FOREST AND STREAM 
855 
Perfect Specimen of the Fighting Small Mouth Black Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)—The Season for Bass Opens in Many States in June, a Month 
Much Longed for by American Anglers. 
With the Bass and Pike of Leech Lake 
(Continuation of an Interesting Vacation Story as Told by One of 
Forest and Stream*s Best Contributors) 
By J. A. L. Waddell. 
racy of it, and for this reason a rifle should al¬ 
ways be cleaned from the breech. Use soft 
cloth strips of the proper size, which you can 
soon determine, in the cleaning rod, using a little 
oil at the last wiping, and always inspect the in¬ 
side of the barrel after cleaning to see if there 
are any remaining pieces of cloth in it. A 
cleaning rag jammed in a rifle barrel, or shot¬ 
gun barrel either, will cause it to burst on being 
fired again, with possibly fatal results to the 
shooter. For this same reason a gun should 
never be leaned up against a bank or any thing 
which is liable to get foreign particles in the 
barrel. 
Next to the rifling, the sights, front and rear, 
are the .parts to be most protected. Any injury 
to the sight will affect the straight shooting 
qualities of the gun. They should be protected 
from knocks and kept clean of dirt and rust at 
all times. It will not injure them, or the rifle 
generally, to be out in the rain, provided they 
are lightly coated with oil before taking out, 
and carefully dried and oiled again on being 
brought in. Any good make of rifle is built to 
stand long service, and will fire accurately many 
thousands of shots before the riflings finally wear 
out, but constant attention as the rifle is used 
each time is what is required to keep it in the 
best condition. The breech mechanism of most 
guns requires little attention except oiling and 
keeping free from dirt, and occasionally a screw 
tightening. 
In rifle practice, bear this in mind; if your 
sights are properly lined on the target, and held 
there at the time of firing the target will be 
struck. First learn to properly line your sight 
and then try to sight the same way each time, 
with the front sight in the center of the notch 
of the rear one, and the top of the front one 
just level with the top of the rear sight notch. 
Failure to do this is the cause of many poor 
shots. 
In standing ready to shoot, stand with both 
feet on a level and without strain, erect. It is 
best to hold the breath slightly at the time of 
sighting, and pulling the trigger. As you raise 
the rifle to your shoulder, your left hand should 
be under the rear sight, at the balancing point. 
On Wednesday Si and I had to go out alone; 
and by Russell’s advice we spent some rime 
around a big weed bed outside of the point which 
is directly opposite to the mouth of Kabekona 
Bay. He had had good luck there a short time 
before, but we had none, picking up only a sin¬ 
gle snake behind the weeds and close to ihe 
shore. After losing an hour at this place we 
pushed on towards Squaw Point, taking a few 
pike and pickerel by both trolling and casting. 
There are three channels at the Narrows, but 
two of them ire shallow and crooked, and die 
first one is often blocked by floating bog. We 
squeezed through it, but caught no fish, although 
I cast faithfully in all the likely looking spots. 
Si says that sometimes there are lots of fish 
in this little channel. After emerging from it 
we struck some good fishing ground for both 
trolling and casting, and I caught there several 
large perch, a couple of rock bass, a number of 
wall-eyes, a few snakes, and some hard-fighting 
great northern pike, including a nine pounder 
which I took about a mile west of Pine Point. 
At the latter we had fair sport and then ran 
down the bay about three-quarters of a mile to 
the camping ground where Dr. Hart and I had 
lunched on my second day. It is a very good 
place to take luncheon under ordinary conditions 
of wind and weather. After lunch we trolled 
down to the bottom of the bay and picked up 
a number of pike, then back to Pine Point where 
we found three boats containing several fisher¬ 
men who were much disgruntled by their bad 
luck. They had taken practically nothing all 
day. I saw one of them muff a fine fish, and 
then understood the reason for their lack of suc¬ 
cess, although, truth to tell, the day was decid¬ 
edly unfavorable for fishing because of the al¬ 
most dead calm weather and the absence of 
clouds. The feelings of the other fishermen 
were probably not improved by seeing me with¬ 
in ten minutes take by casting into a small weed 
bed, lying close to the shore and a little west of 
the Point, three fine, hard-fighting great north¬ 
erners, weighing from four to five pounds each. 
In spite of the adverse conditions that day I 
caught altogether 43, including several large fish. 
Si had to row all the way back, as we were not 
fortunate enough to be picked up by any passing 
launch. 
On Thursday Russell, Avery and I with Si 
and Swansson went again to Otter Tail and had 
fine sport there. After taking an eight and one- 
half pounder out of a weed bed, I found that I 
had twisted the end joint of my new Bristol 
steel trolling >-od into a cork screw, but it did 
not break; and later on in the day I landed on 
it, in spite of its crippled condition, a ten and 
one-half pounder, my biggest fish of the trip. 
The rod lasted me until I left for home, al¬ 
though I eased up on it occasionally by using my 
bamboo, casting rod for trolling as well as for 
casting. As the Schmelzer Arms Co. of Kansas 
City, who sold me the rod, had attached to the 
case a maker’s guarantee, the rod is now being 
repaired free of charge. Notwithstanding die 
accident, I deem it to be about the best trolling 
rod that can be found for fresh water fishing, 
and I can unequivocally recommend it to my 
brother sportsmen for such work. It is the kind 
that is provided with agate guides throughout 
and costs $7.50. As usual at Otter Tail we made 
that day a big catch. 
On Friday, for a change, Russell, Avery and 
I with our two men went to Stoney Point, mo¬ 
toring through the middle channel of the Nar¬ 
rows. We found fairly good fishing at the Point 
(Continued on page 870.) 
