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Game Fish Fishing Black Bass.
Game Fish Fishing Black Bass Fishing for Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass Owing to my admiration for the Black Bass as a game fish, and my championship of its cause for many years, and my efforts to place it in the front rank of game fishes, and my desire to have it placed in new waters, I am sometimes, thoughtlessly and unjustly, accused of being opposed to the brook-trout, and of advising the stocking of trout-streams with my " favorite " fish. Nothing can be further from the truth. I am utterly opposed to the introduction of Black Bass into waters in which there is the remotest chance for the brook-trout or rainbow-trout to thrive. I yield to no one in love and admiration for the brook-trout. I was perfectly familiar with it before I ever" saw a Black Bass ; but I am not so blinded by prejudice but that I can share that love with the Black Bass, which for several reasons is des tined to become the favorite game-fish of America. " My offending hath this extent, no more." Let us look this thing squarely in the face. I do not wish to disturb any one's preference, but I do want to dis abuse the minds of anglers of all prejudice in the matter. The brook-trout must go. It has .already gone from many streams, and is fast disappearing from others. It is sad to contemplate the extinction of the " angler's pride " in pub lic waters, but the stern fact remains that in this utilitarian age its days are numbered and its fate irrevocably sealed. As the red man disappears before the tread of the white man, the " living arrow " of the mountain streams goes with him. The trout is essentially a creature of the pine forests. Its natural home is in waters shaded by pine, balsam, spruce and hemlock, where the cold mountain brooks retain their low temperature, and the air is redolent with balsamic fra rance ; where the natural food of the trout is produced in the greatest abundance, and where its breeding grounds are undisturbed. But the iron has entered its soul. As the buffalo disap pears before the iron horse, the brook-trout vanishes before the axe of the lumberman. As the giants of the forest are laid low, and the rank and file decimated, and the wooden walls of the streams battered down, the hot, fiery sun leaps through the breaches, disclosing the most secret recesses of forest and stream to the bright glare of mid-day. The moisture of the earth is dissipated, the mosses and ferns become shriveled and dry, the wintergreen and partridge berry, the ground pine and trailing arbutus struggle feebly for existence ; the waters decrease in size and increase in temperature, the conditions of the food supply and of the breeding-grounds of the brook-trout are changed; it dete riorates in size and numbers and vitality, until finally, in accordance with the immutable laws of nature and the great principle of the " survival of the fittest " (not the fittest from the angler's point of view, but the fittest to survive the changes and mutations consequent on the march of civilization), it disappears altogether. Much has been said about the " trout hog " in connec tion with the decrease of the trout. But while he deserves all the odium and contempt heaped upon him by the honest angler, the result would be the same were the trout allowed undisturbed and peaceable possession of the streams, so far as the fish-hook is concerned, while the axe of the lumber man continues to ring its death knell. Let us, then, cherish and foster and protect the crimson spotted favorite of our youthful days as long as possible in public waters, and introduce the rainbow-trout, or the Dolly Varden, or some of the Pacific black-spotted trout, or the English brown trout, when he has disappeared ; and when all these succumb, then, and not till then, introduce the Black Bass. But let us give these cousins of the brook trout a fair trial first, and without prejudice. There are plenty of lakes, ponds and large streams in the Eastern States into which the Black Bass can be introduced without interfering with trout-waters. For many years to come brook-trout will be artificially cultivated, and the supply thus kept up in preserved waters by wealthy angling clubs ; but by the alteration of the na tural conditions of their existence they will gradually de crease in size and quality, until finally they will either cease to be or degenerate to such a degree as to forfeit even this praiseworthy protection. I must dissent from the statement sometimes made that the Black Bass is the bluefish of fresh waters. The Black Bass is voracious so are all game fishes but not more so than the brook-trout. The character of a fish's teeth