ANGLING FOR THE GAMEY BASS 
THIS STRATEGIST OF THE LILY PADS TEACHES MANY A LESSON IN PATIENCE TO 
THE FISHERMAN WHO WOULD MATCH HIS WITS AGAINST HIS ABNORMAL CUNNING 
By BEN C. ROBINSON 
F ishing for black bass to the be- 
ginner in the sport has all the deep 
elusiveness of the average thimble- 
ring game, and is about as profitable as 
most virgin efforts. But in contrast to 
that historic pastime, the novice at the 
grand old game of bass fishing does not 
part with his time and wallet and leave 
the entertainment with a feeling of self- 
abasement and a 
yearning to wander 
far away from his 
humiliations, to 
crush from his soul 
the recollections of 
that tragic event. 
Instead, he 
trudges home with 
the setting of the 
sun over the 
rounded western 
hills, a determina- 
tion in his heart to 
return the next 
day and learn more 
of a lesson that 
calls to him of a 
land sweet with the 
scent of the wil- 
lows and the bass- 
woods, and of a 
wiley old chap that 
has taught him the 
lesson of patience, 
and esteem for a 
few pounds of 
whalebone activity 
and abnormal cun- 
ning — our old 
strategist of the lily pads and the hid- 
den pools, Mr. Bass. 
To angle with success for the bass one 
must have a good understanding of their 
peculiarities, and that means close ob- 
servance of the bass streams in your 
neighborhood or where you are in the 
habit of spending your days off. 
When fishing a stream the angler, who 
takes the requisite amount of pleasure 
that marks the true lover of the sport, 
will have his eyes open for signs of his 
Contents Copyright. 1919, by Forest and Stream 
favorite quest. In working a stream I 
never neglect to carefully mark and re- 
member those places where I might 
notice a feeding bass. They are not 
afflicted with the wanderlust, the black 
bass. They are home lovers in their way 
and where once seen might be expected 
always. 
In the spring months when the bass 
are passing through their spawning sea- 
son is the best time to mark these haunts. 
At that time the old bass builds her nest 
among submerged boulder drifts and 
mounds. Always on the lookout for 
tresspassers over her dominions, she 
keeps the water swirling with her savage 
rushings. It is a safe supposition to 
form that even after the spawning season 
is over there will be some lusty old bass 
lurking about that submerged stone 
mound. Where one of these despots 
Publishing Co. 
makes himself known by leaping, with a 
great splatter of water, high in the air 
after his lunch on minnows, is a mighty 
propitious place to gently drop an active 
chub or a well tailored artificial lure 
upon some bright morning just as the 
dawn streaks the east with its delicate 
banners of a departing mist. 
Drop it just at the place where you are 
in the habit of see- 
ing him hold his 
banquets and reel 
it in slowly and 
steadily; those are 
the times and the 
places that mark 
good ones for a 
creel. Unless one 
chances to be work- 
ing a strange 
stream he can save 
himself a vast 
amount of hard 
and useless casting 
by marking these 
loafing places of 
the bass, for it 
must be understood 
that even in the 
best stocked 
streams there are 
barren stretches 
that will not yield 
enough to repay 
the efforts ex- 
pended in w h i p- 
ping them. 
These haunts 
that I speak of will 
of course receive the attention of a true 
sportsman only at those periods of the 
year suitable to taking a fish. A con- 
scientious angler will scorn to cast a lure 
over the nest of a bass in spawning 
season. 
T O go into the details of the subject 
on the haunts of the black bass, it 
will be necessary to cover the stream 
very thoroughly and even then it might 
be safer to insert the warning that an 
An overflowing creel of plucky old warriors 
