Another fine place for bass within an easy distance of New York is Greenwood Lake, which lies half in New York and half in New Jersey. It is on the Erie railroad and has several good hotels and a club house open during the summer. Guides are to be had at a moderate figure, and the fishing during the last three seasons has been good.
Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island, is another good fishing ground. Take the Long Island railroad to the depot at Ronkonkoma; from there stages run to the lake during the season. Distance, about two miles.
Tuxedo Park is confined to members of the Tuxedo Park Club, and has a fine supply of large and lively bass, which take a fly remarkably well.
At Lake Hopatcong, N. Y., bass are plentiful, but without a guide little good is to be done. It lies on the Morris and Essex railroad, two hours ride from Hoboken. During the summer a very good house, the Hotel Breslin, is open. This hotel was first opened last year, is exceedingly moderate in its charges, is well fitted throughout, and is by far the best house of them all. There are several guides at the Lake, the best average of them being Morris Decker, who has an island in the lake on which he lets out tents to camping parties, supplying them with all necessaries at reasonable terms. He is well posted in the various feeding grounds, and with him good sport is a certainty, if the weather is right. There are some very large bass here. Mr. Eugene C. Blackford has caught several at four and a half pounds, and five and a quarter pounds. One was caught three years ago weighing eight pounds two ounces. There are plenty of good pickerel, and anglers are but little annoyed by sun-fish or eels. There is a fine fishing club-house on Bertrand Island, which is very exclusive. The best bait here has proved to be live bait, minnows, or frogs. Now as regards bait for still-fishing, I have tried almost everything at odd times.
Bass are very peculiar fish as regards feeding. Sometimes they take one bait right along all day, and at other times will change morning, noon, and night, also from sunshine to cloud. I generally start in the early morning with grasshoppers, and if that does not suit them, I vary it to the helgramite—known to naturalists as the larvæ of the horned corydalis, locally called "dobsons," "dobsell," "hellion," "crawler," "kill-devil," etc.—a live minnow, small green frog, small bull-head, or a "lamper"—local name for small lamprey eel.
The dobson is the most stable bait for still fishing, and a good plan is to pass a piece of silk under the shield in the back and then pass the hook through that; the same scheme is equally good with grasshoppers. Towards evening, I found worms a very good bait, except when rain threatened.
In using a minnow, I pass the hook up through the lower lip and out the nostril; it then lives a long time. Some anglers hook through both lips, the lower one first. Hooked either way, a dead minnow moves like a live one. I always treat a minnow as Izaak Walton spoke of a frog, "as if I loved him."
The angler cannot be too careful of his minnows. I change the water frequently, not waiting for them to come up to breathe; it is then too late, and they cannot be resuscitated. In hot weather I place a piece of ice in flannel on the top of the pail. A little salt added to the water is a great improvement, about as much as will lie on a silver quarter, to two gallons of water. Fifty minnows to a five gallon pail with a handful of weeds to keep the fish from bruising themselves, is about the right proportion of fish to space.
Of all baits the old Florida "bob," I think, is still the most effective. It was mentioned by Bertram, in 1764, and is still used. It is made by tying three hooks back to back, invested with a piece of deer's tail somewhat in the manner of a large hackle, studded with scarlet feathers, forming a tassel or tuft similar to that used on the trolling spoon. If this be thrown with a sweeping surface draw under trees or bushes, it is almost irresistible.