The Washington times., 1921-11-13

HESOhDc nave Dcen 8ndtJeret
n. this season in plymouth basl
fishing. In fact every angler
in bass fishing hal
made one or more record-breakins
catches in the creekr If the lower
Potomac. Robert W. Harris, OF
Fredericksburg, Va, an expert
enced bass fisherman, has caugh'
more than ESQ gamesters this fall
His catch Of forty bass (describet
below, made In Potomac and Aces
creeks last month, was indeed
record many anglers would b
proud to possess.
Fredericksburg. Va.
Nov. Z, 1921
Mr.. X. A. Angler,
Dear Brother Fisherman:
In accordance with your wish OF
November 8, asking me to give
my experience In catching the rec
ord string OF bass. would like to
say II was much easier TO catch
them, than TO write about same.
But anyhow. here goes for my
personally conducted fishing trip.
Last fall promised friend Of
mine, VIII Mussleman. farmer OF
Spottsylvania county, living six
miles from here. TO take him bass
fishing. I was taken sick. and
could not fulfill my engagement, so
kept II until this fall. Bill arrived
in town and was ready to go a.
o'clock. We started for Poto-
mac creek, about eight miles from
here, In Stafford county. my old
fishing grounds.
We carried along bucket OF
large minnows for two reasons,
my companion doesn't cast, then
again there might come up a blow
and / couldn't cast. so would get
In q calm, spot and fish live bait.
But live bait fishing is too slow
sport for me. I prefer going TO
them IL ] want a large string. in
stead OF waiting for them to come
to me. AZ
We arrived at the creek about
daybreak without a mishap. 1t WAS
an ideal morning for the gamesters
to hit them up. Cloudy and a
very low tide, for the wind had
been blowing from the northwest
for several days. always have
good luck under these conditions.
Never go fishing when the wind IL
from the east, for this makes a
flood tide and water Ia everywhere,
In fact II one desires he can fish
in the woods. A north or north
west wind will blow the water out
OF the creek and drive the bass
from the coves and flats to the chan
mel; here they feed In the grass
and liily pads on the edge.
The channel being quite a dis
lance from the shore we had quite
a hard time getting there on ac-
count Of the low. water. But when
we did reach the deep water we
were fully repaid / rugged up my
casting rod. putting on an Al Foss
shimmy wiggler, with red buck tail
and pork rind The tide was still
going out. I asked Bill 10 paddle
down the creek and keep casting
distance from the edge OF the
channel, made cast and
nailed a beauty, weighing about
III pounds. Bill says to me, Il
believe we will get bunch today"
Every several casts i would land
one, losing one occasionally.
I never in all my experience I'm
casting remember them hitting the
pork rind as they did that morning.
We had fished about half mile
down the creek, we were now
across from the mouth of Acca
creek. Here we anchored to oil
my reel and string the eighteen
bass. for we hadn't had time before.
Bin had been so faithful padding
the boat that I said to him 1t was
time that he was having some
sport and suggested that we live
bait fish over near some old piiing.
We fished for an hour without
getting a strike and came to the
conclusion that we were losing
valuable time and decided to go
back casting. Before leaving, i
said to Bin that there ought to be
some bass around these piles. So
putting on a wiggier, landed five
bass. three of them weighing from
four to four and one-half pounds.
From here we started for the
mouth of Acca creek. Rowing out
of the creek was an elderly gentle
man; I recognized him as the same
party who helped me locate my
self when was lost in a fog last
year: He told me his name. but
] forgot II, but remember he holds
an important position in the Blu
reau OF Engraving and Printing.
He was out of bait. SO we let him
have our minnows. During the
course of conversation he told us
about having a fish to break his
line.
After we had left MIN and gone
a short distance, / noticed a cork
sitting straight up on the edge OF
the channel. Upon investigation
we found large jack fish hooked
to our friends missing line. We
rowed back to where he was fish
ing and returned his line with the
pike hooked to IL. You talk about
a surprised man, well, he surely
was one.
1 started casting again. Going up
to the head of the creek and back
1 picked up seventeen, bringing
our total up to forty. They were
still hitting when we quit at 5
O'Clock. I wanted to stay until
shutdown, but Bill thought of the
distance he had to go, the cows
to milk, stock to feed and his wife
would worry about him IL he was
late getting home.
We were on our way out OF the
creek when we met our friend from
washington again and he insisted
chat xya gn ahoar hia heat and