The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-07-16
FISHING FOR BLACK BASS

waters hereabOut and met with the
usual result said an oldtime angler
according to a Milford, Pa, correspon-
dent of the New York Sun Too much
rain and cold weather before the sea-
son opened, not enough warm weather
since it opened, hoodooing winds from
wrong points of the compass-these and
many other excuses anglers give for fail
ure TO catch black bass. At the same
time other anglers have brought in sat
| isfactory catches of bass.
The trouble is that, although the
| black bass has been an established
dweller in the waters hereabout and
particularly in the Delaware river, for
going on to forty years, few anglers
have-come to a proper understanding Of
| this peculiar game fish. They think
they have discovered that the bass is
capricious as to it's food, and that what
! 1t may be inclined to take today with
out any apparent reason this fish with
the level head and the iron jaw will not
notice tomorrow, and so they argue that
| the only thing necessary for them to do
Is to go after bass with various bats
and a book of all sorts of flies in readi-
ness.
The black bass fisherman who has
permitted himself to become wise in the
ways of bass knows that this varied
assortment of bats and lures is not the
all-essential in black bass fishing. He
had discovered that in the first place
! you must know where to look for the
| fish. 1t is of no less Importance to be
careful that the fish doesn't know where
to look for you.
ITO approach the lurking place of the
| black bass observant anglers diScOv-
cred long ago calls for great care, eau
| ton and dexterity. The fisherman who
walks briskly by the edge of pool or
stream, particularly on a bright day,
and bright days are the days the sue
cessful angler likes best for black bass,
should not wonder why it is that he
fishes during weary hours and has for
his reward not so much as a nibble-at
least he shouldn't charge it to the wea-
Their. the wind or the contrariness of
the fish in regard to bait.
There is nothing of the air, of the
earth or of the water more shy and sus-
picious than the black bass, and the
sight of a person walking or talking or
making any movement on the shore or
bank or in the boat invariably results
in determination on the part of this
wary fish to seek other feeding grounds
at once or to abstain from dining that
day, be the bill of fare ever so much to
its taste and temptingly served.
There may be times when 1t Is
whim or caprice that prompts the
black bass to ignore bats and lures that
have only a short time before seemed
to it's liking, but more frequently the
black bass has discovered the person
who is offering them and, suspecting
his disinterestedness Iesists.
ITO pick out fishing ground that
gives promise of black bass it is neces-
sary that you should know something
about the fsh's habits. This game fish
is ever at its best in running water-in
rivers or large creeks. The Delaware
and the Susquehanna rivers are ideal
small mouth black bass waters.
THE bass chooses to be near rocks.
preferring water ten or twelve feet deep
in the daytime, seeking deeper water at
night; and here is something that two
out of every ten black bass fishermen
have been slow in discovering about
black bass fishing. The very biggest
and gamest of the small mouth bass
will come to the killing at night.
He lies in the deepest water then,
and a lively minnow-the familiar
streaky sides of the creeks and the little
mudsucker are favorites-introduce to
his attention in the evening will win
him for you If you handle him right.
Cold nights in the fall are particularly
good for this sort of angling for big
black bass, for 1t is always the big fish
that seem to prefer this deep water
night feeding.
The small mouth black bass in
streams object to being crowded in
small pools, unless it finds a deep
shady place below tumbling cascade
or rapid rift, which carries food down
to it in the current. The angler who
knows this habit of the bass and sneaks
to vantage point below and keeps be-
hind the bass line of vision, may often
see 1t in such lurking place, lying mo-
tionless, save for the gentle waving Of
its fins, in the shadow or some project
ing rock or root or sunken log, calmly
and confidently waiting for the coming
of some terrified grasshopper that has
lost its bearings and leaped into the
stream, or for a frog or minnow.
Il have more than once from safe am
bush managed to test whether the in
clination of bass thus feeding was for
any particular variety of food, and al
ways found it ready and willing for in
sect, minnoW or frog. Once after dem
onstrating to my satisfaction that the
bass was neither whimsical nor scorn-
full in this matter of food offered 1t,
withdrew from my hiding place and
came downstream in sight Of the fish,
which was a large bass, lying at the
edge of an old log. The bass backed
slowly some distance down along the
log and stopped.
"Grasshoppers, live minnows, a crick-
ct and a frog, freed and sent naturally
into the pond, failed to tempt that bass
to touch them. The bass had shifted
danger on seeing me, and that was all
there was to it. Ten minutes later.
from my place of former ambush,
landed that bass on a red and yellow
fly. He was three-pounder.
$50 it is well to know about your fish
when you go after black bass, and 1t is
well, too, to be sure your bass is caught
before you attempt to land it.
1T is not always yours because you
have hooked it. One twitch of your rod
may set the hook in the fish's jaw, but
a succeeding twitch by the bass may be
followed by its disappearance, leaving
a few yards of leaderless line dangling
from your rod. The power of the small
mouth black bass is prodigious com
pared with it's size, and the beginner
in bass fishing generally experiences a
genuine shock of surprise when he finds
how easily even small bass can snap
off a line or break a stout rod in mex
pert hands.
THAT the black bass will not bite or
II 70 Arr tot,