356 
FOREST AND STREAM 
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BASS FISHING IN LAKE GEORGE. 
By Stewart R. Browne. 
Experience having taught me that between 
the hours of 6:30 and 8:30 A. M. being the best 
time to get these wily fellows to bite, especially 
on clear days, one fine day last August found me 
up and ready at six. About 6:30 I was on the 
grounds, ready for business; equipment consist¬ 
ing of a light, short steel casting rod, soft silk 
Kingfisher line, a No. 2 sproat hook with a 
three-foot gut leader, and a small size, live frog, 
for bait. 
The ground I prefer fishing on is off the 
mouth of a mountain brook that has washed out 
sands for ages in the lake, till now a shoal place 
has been formed, one hundred feet out in the 
lake, in a semi-circle, the water being only about 
two feet deep on same. But on the edge of this 
shoal, the water is very deep, and on one side 
of the boat one can see the white, sandy bottom 
plainly; and, on the other side, dark, green water. 
The edge of this bank is so steep one cannot 
anchor a boat, if the wind happens to be blow¬ 
ing off shore. 
The bass come in here to feed on food com¬ 
ing down this brook. This particular day was 
clear and calm, and as I always fish alone in 
these morning hours, I have to row and cast 
too. I started along the edge of this bank with 
my boat so that I could see sand on one side 
and dark water on the other and cast ahead of 
me into the dark water. I had not gone fifty 
feet, and on my third cast, something was run¬ 
ning away with my frog, when I started to reel 
him in, after my cast. I let him run about fifty 
feet, more line out,, and he was going so fast, 
I made up my mind that he had gone head on 
for the frog and had come down on the hook 
with edge of his mouth, so I struck him hard 
and sure enough I brought up a heavy object 
that “felt and acted fish.” 
Then the fun began. I had about one hun¬ 
dred feet of line out when I struck him, and I 
was some moments working my boat off in deep¬ 
er water, and playing him too. I looked at my 
watch when I hooked him and it was 7 :os. The 
strange thing about this bass was that he never 
jumped all through his long fight, and the only 
explanation I could give for this is as follows: 
The first time I saw him down in the clear 
water, about ten feet from the boat, another 
bass, a little larger in size than the one hooked, 
was swimming alongside with him. I saw them 
both together throughout most of the fight. By 
the way, I caught this other bass the next morn¬ 
ing in the self-same spot, at least I presume it 
was the same bass, as he was about the same 
size; in fact, weighed about one-quarter of a 
pound more. 
But to get back to the first fish. It was a 
fight to the finish. Every time I worked the fish 
near the boat, off he went like a streak and 
would run out one hundred feet of line before 
slowing up, and it was back and forth, up and 
down, first one side then the other. I had 
worked the boat out into about fifty feet of 
water and felt free to fight as long as the bass 
could hold out. My wrist was getting pretty 
tired, when the fish went right down to the bot¬ 
tom like a salmon and stayed there. I thought, 
however, it had snagged the line and started 
rocking him and rocking the line about fifty 
times, straining it as much as I dared, when sud¬ 
denly he left bottom and made one final run, 
when he seemed to be completely worn out. for 
I reeled him in and he was in the net and in the 
boat shortly. 
I looked at my watch and it was 7 140 exactly. 
I had been fighting him thirty-five minutes. The 
bass was hooked in the extreme edge of his up¬ 
per mouth, proving that he had hit the frog, 
head on, in his first rush. He was not hurt a 
particle and fought until there was no strength 
in him. This bass weighed three and one-half 
pounds, and I have found that these bass weigh¬ 
ing from two and one-half to four pounds are 
even better fighters than larger fish. 
I never knew a bass before to go to the bot¬ 
tom and lay there like a salmon as this one 
did. It was a new trick for me. I find that 
most of the bass who swallow the hook com¬ 
pletely will not fight over fifteen to twenty 
minutes. I have caught many land-lock sal¬ 
mon and square-tailed trout from three to 
six pounds, in the Rangeley Lakes, but I have 
never found any fish that would put up the same 
amount of gritty fighting, of equal size and 
weight, as will a small-mouth bass, when caught 
in those clear, cold waters of Lake George. 
HOTEL SEASON SATISFACTORY. 
It is a surprising fact that with all the 
calamity criers busy announcing “hard times,” 
hotels, with few exceptions, throughout the 
United States, report eminently successful sea¬ 
sons, fishing resorts especially being crowded to 
capacity. It is evident that when the American 
sportsman makes up his mind to go a fishing, 
war clouds and pessimists cannot make him put 
away the tackle until he has been afishing. 
North Hero, Vt. August 31, 1914- 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Enclosed find check for ad in your paper. We 
were much pleased with cup which was won 
by Mr. Edward Grey, 2217 14 Street, Troy, New 
York, for the largest small mouth black bass 
caught here this season. Weight 4 lbs., caught 
July 11, 1914. We never have had a better season. 
C. A. SKEELS, Proprietor. 
At the Big Indian Shoot. 
