Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-07-14
HAULING IN A BASS.
A Task That Delights the Heart of
the True Fisherman.
Piscatorial Excursions Are Q ute Pop
ular In Washington just Now
Senators Who Are Fond OF
Trolling and Casting.
Especial Washington letter.

Primitive man hunts and fishes for
livelihood. Civilized man hunts for
game and angles for fishes for recrea-
ton. In modern parlance, this is is
called sport
Staid and prim people who do not
hunt or fish say that it is wicked and
reprehensible to use rod and gun in this
manner; but they eat prairie chicken,
Pheasants, quails and all sorts of fish,
and are glad of the opportunity to do so.
Ducks and geese abound in this vi
entity on Chesapeake bay and its trib-
of the year our people on their outings
are devoting their leisure and pleasure
to the finny fellows beneath the waves.
Our fishermen are doing business with
bass and other witches of the water;
and readers who love such recreation,
or sport, viii probably be interested
in a description of the aquatic pleas
are.
Senator Davis, of Minnesota, has often
said: Il go a-fshing only when 1 can
have things my own way. 1 must have
quiet day. 1 must have smooth water.
] must have safe boat. 1 want an old
fashioned pipe. There must be good
Od4ls anu u mere Uc
a good boatman at the helm. And,
above all things else, the boatman must
be a foreigner who can't talk English
or who is absolutely dumb. a boat
man who can talk. and tells fish stories,
is an abomin alton"
Everybody who has fished for pleas
ure, and also for fish, will understand
that the senator has bottled up several
tons of wisdom in those three senten-
tious sentences.
The bass, the glorious Potomac bass,
he of the small mouth and wary eye,
of the broad, powerful shoulders and
muscle-f1lled loins, of never-failing
courage and stout heart, the gamest
fish that swims, when in water to his
liking, and who fights with as much
zeal and vigor as the patriots did in
the days of &c against odds just as
great, is awakened from the sluggish
ness that has characterized him to a
remarkable degree this year, and is
resuming his character as the most dis
tinguished opponent an angler can find
in this section of the country. Taken
pound for pound, the Potomac bass will
give more sport for weight than any
other game fish except the ouiananiche
the winanish of the far northern Wa
tiers. When he is at his kingly pro-
portions, between two and three pounds
in weight, he is unequaled in his sub
tie cunning. He is Napoleon in STRAIT
egg, a Bismarck in determination. The
real angler who strikes such a fish ex-
periences emotions that can never be
described. The maiden listening to
the lutte of her lover, the miser count
ing his gold, may feel delightful sensa-
tions, and undergo divine spells; but
the fisherman with 2h-pound bass at
the end of his line knows an eXaltatiop
that IS supreme. To the uninitiated the
foregoing probably sounds like bal
derdash, but the angler knows that it
is not overdrawn.
Few of the bass fishermen have en-
joyed such ecstasy this year until re-
Gently, however, because the fish has
been shy of his usual haunts. Old riv-
ermen declare that the big bass had
gone into deep water. to purge their
system after enforced idleness of the
spawning season, and that the chilly
water had retarded their return from
their annual pilgrimage. "Wait till
We have half dozen real hot days."