Book of the Black Bass

Book excerpt: Book of the Black Bass by mid-western medical doctor and author, James A. Henshall, details the complete scientific and life history of the black bass, a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (family Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. Sometimes erroneously called black trout—the name ‘trout’ more correctly refers to certain members of the salmon family—the black bass are distributed throughout a large area east of the Rocky Mountains in North America, from the Hudson Bay basin in Canada to northeastern Mexico. Black bass of all species are highly sought-after game fish, and bass fishing is an extremely popular sport throughout the bass’s native range. Complete with a practical treatise on angling and fly fishing and a full description of tools, tackle and implements, Book of the Bass is a remarkable work of angling and fly fishing literature on the subject of Black Bass that will appeal anyone “with an interest in a fish that has never been so fully appreciated as its merits deserve.” This edition is the 1904 revised edition, which contains much of the writings in Henshall’s 1889 follow-up, More About the Black Bass. Wonderfully illustrated throughout. “James A. Henshall’s name will always be associated with the Black Bass. Not alone is the sportsman indebted to him, but the ichthyologist as well for the knowledge of this fish.... In a masterly manner the author gives the fullest instruction concerning tools, tackle and implements to be used in black bass fishing, and at the conclusion there is to be read a chapter on fly fishing in its broadest sense.”—The New York Times, 1904