October, 1921 
FOREST AND 
STREAM 
447 
A view of the wing dams on the Mississippi River above Alma, Wisconsin 
turn to be floated to the mills. To ac- 
commodate them indentations were made 
into the banks running in from the river 
some distances in places. To-day they 
have lost their identity ; the original pur- 
pose for which they were meant has 
now been blotted out. But they are of 
great interest to the angler, for into 
these sloughs in the morning and in the 
dusk the small-mouths come to feed and 
there the fly-caster betakes himself to 
hook many a vigorous beauty that will 
imprint a lasting remembrance on his 
memory. 
In the Buffalo Slough region around 
Minneiska they turn up some of the 
very finest of the bass family. But the 
i mode of catching them and the lure 
used bear careful attention. Now if 
I you are fishing on the St. Croix you 
will find without fail that flies and spin- 
ners are used : that is to say a bass fly 
with a spinner on a regulation shaft 
up ahead of it and it seems to me that 
'they are perfectly fitted for the St. 
Croix waters. 
On the Mississippi, however, you will 
be surprised to find one lure predomi- 
nant: the floating bass bugs of various 
brands are the main reliance. So deeply 
has the Mississippi fly-fisher been stung 
by the cork bass “bug” that you will 
find him using no other. 
If you have not used them you will 
be able to recognize them by their cork 
bodies, about two inches in length, with 
some feather filaments on either side to 
act as wings. This fly when cast to the 
water and worked out from the shore 
no doubt gives the fish an impression 
that it is some frog, mouse or butterfly 
— you may extend the list of possibilities 
to suit yourself. 
By all means the time to use these 
flies to their best advantage is in the 
gathering dusk when the bass are 
‘‘combing” the shores and slough edges 
for food. Then, operating the boat 
silently some thirty feet from the shore, 
the bug is cast up to the very shore and 
with slight twitches to the rod-tip it is 
moved out. The hint of animation in 
this swimming process thus engendered 
is remarkable. I cannot see how a fish 
can refuse such a floating lure, and they 
don’t as a rule. That accounts for the 
great luck with it on the Mississippi 
waters. 
(At this writing the South Bend Com- 
pany is putting out my latest invention, 
a moth fly, which I believe will fill a 
long needed want. This moth, with a 
cork body, coming in various colors fills 
a niche among the lures that has been 
empty. It is the impression of one fly- 
fisherman that the bass take these large 
cork bugs to be the white and yellow 
butterflies and moths that are found hov- 
ering over the waters in such abundance 
at times in the summer. The moth flies 
are of their exact size and imitate them 
at every point.) 
I T sometimes seems as if the river 
was a victim of moods. You never 
know what to expect. There are times 
when conditions appear superb — but the 
fishing turns out the opposite. Then 
again on certain evenings the bass will 
be rising like mad and a catch is made 
in short order. 
I recall one evening especially that 
we spent on the Mississippi in the neigh- 
borhood of the famous Sand Shoot near 
Minneiska. We were camped above this 
shoot at the time and it was our inten- 
tion to fish up river, bucking the cur- 
rent, then to float down and refish the 
same passed-over area. 
The water in the river during the 
summer of 1920 was so high that we 
could row over the tops of the wing 
dams. One can comprehend what a 
swirl and swish the old river had to it. 
And imagine, too, what a contest it was 
to row against the current ! 
I was using a fly and spinner that 
evening — a Yellow Sally. 
What a magnetism there was about 
the old river, and especially so since 
we knew it contained one of the gamiest 
fish known to our waters! We could 
not tell but that at any moment we 
might run into a record-breaker. 
Up-current then — with eyes riveted 
on the shore waters. There are stones 
in the water, sunken, inshore. Around 
these the bass are hovering, pulling 
out crabs by the legs probably. Here 
is a nook dipping in from the river. The 
line is lengthened and the lure drops 
at the exact spot. 
No sooner down and spinning than a 
bass has it in jaw and has left the wa- 
ter like a shot from a gun. Fairly a foot 
and a half over water, and we do not 
marvel at the stories told of bronzen 
monsters that have gotten away trailing 
leaders after them nor of those other 
doubtful stories of small-mouths leaping 
fair and clean over a boat, or into a boat 
— that, by the way, is a favorite big 
river rehearsal. 
How this fellow fights ! Time and 
again he rises and “dusts” the water 
with his tail ; then down he goes and 
terrors around in a way fit to set your 
heart a-flurry. But finally Frank has 
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