minutes to 
land a black bass of two pounds. 1 
had never before fully realized the won- 
derful power exerted by the constantly 
maintained spring of a good rod. 
Now, if Horatius had possessed the 
prowess, valor and pugnacity of a two- 
pound black bass, increased and multi- 
plied in due proportion to his own size 
and weight, he might have kept the 
bridge alone! And by the same token, 
and subject to the same condition of 
proportionate size and weight, Leonidas 
and his Spartan band might have stayed 
the tide of the Persian host at the hot 
gates of Thermopylae! 
D uring the following summer and 
autumn we fished several times on 
the same stream and also in the 
Big Miami, a somewhat larger stream, 
the dividing line between Ohio and In- 
diana. We were fishing one day on the 
Little Miami, near Fort Ancient, and 
were having fine sport, inasmuch as 
I had become more familiar with the bat- 
tling propensities and proclivities of the 
black bass. The stream was quite 
rocky at this point, which gave a 
hooked bass some advantage by enabl- 
ing him to foul the line and perhaps as- 
sisting in his escape. 
Just above us an elderly gentleman 
was also fishing who seemed to be quite 
an adept in the art. He was using a 
cane rod slightly longer than my home- 
made cedar rod of eight feet. I had 
