The Wilmingtonian. (Wilmington, Del.) 1882-188?, 1884-07-12
SATURDAY JULY IL, 1854.
THE BRANDY WINE BASS.
FOR THE WILMINGroNIAN.

THE BRANDYWINE BASS.
FOR THE WILMINGToNIAN.
Generally speaking, the chances of bring
ing home creel full Of black bass from tue
Brandywne arc about equal to those of
drawing the first prize in the Louisiana
State Lottery, or any other like concern over
which the tickle goddess is supposed to pre-
side. For this reason our beautiful stream
has acquired dubious reputation with the
angling fraternity, SO far as bass are CON
cerned. OF course every one has tales to
tell about leviathans which have been lost
by some mysterious caprice of the fish or the
tackle, but, as before said, the prizes are few
and the blanks many, very many.
And yet there is no dearth of bass in the
stream; on the contrary it literally swarms
with them. True the fish are not of large
size as in the Susquehanna and Potomac, but
what they want in weight they make up in
numbers. 1t is quite possible to fill basket,
up to ten or fifteen pounds weight, with
Brandywine bass but two elements are
requisite which the average man does not
take into his calculations, namely, how to
angle and where to so. Let us see if this is
not so.
The black bass is bold and vigorous
bitter, but he has eyes and knows how to use
them. 1t is of no use to go after him with a
pole gifted to be the mast of some great
amiral," furnished with line on which
clothes might be hung, and hook that
would make mouthful for grampus l
admit that on the Potomac and even the
Shenandoah fish are ''whacxed oat" with
very rude tackle by the local fishermen, but
the Brandywine cannot be successfully
fished in this way. When the water is clear,
(and it is little use angling for bass at any
other time), the finer the tackle, the greater
the chances of success. As to bats, they
cannot be too fresh and lively; stale worm
or a dead minnow the fish will not glance at.
Next as to the localities where the angler
may take up his quarters with hopes OF
sport. Observation will soon show that the
best pitches are whore the water flows with
moderate current between sunken rocks at
depth of between five and eight feet.
There are extensive sheets of water between
the City Mills and Rockland where the cast
ing-in of line is simply a waste of time, so
sport will be had on the shadows, or in the
still pools, or where the current is very
swift. Every fish that swims has it's favor
tie haunts, and swims at certain depth, a
foot from the bottom being the general rule.
The bass particularly favors deep quiet
eddy, where the current flows gently among
sunken boulders, and the suns lays only
penetrate in the broad MONDAY. He does
not like the sun, and while the monarch Of
day can cast his rays into the recesses Of the
rocks, you Will not meet with any sort Of
attention at the hands of the bass or any
other fish.
From the fact that the best pitches in the
Brandywine abound with snags and bould
ers, trolling or spinning is out of the
question, unless the angler is prepared t.
lose dollar trace or flight Of hooks every
five minutes Or so throughout the day.
dare venture to assert that enough hooks
and lines are tangled up in The bed of tht
Brandywine between the first dam and thu
bridge at Rising Sun to stock all the fishing
tackle shops in th st toE Wen WIZ Mo oil ONLY lose
three or four hooks a day. There is ne
avoiding this. To get at the fish you mus
go where they are, and that is right at The
bottom, among the very rocks which arr
likeliest to arrest and fasten up your hook a.
it drifts along
The rod or ''pole" should be long ant
tolerably stiff; a bamboo is the best, and il
must be furnished with reel capable O.
holding thirty or forty yards of silk OIL
plated linen line. Some anglers use a foat
but you are Just as well without it. If ;
float is used, it should be adjusted so thai
the hook just clears the bottom in the deem
est part of the hole. 1t is simply waste q
time to guess at the depth or fish with two
or three feet Of line below the float. Til,
nearer yon are to the bottom tho better youl
chances of sport.
The hook should not be too large. A
number z is good size; it should be on ;
single gut snooding and if you have a couple
Of feet of gut above this your chances
are propoltionately improved If worm Oh
shrimp is used as the bait, be careful not tc
iniure or break it up in putting it on; also
see that tue point of the hook does moi
show. BY far the best arrangement for thi,
style Of fishing is that shown in the cut con
stitnting what is known as "lcger-lino" o,
more briefly a "lcgcr."