The Portland daily press., 1883-08-02
Fly Fishing for Black Bass.

So, girls and boys, let us go a-fishing for
black bass. A good brook or rivulet is
close by almost any country house or town.
A short drive or walk takes us where we
can hear the bubble and murmur, and see
the pure water ripping and cleaning
among the shining stones. The big plane
trees, sometimes called sycamores, lean over
the brooks current, and there is a woodsy
fragrance and freshness in the air. Birds
sing overhead and round about In the thick
cts. We walk cautiously along the brook
side until we find place where the water
is dashing merrily among big stones and
whirling in shining circles, frothed with
clots of snowy foam. This is a promising
place for cast. Let us try. Give way
boys, and let one of the girls have the first
cast. Nowl See her take the fig in her left
hand, lightly between the thumb and fore
finger, her beautiful slender rod held almost
vertically in her right hand She waves the
rod backward over her left shoulder, at the
same time loosing the fly, then she whips
the rod forward with slight whir to the
right, and away spins the fly. But it falls
somewhat short. Quickly and deftly she
slips few feet more Of line from the reel.
gracefully whirls the rod backward again,
and, as the line straightens behind her, she
casts as before. Again and again she does
this, lengthening the line a little at each
cast until, at last, the gay fly falls lightly
among the shining waves close by little
whirlpool. Splash! What fine fish ,eaos
upl You see his scales CLEAN and his fins
flash as be clips" himself almost bodily
above the water and seizes the fly. And what
does my little lady with the rod? She quick
y 'strikes," that is, she gives short, sharp
jerk with her right hand, and then the fight
begins. The rod is bent like whip: whiz
goes the click reel as the strong fish pulls off
yard after yard of the line. Hold him back,
quickl Now, as our little girl changes the
rod from her right hand to her left, in order
to manage the reel, the fish makes big
lunge and turns somersault clear cut of
the water. The hook is an extra good one,
or it would have broken under that strain.
We all look on with tremulous excitement
as the bass falls back again into the swirlng
current and begins to dart this way and that
making the line sing and whirl. Now our
determined little angler begins to force the
fight. She turns the butt Of the rod more
forward, thus raising the tip, aud begins to
steadily turn the reel crank with her right
hand. See the slender rod bend almost
dOuDle. hurry, Doys-SoHe one OF y0u-g6t
the landing net and be ready to dip up the
camel AS the line.is shortened the bass is
drawn nearer and nearer to The grassy bank.
Therei his psickly dorsal fin cuts the water
Now get the anding-net under him. Good!
he is ours, and he weighs a full pound and a
quarter. That was well managed cam
paign on the part of our young lady. Which
one of the boys can beat 1t? You may think
that it would be very easy task to manage
afish weighing no mt re than,a pound an
hall; but when live and stubborn bass OF
THAI side is at the end of ten or twelve yards
of line, and your rod is as timber as whip,
the thing isn't so easy after all. / have seen
grown men fail in the undertaking. -Maur-
ice thompson, In work and Play Depart
ment" of the August ST. Nicholas.