Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-15

to the river. Some of them are apt to
boast that they can take a boat wherever
a fish can swim, and the boast is not
wholly an idle one.
Dean of all the Upper Potomac boat
man. patriarch of the tribe Is "T-ncls
jim Trammell, now well past his
eightieth milestone, but still keen OF
eye. strong of arm and CHEEKY of heart
For three-quarters of a century he has
fished and boated the wild stretch of
river from the Great Falls to the mouth
of the Seneca. and it is declared he can
go IN or down the breaks and rapids
the blacklist night without hanging" on
a rock
And if there is anything in the lore
of the bass Uncle Jim" doesn't know,
II is secret safely hidden from man.
He scrupulously observes the two
closed months-April and May-but at
all other times when the water is in
condition he is to be found on the
river. IL not boating for some angler
from the city he is fishing himself. and
ne has made catches that the most
hardened fish liar" would not dare to
claim. One season not long ago. during
a period of two months of good water
ne caught and brought in off the river
sso pounds of small-mouthed bass, and
during that time he caught several
hundred small ones which he returned
TO the water. Uncle Jim doesn't be-
ieve in taking small fish. and he
throws back all under a pound, unless
they are too badly injured, through
having swallowed the hook. to live. He
has only scorn for the angler who car
ries home "fingerlings"
Uncle Jim.'" asked an anxious fish-
erman one day when the old man came
In on the river with more than dozen
beauties, what bait do you use, that
you catch so many bass"
HOP toads, son: just hop toads," the
veteran riverman answered.
The anxious inquirer thought Uncle
Jim was kidding" him. but he wasn't
He uses other bait, of course, but there
are certain times of year. certain con-
ditions of wind and sky and water.
when he takes only hop toads with
MIN. And he always brings back the
bass
lot of fishermen said Uncle Jim"
Will come up here only when the water
is clear cryssll. That's where thew
are wrong. / like it a light cider color
That's clear enough SO the bass can see
the bait. but they can't so easily see
you in the boat If the sun is shining
don't stand up in the boat to fish You
move and your shadow moves, and the
fsh are frightened away. A bass is as
whimsical as woman and as fas-
tidious about his diet at times as a
poodle dog. At other times he is rave
nous as wolf and will snap and grab
at anything that comes along. / have
caught bass with not a thing on my
hook but brilliantly colored autumn
leaf And / have known times when he
wouldn't touch quail on toast But al
ways he is a gallant gentleman and
ought to be treated as SUCH"
Uncle Jim" Trammell fished the Po-
tomac many years before the black bass
came to dwell there, for the gamester is
not native of the river. He was intro
duced to the Potomac from his home in
the northern lakes, through government
agency, about the time of the outbreak
OF the civil war. Uncle Jim SAYS he
caught his first bass in 1862, and he
didn't know what manner of fish it was
The thing that impressed him most, and
sticks in his memory after more than
half a century, was the amazing fight
the stranger gave him.
Previous TO the coming of the bass the
Potomac swarmed with perch and chubs
with catfish and very large white fish,
which Uncle Jim" says was known as
the fall fish, This fish has disappeared
entirely, the clubs are about gone and
the perch are not numerous. There are
few catfish above Great Falls. In all the
processes of nature the fittest alone sur
vive. and the small-mouthed black bass
is thus demonstrating his right TO live.
Though the smal-mouthed bass is not II
native of the Potomac. he found there
water exactly suited to his needs. Away
back in the dim and misty ages, when the
progenitors of man still were hanging by
their prehensile tails from the limbs OF
trees, and the mammoth and the dino
sauria and other strange beasts and giant
reptiles came down to the rivers brink to
uuench their thlrsts. great upheaval OF
nature set what is the valley of the
Potomac up on edge and left it there, at
an angle of about 40 degrees.
Down through this rocky gorge. dur
ing the course of some hundreds of thou
sands of years, the waters cut their way:
but it never was a smooth and easy way.
Always the river is a troubled one
Around rocks and over rocks it flows,
torrent where the hills crowd in upon ii.
an expanse of currents and rifles and
eddies where the path is white.
Here. in the broken and tumultuous
reaches, rules the Small-mouthed black
bass-a king in his own right. Here, too.
the sport of taking him becomes a kingly
one.