not to much advantage. But the best fly is made of scarlet feather or cloth (which is better) with a piece of pickerel's tongue, cut in a fork so as to hang from the bend of the hook." The latter to this day is a favorite lure of the bait caster, but, almost needless to say, not of the fly fisherman!
The only mention of the bass by Thad. Norris in his "American Anglers Book" (1864) states that he caught them skittering a spoon. Genio Scott in his "Fishing in American Waters" (1869) says nothing more of the bass than: " This fish is taken by casting an artificial fly or by trolling with a feathered spoon, with a minnow impaled on a gang of hooks and forming spinning tackle." Robert Roosevelt in his " Superior Fishing" (1865) says: "That evening was devoted to the black bass which took fly and spoon greedily " but as trolling a fly was more commonly practiced than casting it he probably used that method.
