Oct. is, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
G 19 
with a desperate rush for. a treetop, jerking the 
handle of the reel from his fingers and scraping 
some skin from his knuckles. This rush also 
tore the‘reel from its seat, the band on the for¬ 
ward foot of the reel barely holding it. The 
next rush broke the binding posts off the lower 
part of the reel, and it fell from the rod. Grab¬ 
bing the reel he tried to keep the line taut but 
failed, and in an instant the fish was free. There 
is absolutely no doubt but that it was a monster 
bass, as they saw it plainly w'hen it broke water. 
It could not have done what it did to that reel 
and rod unless it had been of unusual size. 
“I do not doubt but that we will go there again 
when the hunting season opens, and take our rods 
and guns, then 1 hope to get that big bass on 
my lure, and if successful, there wall be a dif¬ 
ferent story to tell. If you come back to Mus¬ 
kogee we shall all three go after him. 
‘•Now I shall tell you a ‘hunting’ story. I 
ride a wheel to and from the bank. Last night 
about 11 o'clock, as I was spinning homeward, I 
noticed what 1 thought was a big rat in the 
middle of the street under an arc light catching 
bugs which had fallen from the light. I stopped 
pedaling and rolled noiselessly on to him, when 
I discovered it to be a big ’possum. He scuttled 
for the intake of a storm sewer and disappeared 
under the steel cover. Dismounting, I ran back 
and stood on the cover, over him, where, in a 
moment, he popped out to see where I had gone. 
Quickly I nabbed him by the tail. I have him in 
a coop and am fattening him for presentation to 
the colored washerwoman.” 
edge on this score has been derived by associa¬ 
tion with them. 
Of course the habits, coloration and other 
characteristics of black bass differ in many 
localities, but the general knowledge of the art 
answers equally well at all places. For particu¬ 
lar waters and for particular whims the rod may 
Nebraska Bass. 
Omaha, Neb., Oct. 6 .-^-Editor Forest and 
Stream: Generally in favorable seasons the bass 
fishing in this locality is almost as good in Octo¬ 
ber as it is in June, and this fall it w r as ne\ei 
better. Of course old bass casters know that 
April — now in the proscribed season — is the 
greatest month of all, but it is doubtful whether 
there is as much real satisfaction in taking a 
fish in the early spring time when they are just 
preparing for their nest building and hatching, 
as there is in autumn when all the cares of 
family are at an end, and the fish are hard and 
firm in flesh, in the best fettle for a long and 
hard fight, and just right for the table. 
The fact that black bass of all American 
fishes have become the favorite, the manner of 
taking them cannot be too often or too ciearly 
told. Young and ambitious anglers are always 
on the qui vive for information in this line, and 
I find it a pleasure, next to fishing itself, to tell 
just what little I know of the subject. 
Of course there are numerous popular ways 
of taking black bass, but so far as my experi¬ 
ence goes there is nothing that conies up to a 
seven or eight-ounce, eight and a quarter-foot rod 
—steel, bamboo, lancewood or bethabara—for all 
the requirements in frustrating this black-green 
old fox of the shaded banks, rushes and lilypads. 
Of course it is taken for granted that this self¬ 
same rod is in the hands of a man who under¬ 
stands the art and is always alive to the com¬ 
plex conditions of the great sport. Such men 
know where to go, what to take with them, and 
what to do with it when they get there. I have 
been a fortunate sportsman and have fished with 
many renowned fishermen, which fact induces 
me to confess that the bulk of my own knowl¬ 
2 , 
< 3 . 
1. Body of Fly. 
2. With Horsehair Weed Guard. 
3. Winged Fly with Weed Guard. 
4. Hackle Fly with Weed Guard. 
be a little lighter or a little heavier than the 
weight mentioned above, or as circumstances 
may seem to demand, but under average condi¬ 
tions this rod is the proper thing. With the 
rod naturally goes a first class reel and a high 
grade braided silk line, and if still-fishing a six- 
foot leader of single gut will be found effective, 
but this leader should not be used in casting 
with minnow or frog, or in fact with any kind 
of bait. A No. 2 sproat hook is as near to the 
proper barb as can be suggested notwithstanding 
there is a widespread tendency among many 
superficially posted anglers to use a larger hook. 
Sandy Griswold. 
The Black Bass of the Illinois. 
Rock Island, Ill., Oct. 4 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: To all brethren of the angle who have 
never cast a fly on good black bass water there 
is a world of pleasure left before their angling 
cup is full, and the anglers of the Middle West, 
who have never fly-fished for black bass in the 
sloughs and bayous of the Illinois River, have 
much to learn of good fly-fishing close at 
home. 
Imagine an expanse of sloughs and lakes in 
depth from eighteen inches to four feet, 240 
miles long, and at times from three to five miles 
wide; the whole extent, with the exception of 
the main channel of the river, a tangle of dead 
and decaying timber, buckbrush, pond lilies, 
spatterdock, smartweed, rushes and floating 
moss. Such are the waters of our river, and 
it is in these that the black bass of the Illinois 
live and thrive, and here by ordinary skill with 
the fly-rod they can always be taken to advan¬ 
tage. It is hard to say just where along the 
stream the best bass waters are located, as 
wherever I have fished I have always found 
them plentiful somewhere near and have yet to 
hear of any part of the river where they are not 
abundant. 
The flow from the clear waters of Lake 
Michigan has raised the general level of the 
water about three feet, and even in periods 
of excessive high water it is always pos¬ 
sible to have the best of fly-fishing along the 
edges of the back water where the bass lie 
under the edge of the moss, lilypads and rushes. 
They are also taken by casting into the open 
holes in the moss and by skittering the fly over 
the top of moss so thick that it would seem im¬ 
possible for a fish of any size to break through. 
When fishing in the moss one must of course be 
ever ready for the impetuous rise of the fish 
and attempt to lift it over the top of the moss 
before it has time to go down and tangle the 
line. This is the most difficult phase of the 
sport and many a good fish is lost in this man¬ 
ner, yet at times the very best fishing to be had 
is in water where the surface is entirely covered 
with this moss. Away from the moss the fly is 
cast in the orthodox way, fishing the likely places 
around the willows, submerged logs, stumps, 
brush and around the edges of the aquatic vege¬ 
tation, in the sloughs and the inlets and outlets 
of the swales and lakes where, during falling 
waters, the bass always congregate, sometimes 
in immense schools, feeding on the minnows 
and aquatic life which the current carries with 
it. 
The number of black bass fly-fishermen of 
the Illinois River is legion, and necessity, al¬ 
ways the mother of invention, has put up to 
them the designing of a weedless fly that can 
be used among the many obstructions that the 
territory presents. The problem has been solved 
most satisfactorily and the weedless fly thus 
evolved is perfect. It is not known who origi¬ 
nated the idea of this fly, and should this meet 
his eye, and he will make himself known, the 
entire generation of bass fly-fishermen of the 
Illinois will rise up and call him blessed. For 
the benefit of the craft is described herewith 
the method of tying this successful weedless 
fly. It consists of tying just ahead of the body 
of the fly and around the shank of the hook 
a number of coarse horsehairs, so arrafiged that 
