Another quality in a game-fish is measured by his resistance when hooked and by his efforts to escape. I think no fish of equal weight exhibits so much finesse and stubborn resistance, under such conditions, as the black-bass. Most fishes when hooked attempt to escape by tugging and pulling in one direction, or by boring toward the bottom, and if not successful in breaking away soon give up the unequal contest. But the black-bass exhibits, if not intelligence, something akin to it, in his strategical manoeuvres. Sometimes his first effort is to bound into the air at once and attempt to shake out the hook, as if he knew his misfortune came from above. At other times he dashes furiously, first in one direction, then in another, pulling strongly meanwhile, then leaps into the air several times in quick succession, madly shaking himself with open jaws. I have seen him fall on a slack line, and again by using his tail as a lever and the water as a fulcrum, throw himself over a taut line, evidently with the intent to break it or tear out the hook. Another clever ruse is to wind the line around a root or rock, and still another is to embed himself in a clump of water-weeds if permitted to do so. Or, finding it useless to pull straight away, he reverses his tactics and swims rapidly toward the angler, shaking himself and working his jaws, meanwhile, as if he knew that with a slack line he would be more apt to disengage the hook. I have never known a black-bass to sulk like the salmon by lying motionless on the bottom. He is never still unless he succeeds in reaching a bed of weeds. He is wily and adroit, but at the same time he is brave and valiant. He seems to employ all the known tactics of other fishes, and to add a few of his own in his gallant fight for freedom. As a food-fish there is, in my estimation, but one fresh-water fish that is better, the whitefish of the Great Lakes. Its flesh is white, firm, and flaky, with a fine savor, and a juicy, succulent quality that is lacking with most other fresh-water fishes. About the spawning period, especially in fish from weedy ponds, it is somewhat musky or muddy in flavor, like other fishes in similar situations; but by skinning the fish instead of scaling it much of that unpleasant feature is removed. BLACK-BASS TACKLE