Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1898 — FISHING FOR BASS. [ARTICLE]

FISHING FOR BASS.

It Is Weird and Uncanny at Night# bat £ucceasfnl. Black bass fishing at night during the late fall months is a sport peculiar to Lake Keuka. Long experience has demonstrated that these capricious fish have entirely different ideas about eating In the day time and at night. In fishing for black bass by day on Lake Keuka the angler is obliged to have th< choicest of live bait—minnows being the best—or the brightest of flies. But at night, during the latter part of October, and all through November and December, too, if he can endure the weather, the fisherman seeks places where the water is from 40 to 50 feet in depth, and where the bottom is rocky. Instead of single hooks on his leader, baited with lively minnows, or trailing the fly, he uses a gang of from six to ten hooks, all small, tied in pairs an inch apart. They are tied to strong, gut. The regulation bait is a golden shiner, a fish caught In the lake. It Is hooked to the gang by the Up and tail, in a curve, so that when it Is trolled through the water it will spin. Where the leader, which is six feet long, is fastened to the line another line Is attached. This is let down to the bottom. The gang of hooks thus plays the shiner in the water free from the bottom of the lake and four or five feet.above It This rig is used at the end of 100 or 150 feet of line. The boat drifts or is rowed very slowly. This has always been the most killing bait for night-feeding black bass, although last fall, as a joke on an angler whose experience in night fishing was exceedingly limited, a wellknown sportsman rigged up a fly made of roosters’ feathers on an immense white body, tied to a hook the size of a codfish hook, the whole being more than four inches long and three Inches broad. This was given to the intended victim of the joke, with the assurance that it was the latest discovery as a killing night hire, and several expert anglers who were in the secret went out to enjoy his efforts with the nondescript fly. To the amazement and chagrin of the experts, the unsophisticated angler was the only one In th© party who killed any bass that night, and he landed half a dozen, the smallest of which weighed three pounds, all taken with the preposterous lure. The bass would take nothing else, and the angler would doubtless have landed more If the tremendous fly had not been torn to pieces by the assaults of the six big fellows he hooked. " The black bass caught at night are invariably of the largest size. It Is rare that one much under two pounds is killed. They range from that to four pounds. A catch of 20 by one angler is on record as having weighed 65 pounds. The gang of hooks and ths dead shiner have been tried time and time again in the daytime without success. The water about Bluff Point, a bold promontory rising from the lake at its junction with what is known as the west branch of the lake, is the favorite spot for night bass fishing. The shores are rocky and the water very deep. If a person is rugged and rough and likes a dash of the weird and uncanny mingled with his surroundings, he will surely enjoy black bass fishing at night on Lake Keuka. Hammondsport Special N. Y. Sun.