A few weeks ago I shared an old newspaper column called “America Out-of-Doors” with Bass Fishing Archives readers. The column was run in the 1930s and listed several writers under its banner, who I assume would rotate in and out of authoring on whatever topics they chose that would be timely to readers. Several of those authors are familiar to BFA readers, authors like Cal Johnson, O.W. Smith, Ozark Ripley, and Robert Page Lincoln. Readers said they’d like to see more of these columns reprinted on the pages of this site, so that’s what I’m going to do today, with an “America Out-of-Doors” column from June 20, 1937, and another piece written by the great Robert Page Lincoln. I seem to be on a Robert Page Lincoln kick lately, but I assure you that it’s strictly coincidental. This particular article is titled “Our Fresh Water Fish – Pickerel and Bass,” with Lincoln’s suggestions for bass baits comprising most of the short column. That’s what I like about “America Out-of-Doors”: it’s a short, well-written and concise, and offers a variety of topics by different writers that keep it interesting. It also makes it easy to cut and paste the entire column here for BFA readers.
I’ll let you, dear reader, digest Lincoln’s column (below) at your leisure, but I do have a few thoughts to share before we go through it. The first is that I thoroughly enjoy reading the work of writers from this era. Very often you get language that you just don’t hear that much anymore, and written in a style that is almost poetic when compared to the more matter-of-fact, straight-forward style of columnists today. Cal Johnson is a great one for lively, romantic prose. Lincoln isn’t known for his stylish writing style, but rather for his attention to detail and ability to thoroughly explore a subject to the full. But even he is a product of his time and occasionally uses language that you rarely hear these days. How many of us would use the word “commoting” to describe the action of a topwater lure?
Later, when Lincoln talks about the wobbler-type lure he says, “the Wobbler type of plug lure has accounted for more bass in its day than any other bass attractor.” I’m guessing he was referring specifically to the South Bend Bass Oreno and its many copies. And Lincoln gives special mention and extra space to pork rind as an effective – and weedless – bait for bass, calling it a bass angler’s “best bet.”
He concludes his bass lures discussion with mention of flies and spinners, for both smallmouth and largemouth, and every time I read of anglers in the early 20th century fly fishing for bass I cannot help but wonder if and when this sport will ever make a significant comeback among baitcasting and spinning anglers. Every year I tell myself I’m going to dust off the old fly rod and pursue bass with it with some regularity and commitment, and every year I fail to do that very thing. Fly fishing for bass is magnificent sport, but in my opinion it also requires a more methodical and patient mindset than does using a baitcaster or spinning outfit. And I’m not a great one when it comes to patience. Maybe this year…
Lincoln finishes with a nod to northern pike and musky and the effectiveness of spoons and “bass size pikie plugs” on those torpedo-shaped predators. As all bass anglers know, where you’ll find bass you’ll also likely find pike. I hope you enjoy reading this “America Out-of-Doors” column as much as I did, but I promise to try to find the next one with a different author than Robert Page Lincoln.
I’d also like to note that another interesting little bass fishing tidbit appeared on this page of the Lexington Leader in a column titled “Fishing Gossip.” It noted that “The largest bass entered last week in this column’s contest weighed 5 pounds, 6½ ounces, and was caught by Guy W. Bartlett of Versailles at Herrington Lake June 17 on a Creek Chub Darter while he was fishing the ‘rises.’ Congratulations, Mr. Bartlett, and may the South Bend Pike-Oreno we are sending you catch a larger one this week.”
