The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-25

Iho 'Gen6Sdnan sportsman" Comes in
for a Little Gentle RddaOnle-How to
Fish for Bass and Trout and PfckereI.
Do Net DespiSs the AngIeworm.
Especial CSr7espondencsl
New YORK, June l6-The camper out
rwha sacks his forest vacation haunh with
the idea thstit Is nos good fern to fish for
auyIhingsbat brook trout or small mouth
blaAksbaSs. and that in fishing for these he
mnss aseonly the split bamboo rod and
the Artificial hF, may return home satisfied
that he Is true sportsman, but he will
have missed a larSa amount Of enjoyment
and no end Of fish It is the proper thing
nowadays among scientific Sportsmen to
affect hGrror at tho sight Of an angle worm
or any other bait or lure not coming under
thehead Of Feather"
A fisherman who kills fish with bait
they do not recognize as belonging to the
sportxznan's guild. It is not so much with
them heg many trout an angler may take,
no nattec how neatly CT skiifuilY he does
it, as il Ia whether he made any long casts
and whether be handled his Ries well
against the wind, etc. I have in my
Inind now avery wealthy young sportsman
who xE-Es so deeply imbasd with this diet
tanbeisn in fishing that ks came in from a
trout brsSk one day radiant as with great
victsry won.
'FHoE many trout did you kill, Charley"
I asked, expecting to see a heaping creel.
ooh, +" SKID be, 81 only killed three, but I
made two of the neafest ninety foot casts
againstebe wind you ever saw"
Hs oouldn't catch. fish, but be could cast
the fly as well as tho best of his kind, and
that was his idea-of bang a true sports
man. And there are hu1gdreds like him.
That fly fishing, whether for trout OF
bass, is the very poesy Of angling, calling
for the finest artistic instinct, there is no
possible doubt; but when party is in
camp there are times when fish are needed,
and IL the party feels itself above the worm
or other bats there will be times aIplenty
when fish will be scarce article and
hunger viii abound Especially is this
true Of black bass. One day this game and
voracious fish win take your flies with an
eagerness and a grace that is simply balm
in Gibsad to the troubled soul of an angler
The next day you may trail every fly you
have in your book-and the chances are
that you viii have from six to ten dozen
too many-whipping with all the skill you
can-emplss, and the bass VIII pay no more
attention to them than If there wasn't a
bass Ia that water If yDA arc of the guild
Of ~'trUe spoCtSnen" you viii, of course,
go to camp dtsgusbed and disappointed,
and VIII go fish hungry to your bunk, if
there L. not some one in your party who
does non fear your scoTn and will go out
and try the bass with dobson, a ninnow,
a crawfsh, a troll, or even the lowly earth
worm. That day will be the bass day for
one OF the other Of these bnits, and the
fisherman who is your true sportsman in
the proper sense of the term will hit the
appetite Of the CapriciOus fish before he
gives up, and viii have bis reward in a
suitable catch. No enc knows what a
black bass will take one day after another,
and the only way no can find out is by ex-
perimenting on him; and the man who
fishes for bass only with a fly should re-
member that it not only requires just as
much skill to,be snccossful with bait in
angling for black bass but a great deal
more study and observation of the fish's
ways than it does In fly fishing.
Brook trout are queer, too, but not as
much so as black bass. Some days trout
refuse the fly, no matter what kind is of
fered, and VIII take the angle worm with
avidfty. Other days he viii faver the fly,
but he seldom entirely ignores the worm
Large brook trout that have scorned the
flies Of the most expert anglers day after
day and have turned their backs on the
wriggling angle worm l have known to
suocumb to fat white wood grubs, presented
TO them in an artistic way by anglers who
know there is something in fishing besides
efiigies in feather or nOndeScript insects.
Trout know what they want better than
the natiest sportsman that ever twirled a
S24 reel on q $50 split bamboo rod can tell
them, no matter if he might be able to
make cast Of $50 feet with ease.
But all persons who SO into summer
camp are neither spoFtsmen of the diet
tant kidney nor experienced ordinary
sportsmen who like toeatch something once
in awhile when they fish. There are good
many hints about fish and fishing that may
be of service to such, and the same hints
viii not come amiss to a great proportion
of campers who think they know it all.
For instance, the black bass does not rise
10 the surface to take the fly IA the trout
and salmon do. II the bass angler uses
the flies he must let them sink nearly 10
the bottom and then troll them diagonally
upward. II you are fishing with minnows
from an anchored boat or from any sta
tionaxy object nook the bait through the
back, just forward of the dorsal in.
If fishing from bose that is moving
hook the minnow through both lips, the
under lip FIRST. a black bass swallows
minnoE head first When it strikes the
bait It goes for it ike railroad train,
and the line is carried by the rush three or
four feet through the water. The mex
perienced angler viii be sure 90 make ia
tai error inst hepe, ana pull with the inten-
ton OF hooking his fish All he does is to
jerk the bait and hook out of the bass
mouth. When the bass stops after his first
rush it is TO turn the minnow in his mouth
10 get it head first. The fisherman must
wait few seconds, and then the bass will
move away with the limo sgain. The fish
has turned tho minnow and Is swallowing
it. Then the angler must give q quick
jerk, not swish. ana if that bass isn't
hooked il via be a singular circumstance.
In fishing with minaows they must be
kent well above the bottom. for bass nGnt