FOREST 
331 
AND STREAM 
The 
Gamest Fish 
That Swims 
) 
♦ 
* 
The Black Bass, According to this Authoritative Writer, Deserves that Proud Title, and Cites Experiences and 
Thrills to Prove It 
black bass is the most popu¬ 
lar game-fish in the United 
States to-day. I think no one 
will fuss with me over the 
statement. Of course, some of 
us are wedded to the speckled 
fellows. They will forever hold 
first place in our affections. 
But for every trout champion there are ten bass 
fishermen. Naturally. Bass are more get-at- 
able. Be it far from me to cast aspersions upon 
my favorite fish, the speckled trout, yet an in¬ 
herent love of truth compels me to say it, bass 
are more gamy than trout. Whoever yet heard 
of a speckled trout Salvelinus fontinalis, leap¬ 
ing on a slack line? 
Every lover of bass fishing, whether a wielder 
of fuzz-wuzzy lures or handler of grotesque 
“plugs,” knows that aerial gymnastics is the 
bass’ forte. Inch for inch and pound for pound 
there is not another American fish possessed of the 
same amount of gameness, resourcefulness and re : 
serve strength. A black bass may be subdued but 
never conquered. Even when vanquished, he lies 
upon the bottom of the boat, the dauntless soul 
of him still challenging through eyes that are 
unafraid. 
The get-at-able black bass is the people’s fish. 
Give him half a show in water at all suited to 
his needs, and he will take care of himself. No 
fish seconds the efforts of the culturist as does 
our American bass, and through that tireless 
worker’s efforts Micropterus has been introduced 
into many new waters, while the supply of fish 
in well-known and much-fished lakes and streams 
has been replenished rgain and again. Not only 
in his native land is this ichthyic insurgent fight¬ 
ing a winning batt’e, but also abroad he his mak- 
ng a home for himself, having been introduced 
into several foreign countries. 
Much has been written regarding the respective 
merits of small and large mouth bass as game 
fish. Probably the preponderance of opinion is 
that of the two the small mouth is far and away 
the more active, resourceful and mettlesome, a 
belief which I think finds its origin in the pre¬ 
ferred habitat of the two species. The small 
mouth loves rocky streams or gravel beds and 
bottom springs of cold lakes, while the large 
mouth is a frequenter of weedy lakes and leis¬ 
urely rivers, being found in the latter beneath 
overhanging banks and sunken logs, the washed 
roots of a tree upon a river’s bank being a favor¬ 
ite refuge. 
While there is some diversity in the habits of 
the two species in their preferred habitat, still 
in the North country one often finds them inhab¬ 
iting the same waters, conforming to the same 
life rules, bodies stained with the same bronze- 
green pigments. In like environment I cannot 
By O. W. Smith. 
see that the two species differ at all in activity 
and resourcefulness. It is only after long expe¬ 
rience and the fishing of many waters that I have 
come to this conclusion, for I started out w«ith 
the preconceived notion that the small mouth 
was the more active and gamy. The reason for 
this widely current belief is found I think as 
pointed out a moment ago, in the preferred 
home of the small mouth, small, rapid rivers-— 
naturally there the fish is very active; must 
needs be in order to secure a living; but place 
a large mouth in the same water and he will 
become as active. 
The Bass Rises Readily to the Fly. 
Again, the common belief is that the small 
mouth is a fly man’s fish, while the fuzzy-wuzzy 
lures will not appeal to the large mouth. In my 
experience, in proper environment, one is as will¬ 
ing as the other to rise to the feathers. In some 
deep lakes and navigable streams with which I 
am acquainted, the bass have become bottom- 
feeders. Consequentially to cast a fly upon the 
surface would be the height of folly, whether the 
bass be of the small mouth or large mouth 
variety. Naturally the bass is not a surface 
feeder, his favorite food being crawfish, though 
as Dr. Henshall says, when they have attained a 
weight of two pounds “they will bolt anything 
from an angle-worm to a muskrat.” 
In July and August, when a great many anglers 
take their vacations, the bass seek the deeper re¬ 
cesses of the lakes and rivers, especially in the 
warmer waters inhabitated by the large mouth. 
Therefore casting flies upon the surface brings no 
response, and the angler says the large mouth will 
not take artificial flies. In the colder lakes, even- 
in July and August, morning and evening offer 
fair fly fishing, and when both species arc found 
they will rise to the feathers with equal willing¬ 
ness. However, it is not until the season is on 
the wane and cardinal flowers flare along the lake 
shore, and fringed gentian is found amid the hills, 
that fly fishing for large mouths is at its best. 
When the resorts are closing their doors and the 
last summer boarder has fled, the wise angler un¬ 
limbers his fly rod, for the “bloom is off the 
water,” and the bass are surface feeding again. 
Make no mistake about the matter, the North¬ 
ern large mouth will rise as freely to the feathers 
as will the small mouth, and you may help ex¬ 
plode the superstition to the contrary. 
You will remember that in a former paragraph 
I said that the two species of bass are found in 
the North country inhabiting the same waters, 
and that their bodies are “stained with the same 
bronze-green pigments.” It is well for the angler 
to remember that the coloration of any given fish 
is not constant, but the result of habitat, influence 
of water and food. The salient features of the 
two black bass have been well emphasized in that 
rather humorous poem by the well-known Forest 
and Stream angler-writer, Mr. Fred Mather: 
“The little mouth has little scales, 
There’s red in his handsome eye; 
The scales extend on his vertical fins. 
And his forehead is round and high. 
His forehead is full and high, my boys, 
And he sleeps the winter through; 
He likes the rocks in summer time, 
Micropterus dolomieu! 
The big mouth has the biggest scales, 
And a pit scooped in his head; 
His mouth is cut beyond his eye, 
In which is nary a red. 
In his eye is nary a red, my boys, 
But keen and well he sees; 
He has a dark stripe on his side, 
Micropterus salmoides!” 
But as J have pointed out, the coloration of one 
species often closely approaches that of the other. 
The bass is every man’s fish because he varies 
his taste with seasons and waters. To the fly 
fisherman possessed of skill with light tackle and 
knowledge of the fish’s habits, he is a never fail¬ 
ing source of amusement and, if the unvarnished 
truth must be told, chagrin. To the devotee of 
short rod and artificial lures who knows his 
haunts in lake or river and feeding time, he is the 
doughtiest bunch of ichthyic trouble wearing gills. 
To the live bait fisherman, willing to sit out long 
hours beneath the blazing sun in an unprotected 
boat or to crawl through the high grass which 
marges some rivers, he is an ichthyic opportunity 
with a large P. Now it is not my purpose to say 
which of these methods is best or the most 
