New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-31

misleading specimen is still carefully preserved
ii the Museum OF Natural History in Paris But,
as the rose with any other name would smell as
sweet errors in nomenclature have had no effect
"a the game qualities of the black bass. or, in
fact, on its other characteristics Writing of its
habits, Mr.. Harris says:
The black bass is endowed with an emotional
quality which very closely approaches parental
election While the salmon, the trout and other
salmonids. well most other fishes. leave their
eggs deposited 10 the ravages of the
-ninnow: eel. catfish and other ravenous spawn
caters, the parent bass guards the nest with vgf-
iance, and when the. young are Matched, hoveTs
around them with the care and motherly solicItude
displayed by a hen toward her brood of chickens.
Alas, The other side of the picture is unlovely
enough. For the plucky bass is an unblushing
clnnibal, and no sooner the rapidly growing
fry able to shift for themselves and to elude the
maternal eye, minglng with others of their age
and tribe than they quite as likely any
Of their cousins TO fall hapess victims to the
maternal appetite and freshly TO furnish forth
the parental breakfast No one. however, has
been 50 cruel to suggest any such unnatural
motive as the basis for the protective care they
receive when first emerging from the egg. From
the first, the young bass is perfectly proper
toned, a young fresh water Hercules, and it
passes through the period OF adolescence with
no repeent organic metamorphosis in its
life body. 1t is an acrobat by heredity, leap
ing high from the water when hooked, in its de-
ternined effort to rid itself of the restraining
barb and always on a slack line. "an evidence,
says Mr. Harris, '-of superior intelligence or ac
cumulated experience (take your choice) in a
fish for he has evidently found that it is prac
ticaly impossible TO eject well entered hook |
when a taut line holds it firmly in place" Yet
active and athletic as he is. the black bass pre-
fers the quieter pools and eddies to the swift |
currents and rapids in the streams where he is |
found. though he is not averse to making
rasty dash into the more turbulent waters after
a particularly toothsome club or other prey, but |
returning at once To more tranquil retreats.
The bass thriYes seemingly as well in warm |
waters as in cool, though it is not then so de- |
srabIe for the table.
There are many methods of fishing for bass
described in the volume but the truly sports
nlanslike way is to pursue it by wadlng, using
a light rod and making fifty foot cast with
carefully selected fly. Yet Mr. Harris acknowl- /
edges that mo artificial lures have yet been
made to equal the attraction of live or even
3 dead rnirnow if hooked properly, especially /
if a spinner about the size of a 10 cent piece
il ulace5 on the line an inch or two above the
bait fish: and he tells of the tricky method en-
r7o7a5 by a friend of his who hooks worm in
The centre before he puts the mnnow, so that |
the ends Of the worm hang on either side of the
head of the fish.
Ills theorv is that the bass reasons thus: That
of with pTlZe II ne -
good health would scarcely nave sncn , a Son
TTatite therefore il is evident that fisherman
F3s rlaved tricks with that lusty feiIoW. ana ~
old Fin goes fierceIy after the young cy
6l-r friends basket is made heavier with S1IlolISt
ish.
Al odd method. not recommended to the I
SPORTSMAN. is sometimes adopted on the upper
waters Of some OF. our large rivers where there
are mud or grassy fats with only few lnches
Of water on them, which are fayorlte 1eedlrg
rounds Of the black bass The fisherman SIM
4Iy rows across these fats at night in tiatpot-
toned skin. The fish, disturbed at their feast
lean into the air and may fall into the boat
.Tn fact writes Mr. Harris, lit Is OF oL1lcla
re-orf that on three consecutive nights one
Ierson captured by this unique method AZ. To-
and 63 fine bass, some as large as two and d
half pounds in weight The most sensitive hu-
r1anitarfan.' he adds. could not object to TINS
method Of fishing where there is no live bait 10
inopaIe or hook to extract from the mouth of a
captured quarry.
In z pleasant sketch of bass fishing trip on
the SrhuyIl,iIl Mr. Harris enters into an inter
esting discussion IN regard to the acuteness OF
the senses in fishes. and he comes to the conclu-
sion. fraught with great comfort to anglers
fishing in company, that the hnny tribe are not
disturbed by the conversation of those who seek
their destruction As TO their discrimination OF
-. asr T9baad in his chapter on Choice OF