Casting for 
Channel Bass 
with Light Lure 
A New Winter Sport for 
Southern Tidal Rivers 
By 
JOHN A. GAINES, M.D. 
ROM my earliest boyhood, I have 
been surrounded by a _ family 
devoted to outdoor sports, and 
among my earliest recollections are my 
efforts at angling, first with the pro- 
verbial “bent pin,” gradually improv- 
ing my outfit and tackle until I had 
attained a measurable degree of pro- 
ficiency and an ardent love for the 
sport. 
For fourteen years I have been mak- 
ing annual visits to Florida, always 
to the same little river, feeling that I 
had found such a wonderful fishing 
ground, containing, as it did, many 
large bass, great schools of sea trout, 
sheepshead and large mangrove snap- 
CHANNEL 
BASS 
AL. FOSS WITH A CATCH OF 
BASS TAKEN ON LIGHT BLACK 
TACKLE 


red fish or 
in the low 
reaches of the river. It would be a 
loss of time to look for a better place 
or “greener pastures.” 
occasional 
with an 
channel bass to be had 
pers, 
I have finally come to be the possessor 
of our once Community House-boat 
and a little plot of land giving title 
and preeminence to our right to camp 
on the only available area of dry land 
on the river. Our house-boat is no 
longer a boat, except in name, having 
been put up on piling with ten. or 
twelve feet of the boat out on the 
bank, the remainder over the water 
above high tides with porches built 
across one end and the side, which 
makes an ideal camping ground, al- 
ways dry and always ready. This in 
conjunction with two good tents com- 
pletes our housing outfit. 
\‘f EAR after 
year we go 
to, thisi= placer. 
taking with me a 
limited number 
of friends, whose 
stay not coincid- 
ing with my own, 
allows me to 
make_ repeated 
parties within 

QTOUITUVNEUIUUUUOSEASUVEOUOUP AVOIDED UTE 
Here is an adaptation of bait cast- 
ing, wherein black bass tackle is 
employed in taking channel bass. 
Using an eight-pound test line 
and a five-ounce rod should fur- 
nish keen sport to the most thrill- 
things ready for an early breakfast. 
The guides had taken everything 
over the day before, and under the 
experienced guidance of “Grandpa” 
(W. D. Harman), a full line of gro- 
ceries. were in the larder with 1,200 
pounds of ice in the ice box, a good 
load of dead cedar to replenish the 
camp fire, which was burning cheer- 
fully when we arrived, and motor 
boats and skiffs to accommodate the 
party. Mr. Al Foss of Cleveland, 
Ohio, joined us the following day, 
which completed our first party which 
was not added to until December 17th. 
UR little river is six miles long, 
of the best fishing ground I have 
been able to find or hear of even in 
the land of wonderful fishing. Aris- 
ing from the large spring and fed by 
creeks which carry into the river 
; beautiful water 
from the succes- 
sion ots nigh 
springs along its 
course. The up- 
per three miles 
of this stream 
above the house- 
boat runs. with 
.considerable cur- 
rent through the 

the capacity of proof angler. You want to know bankless marsh, 
our sleeping about it for your Southern trip. Overgrown with 
quarters, as the tropical vegeta- 
men Jeave and quam =|« LOR ~Lorming a 
arrive to keep “hammock” so 
the number to a dense that one 
comfortable and congenial congre- can only see a short distance into the 
gation. thick foilage. 
On December 6, 1922, Messrs. H. W. 
Brown of Atlanta, Ga., C. D. Jones of 
Nashville, Tenn., and the _ writer 
reached this Camp at 9:30 P.M. We 
found everything in readiness with 
our guides on hand, the two tents up 
and the house-boat cleaned up and 
ready just to make our beds down for 
the night. Our cook who had gone 
from Nashville, Tenn., with me got 
he = upper reaches of the river are 
" a succession of beautiful stretches 
of water fringed with overhanging 
boughs of wild growth and with large 
areas of water lettuce and marsh grass 
growing out into the water, and mak- 
ing a wonderful hiding place for the 
large bass and furnishing an _ ideal 
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