The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-30
THE ROYAL BLACK BASS.
Touted as the Gamest of the Finny
Tribe

From my earliest experience in bass
fishing, which was had on the stump
filled waters of Licking lake, back in
Ohio, good many years ago, l have
been a consistent admirer of both the
edible and game qualities of this splen-
did game fish. AS long as twenty
years ago, l predicted that the black
bass was destined to head the list of
same fishes, and L am not one bit sur
prised to see that prediction has at
last been verified, for the bass today
is the most popular of all the good
angling fishes to be found in the great
er area of the waters of our country
Long may the delicate brook trout
be spared TO us and may his numbers
be everywhere increased by the en-
forcement of good laws and the exer-
lions of the true sportsmen, but the
black bass has been pushing the trout
back il. the regard Of the anglers who
want real excitement and is destined
through many causes to push it still
further to the rear, not by reason of
lack of game or gastronomic quail
tiles, however, but simply because Il
greater area of our waters IS more
adaptable TO Salmoides Micropterus
than it is t. Salvelinus fontinalis
In many places ever the country the
sturdy black backed warrior of our
lakes and streams has seriously in
vaded the haunts of this patrician
beauty and he is being constantly
pushed on into new fields. In all prob
ability no fish in America today is re-
ceiving the attention from official fish
iculturists that the black bass is He
is the embodiment of independence and
wherever he finds home he locates
to stay provided he gets the proper
protection and the supply of fresh wa
ter holds out. He is afraid of no fish
that Swirns and will even make the
ferocious pickerel or wicket muskel-
lunge turn tail and seek the tall grass
when once they get too familiar
But l cannot quite agree with that
usually reliable old student. Sam Rich
mond, that the mother bass deserts
her young when they are once able to
swim and find their own provender,
but on the contrary I think the black
bass is the only one of our game fishes
that guards and cares for it's young
until they are perfectly able to thor
ouGhly take care of themselves
But to return to the thread of my
story. In my opinion the black bass
is today pre-eminently the game fish Of
the people. The original trout streams,
even of this state, are greatly diminished
in volume and made absolutely in
many sections. unteEable for trout, as
they plsrl through the big grazing
lanes Of our ranchers, where cattle
roam at will, and by their daily wad-
ings and wsllowings in their cool
depths, have so contaminated the wa
ter as to render ii unfit for the sur
vival of this delicate fish The fact
is. the speckled beauty in many To-
cality is but a romancet and fable.
Trout and progress, in measure are
incompatible. Like the buffalo and the
the prairie chicken. the trout is wild
creature and with the thickening of the
stock me1 ard aeriCulturalists he cam
not mingle long.
The black bass, on the other hard.
has ali the nerve necessary to combat
with the advance of civilization. all
he fears IS the unlawful fisherman the
fellow with the seine, the net and the
stick of dynamite, for he is progress
i've himself. and will thrive anywhere
with proper protection and surround
inS5. under almost any conditions He
is proud and game wherever you en-
counter him, whether this be on the
big, wild lakes of Minnesota. or in the
streams. PONDS and woody sloughs of
our own state. He is equally at home
in the stlll waters of the lake as ne is
in the swift and dashing current of the
river. The latter, however l am prone
to believe, heightens to no little ex-
tent, his game qualities. So it is in
the rivers and streams you will have
to use the most skill and fight the
harder to land him. And yet a species
of fish that produces young in water
as still as our sandhills lakes that will.
when no more than three inches long.
mpale themselves on the hooks Of a
trolling spoon in their efforts to swal-
low it, requires very little sharpening
of game qualities.
I have written rluch about The black
bass, and yet must not in this article
neglect to mention that there are two
species of this dusky fish. and prob
ably a description of a few of the