ht my first
'lunge has been already told, and the story was, like the fish itself,
a pretty long one. I may confess at once, with deep regret, that I
have no excuse for length as to black bass, since I did not get even
one. I had been warned that only in the early part of the season--the
month of June--is there any chance with the fly in lakes, and very
little in the rivers. They were, however, to be obtained by bait
fishing, and on the day when I killed the 'lunge Ben took me out in the
evening equipped with the correct tackle for bass. It consisted of a
single piece of bamboo, about 15 ft. long, a strong line a few inches
longer, a bung as float, and a hook with 2-in. shank, and gape of about
3/4 in. You will remember this kind of rig-out, only with hook of
moderate size, as often used by Midland yokels in bream fishing. It is
delightfully primitive. Heavily leaded, you swing out the line to its
full extent, and, hooking a fish, haul him in without the assistance of
such a superfluous luxury as a winch. There was a kind of bait-can in
the bow of the canoe, but I asked no questions, contenting myself with
trailing with a 2-in. phantom.

The fishing ground was along the water-grasses and reeds that extended
hundreds of yards from the shore into the lake, and very shallow it
was. The wind had completely died away, and the sun by six o'clock was
well down in the west. Ben by and by told me to wind up, and urged the
canoe into the heart of the weeds, in and in, until we were apparently
in the midst of a verdant field of high coarse grass. Here he threw
out the killick and unwound the line from his fishing pole. Then from
the bait-can he took out a half-grown frog and impaled it upon the huge
hook, which I now perceived was of the size and blue colour of the eel
hooks of our boyhood. Looking around as he made his preparations I
began to understand things. There was a uniform depth of 3 ft., and
here and there were clearances--small pools, free of vegetation, and of
varying dimensions. They might have an area of a couple or a couple of
dozen yards. The frog was swished out into these open spaces, and if a
bass was there, well and good. The fish was not allowed more than five
minutes to make up his mind, and if nothing happened the bait was
withdrawn and hurled elsewhere. If the bass mean feeding they let you
know it pretty quickly, and in this simple way a fisherman often, in a
couple of hours, gets a quart