de termines the nature of its food and the manner of its feed ing. The bluefish has the most formidable array of teeth of any fish of its size compressed, lancet-shaped, covered with enamel, and exceedingly strong and sharp, in fact, miniature shark teeth while the Black Bass has soft, small, brush-like teeth, incapable of wounding, and intended only for holding its prey, which is swallowed whole. The brook-trout has longer, stronger and sharper teeth than the Bass, and a large, long mouth, capable of swallowing a big ger fish than a Black Bass of equal weight. The mouth of the Bass is very wide, for the purpose of taking in crawfish with their long and aggressive claws, and not, as supposed by some, for the swallowing of large fishes. The Black Bass gets the best of other game fishes, not by devouring the fishes themselves, but by devouring their food. For this reason, more than any other, they should not be intro duced into the same waters with brook-trout. The pike or pickerel is the bluefish of fresh waters, and in dental ca pacity and destructive possibilities is'not far behind it. The brook-trout, I think, is the most beautiful of all fishes, as a fresh-run salmon is the handsomest and most perfect in form. The salmon is a king, the brook trout a courtier, but the Black Bass, in his virescent cuirass and spiny crest, is a doughty warrior whose prowess none can gainsay. I have fished for brook-trout in the wilds of Canada, where a dozen would rise at every cast of the fly, and it would be a scramble as to which should get it great lusty trout, from a half pound to two pounds in weight but the black fly made life a burden by day, and the mosquito by night. The glory and beauty of the madly rushing stream breaking Wildly over the great black rocks, and the quiet, glassy pools below reflecting the green spires of spruce and fir, availed nothing to the swollen eyelids and smarting brow. I have cast from early morn till dewy eve, on a good sal mon stream in New Brunswick, for three days in succession without a single rise. I have cast standing in a birch-bark canoe until both arms and legs were weary with the strain, and then rested by casting while sitting but all in vain. The swift-flowing, crystal stream reflected back the fierce glare of the northern sun, and flowed on in silence toward the sea. The fir-clad hills rose boldly on either side, and stood in silent, solemn grandeur for neither note of bird nor hum of bee disturbed the painful silence of the Cana dian woods. At such times would flash on memory's mirror many a fair scene of limpid lake or rushing river, shadowed by cool, umbrageous trees, and vocal with myriads of voices where the Black Bass rose responsive to the swish of the rod and dropping of the fly. Or, should the Bass be coy and shy, or loth to leave his lair beneath some root or shelv ing rock the melody of the birds, the tinkle of a cow-bell, the chirp of a cricket, the scudding of a squirrel, filled up the void and made full compensation. The true angler can find real pleasure in catching little sunfish, or silversides, if the stream and birds, and bees and butterflies do their part by him ; while the killing of large or many fish, even salmon or trout, in silence and solitude, may fail to fully satisfy him. I can find something beautiful or interesting in every fish that swims. I have an abiding affection for every one, from the lowly, naked bull-head, the humble scavenger of the waters, to the silver-spangled king who will not deign to soil his dainty lips with food during his sojourn in crystal streams, and I love the brook-trout best of all. But, as an angler, I can find more true enjoyment, more blessed peace, in wading some rushing, rocky stream, flecked by the shad ows of overhanging elm and sycamore, while tossing the silken gage to the knight in Lincoln-green, my ears con scious of the rippling laughter of the merry stream, the joyous matin of the woodland thrush, the purring under tone of the quivering leaves my eyes catching glimpses of hill and meadow, wren and robin, bee and bittern, fern and flower, and my breath inhaling the sweet fragrance of upland clover and elder-blossom I say I can find more true enjoyment in this than paying court to the lordly salmon, or the lovely trout, in its stiff and silent demesne, with annointed face, gloved hands, and head swathed in gauze. If this be treason, my brother, make the most of it. I am content. It is my honest conviction. After killing every species of game-fish east of the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to Florida, and a few in foreign lands, I find the knightly Bass and his tourney-field all sufficient.
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