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Show II FISHING FOR BLACK BASS I I i "The black bass season is open and a good many people have been trying the waters hereabout and met with the usual result," said an old-time ajigler, according to a Milford, Pa., correspondent correspon-dent of the New York Sun. Too much rain and cold weather before the season sea-son opened, not enough warm weather since it opened, hoodooing winds from wrong points of the compass these and many other excuses anglers give for failure fail-ure to catch black bass. At the same time other anglers have brought in satisfactory sat-isfactory catches of bas. "The trouble is that, although the black bass has been an established dweller in the waters hereabout and particularly in the Delaware river, for going on to forty years, few anglers have-come to a proper understanding of this peculiar game fish. They think they have discovered that the bass is capricious as to its food, and that what It may be inclined to take today with out any apparent reason this fish with the level head and the iion Jaw will not notice tomorrow, and so they argue that the only thing necessary for them to do is to go after bass with various baits and a book of all sorts of flies in readiness. readi-ness. "The black bass fisherman who has permitted himself to become wise in the ways of bass knows that this varied assortment of baits and lures is not the all-essential in black bass fishing. He had discovered that In the first place you must know where to look for the fish. It is of no less importance to be careful that the fish doesn't know where to look for you. "To approach the lurking place of the black bass observant anglers discovered discov-ered long ago calls for great care, caution cau-tion and dexterity. The fisherman who walks briskly by the edge of a pool or stream, particularly on a bright day, and bright days are the days the successful suc-cessful angler likes best for black bass, should not wonder why it is that he fishes during weary hours and has for his reward not so much as a nibble at least he shouldn't charge it to the vea-ther. vea-ther. the wind or the contrariness of the fish in regard to bait. "There is nothing of the air, of the earth or of the water more shy and suspicious sus-picious than the black bass, and the sight of a person walking or talking or making any movement on the shore or I bank or in the boat invariably results in a determination on the part of this wary fish to seek other feeding grounds at once or to abstain from dining that day, be the bill of fare ever so much to its taste and temptingly served. "There may be times when It is whim or caprice that prompts the black bass to ignore baits and lures that have only a short time before seemed to ita liking, but more frequently the black bass has discovered the person who is offering them and, suspecting his disinterestedness, resists. "To pick out a fishing ground that gives promise of black bass it is necessary neces-sary that you should know something about the fish's habits. This game fish is ever at its best in running water in rivers or large creeks. The Delaware and the Susquehanna rivers are ideal small mouth black bass waters. "The baas chooses to be near rocks, preferring water ten or twelve feet deep in the daytime, seeking deeper water at night; and here is something that two out of every ten black bass fishermen have been slow in discovering about black bass fishing. The very biggest and gamest of the small mouth bass will come to the killing at night. "He lies in the. deepest water then, and a lively minnow the familiar streaky sides of the creeks and the little mudsucker are favorites introduced to his attention in the evening will win him for you if you handle him right Cold nights in the fall are particularly good for this sort of angling for big black bass, for it is always the big fish that seem to prefer this deep water night feeding. "The small mouth black bass In streams object to being crowded in small pools, unless it finds a deep shady place below a tumbling cascade or rapid rift, which carries food down to it In the current. Th'e angler who knows this habit of the bass and sneaks to a vantage point below and keeps behind be-hind the bass' line of vision, may often see it in such a lurking place, lying motionless, mo-tionless, save for the gentle waving of its fins, in the shadow or some projecting project-ing rock or root or sunken log, calmly and confidently waiting for the coming of some terrified grasshopper that has lost its bearings and leaped into the stream, or for a frog or minnow. "I have more than once from safe ambush am-bush managed to test whether the Inclination In-clination of bass thus feeding was for any particular variety of food, and always al-ways found it ready and willing for insect, in-sect, minnow or frog. Once after demonstrating dem-onstrating to my satisfaction that the boss was neither whimsical nor scornful scorn-ful in this matter of food offered It, I withdrew from my hiding place and came downstream in sight of the fish, which was a large bass, lying at the edge of an old log. The bass backed slowly some distance down along the log and stopped. "Grasshoppers, live minnows, a cricket crick-et and a frog, freed and sent naturally into the pond, failed to tempt that bass to touch them. The bass had sniffed danger on seeing me, and that was all there was to it. Ten minutes later. from my place of former ambush, I landed that bass on a red and yellow fly. He was a three-pounder. "So it is well to know about your fish when you go after black bass, and It Is well, too, to be sure your bass Is caught before you attempt to land It. "It is not always yours because you have hooked it. One twitch of your rod may set the hook in the fish's jaw, but a succeeding twitch by the bass may be followed by its disappearance, leaving a few yards of leaderless line dangling from your rod. The power of the small mouth black bass is prodigious compared com-pared with its size, and the beginner in bass fishing generally experiences a genuine shock of surprise when he finds how easily even a small bass can snap off a line or break a stout rod in inexpert inex-pert hands. "That the black bass will not bite or rise to a fly at certain times, under any circumstances, is true, but the same is true of all kinds of game fish. The experience ex-perience of expert anglers is that if the bass will not take one kind of bait on such occasions it Is as a rule not worth while offering any other kind. "It is Just as well, though, I have found, to go variously provided with lure for use in such emergencies. Without With-out knowledge, caution, patience and coolness, though, you might as well leave your rod, line and bait at home when you go after small mouth black bass, for you will simply come back bassless, and charge it all to the wind, the water or the weather." |