Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-06-21
THE SEASON FOR BASS.
A Belief That 1t VIII Prove Good One
some Points For Anglers.


A Belief That 1t VIII Prove Good One.
some Points For Anglers.
In black bass fishing, says the Philsdel-
phia Ledger, the first thing to be considered
Is the tackle
This should be chosen with the greatest
care, for the bass Is a wary fish, carefully
avoiding anything that looks suspicious.
With this end in view the hest line to
select is an Il oiled or enanieled silk, and
for bait fishing three-foot, and for fly
fishing six-foot silk worm gut leader,
and both the silk line and the gut leader
should be of the very best quality, as the
cheaper grades are very apt to prove
treacberous at critical moments. A multi
plying reel, holding about 40 yards of line
Is the most convenient, and, for all practical
purposes, quite sufficient.
A medium sized hook, such as one used
for catfishing, it is believed, will attain
better results than one much larger or
smaller, the particular make, whether 1t
be Carlisle. Limerick, Aberdeen, Sproat
New York trout or sneck-bend, being alb
solutely the fancy of the angler: only,
says q well known fisherman, LET the
patent cOntrivances warranted to prevent
the fish from getting away when hooked
severely alone. Fishing for black bass is
a contest between brains and cunning and
between science and brute strength. Ifa
fish gets away after being hooked, its cum
uing and brute strength were greater than
the anglers science, and deserved his
liberty. All these patent safety hooks are
unspcrtsmanlike and would not be used
by true angler"
Many fishermen in bait fishing use
long rod this is a mistake. With q stiff
rod about eight feet long bait can be cast
nearly double the distance that can be done
by a rod IL feet long, and is much more
convenient to handle.
The black bass loves a stream that has
hnff np.A Shnr ,NIn ift1l tsrAI n nd
with rocks and with moderately deep
rocky pools, in the shadows of which they
lurk, ready to dart forth into some neigh
boring rifle in pursuit of food. In select
ing place TO bait fish, therefore have such
locality in view, even though the water
be, comparatively speaking, shallow, rather
than deeper spot, but to which the indi-
cations point to a muddy bottom. The
pools below dam, for instance, are nearly
always better than the immediate vicinity
of its breast. In bait casting, unless the
water be very shallow, around the rocks
rear the shore should not be neglected, be-
cause such are likely spots for good sized
fish. There is probably no fish so capri
cious as the black bass in the matter of
bait, and no careful fisherman will go in
the stream without helgramites, mnnows
crawfish, and even big fat earth worms, or
any bait to which the fish are accustomed.
In fly fishing, flies having combinations
of green, yellow and black are considered
the best, and there is no use in casting the
fly anywhere except in rifles or shallow
pools just below them. In casting, where
1t is possible, 1t is claimed that when the
fly is cast little up stream and allowed TO
float down so that 1t be sunk about six
inches, the best results are obtained. Those
who have observed closely say that on the
downward course, and on the first few feet
of the retrieve, the most strikes are OBJ
tanned.
In consequence of the few black bass
that have been caught thus far this season,
there have been positive assertions made
by a number of anglers that there are but
few fish in the streams hereabouts. The
majority of fishermen, however, deny this,
and claim that there were never so many
black bass in the waters of this vicinity as
at the present time. Black bass will rarely
take bait when the streams are muddy,
and 1t Is also almost useless to attempt fly
fishing in very high water. There is also
another factor that has rendered the
fishing poor thus far, and it lies in the
uniformly cool weather of the past
spring. In this section black bass
usually begin spawning in the latter
part of April and finish their labor
about the latter part of May. This year,
however, the spawning season on account
of the cool weather, which kept the water
cold. did not begin until fully three weeks
later, and in some cases the bass have not
yet finished. During this period the black
bass takes but little food. 1t is true that
they are frequently caught on the spawning
beds, but it is asserted, that this is not so
much on account of hunger, but because of
desire on tho part of the fish to keep the
spawning bed clean or to drive away
supposed intruder. 1t is said, in support
of this, that black bass will snap at q bare
hook dangled over her spawning bed.
Anglers who have made study of the fish
claim that as soon as the spawning season
is over and the frequent rains cease, allow
ing the water 10 clear, there will be
magnificent black bass fishing, such as
fishermen of this city have not experienced
for several years. They predict this from
the fact that the rainy season of last year
rendered the fishing poor, which was
equivalent to a restocking of all the streams
hereabouts.