The Minneapolis journal., 1902-06-14
BASS BITE POORLY
First Two Weeks Of the Season Are
Disappointment.
SPAWNING TIME is NOT OVER
Different: Kinds of Bait Which VIII
Attract the Most Fas-
tidiOus Fish.

WAS "eApeCteus lOI tue iedSOu Ludt JIG AoA
are not yet through spawning. When the
bass are on their nests 1t is practically
useless to try to attract them even with
the most priced delicacies in the way of
bait.
The question has been raised whether
the season for bass should not be ex-
tended two weeks. The object of the fish
laws is to protect the fish while they are
spawning, and If the closed season does
not fully cover the spawning time, the
purpose Of the law is 40 large extent
vitiated. However, 1t may be that the
lateness Of the season has extended the
spawning time beyond It's usual limit, and
thesnecessities during most seasons.
The real dyedin- the wool anglers have
had fair luck. AS one man expressed 1t,
"a really good angler will catch fish any
time, and poor one will seldom get any
thing, no matter how favorable the con-
dtions." By this time most of the bass
have finished spawning, and first class
sport may be expected from now on
Pickerel and pike have been biting free
able to catch bass have brought back good
strings of these fish. William T. Coe,
George w. Armstrong, DR.. Norman
Chance Of Little Falls, and L. w. Moody
OF Pomeroy, Iowa, last week caught more
than 200 pounds of pike at Leech lake, al
though bad weather prevented their get
ting in more than two or three half days
of work. Mr.. Coe also captured thirty
pound maskalonge, which gave him
splendid fight before 1t was finally taken.
The Question of Bait.
The question of bait is one of the most
important to successful fisherman, and
1t Is also one of the hardest points of the
anglers science to master. At certain
seasons the bass will bite at certain baits.
which at other times of the year they
will disdain. :
"A man may put in two months of year
IN acquiring mastery Of the great division
OF grasshoppers, and at the end be far
from complete. Many people go upon the
streams with expensive tackle who have
no knowledge OF how valuable the grass
hoppers are, much less Of how and where
to catch them what kinds to catch and
how to impale them.
Green frogs are said to be better than
brown, which is probably pure fadisn
but 1t Is certain that brown grasshoppers
are better than green and the reason of It
is that green grasshoppers when thew
hutter upon the water or just above it
look much like leaves and so are little ant
to attract the fish unless it be close
enough to distinguish the legs and wings.
s. Above price is the fat grasshopper an
inch and a half long which has dull
brown back and yellowish belly, with red
DISH spots showing when its wings open;
More than once the credit of and fame of
the true-born angler has been rescued
from peril by two or three OF these god
sends caught under an old straw hat after
breathless chase in nearby meadow.
They were hooked securely just back of
the wings and1let down gently from some
bluff above dark pool; the angler mean
while securely hidden, and as thay
touched the water and their pinions
buzzed there came savage upward rush
from far below and the cleft water foamed
ard the loud reel sang It's saga of war.
In late July, when the heat plunges down
ward shafts and the cfcada drones on the
bark, In those two first golden weeks of
August, the month which the French re-
publicans called Fructidor, the grasshon-
per's the thing. . :.
The Field Mouse. ,s,
There is the field mouse now. On days
when all Is lost save honor, the field
mouse will decoy the Oldest, biggest and
Wlsest OF bass or trout because it is de-
llcious, attracts the eyes of every denizen
OF the pool from the turtle under the de-
cayed log on the bottom to the little min
now swimming close to bank, and is cas-
lily overtaken,
No many field mice fall to the lot Of
bass or trout and they value them accord
lngly. This little animal may be found
and captured by him who knows how and
values 1t according to It's merits
~ Hves close 10y fence, or near the
roots of some old tree. In going down
the corn rows, If the grass be specially
thick and tangled by the stalk, it will be
Well to examine it.
When the mouse is startled It will show
much less activity than the house mouse
will run only a little way and may stop In
the open. Its small faculties seem to he
paralyzed by fright and 1t may be picked
up with the hand.
If the hook be put lightly through the
skin OF the back and it be dropped gently
upon the water, it will swim desperately
FOR shore, making slow progress, however,
and the tiny circles from its struggles
will go all over the surface
There never was field mouse yet on
any sort of day which safely made the
passage of trout pool and invariably the
fish which takes the hook will be one al
the largest and most savage of it's kind.
This fish seems to say to its smaller fell
lows: Stand back! Minnows and frors
are good enough for you when l am not
hungry, but this tidbit is mine!'
There are men, fat and gray, who when
they hear the call of the jocund woods
leave their sons and sons-in-law to run
early May until late October. These are
the men who find out things about natural
bats and sometimes keep them secret
until they are betrayed by accident.
Fat and gray as they are, they have
been known on fruitless DAYS in nascent
June to climb tall trees and risk their
necks far out on limbs exploring sorirre,
"a tvU0 nnI u. >