THE WHITE PERCH. 



403 



American anglers in his day, only mentions our fish as inhab- 

 iting the estuaries and fresh waters that run into the sea, and 

 does not speak of its capture with the fly. Scott, who was 

 not much of a fly-fisher, if at all, says: "This fish is peculiarly 

 adapted for the sport of juveniles," and after recommending 

 its capture with light Bass tackle, further says: "A White 

 Perch which weighs but a pound affords sport with light 

 tackle, and, when weighing three pounds, it plays very vig- 

 orously." No doubt! I never took one that would weigh 

 two pounds, and have had good sport with them. Do you 

 ask about tackle.' A Trout rig, I use that for everything, a 

 ten and one-half foot split-bamboo rod of ten ozs. , a water- 

 proof silk line (heavy "D," I think,) and an eight-foot gut 

 leader, with either a red ibis, gray drake, Parmacheene-belle, 

 royal coachman or other bright fly, dressed on a No. 5 or 6 

 Sproat hook. My rod is heavy enough to cast a small frog, 

 if I condescended to use bait, or to handle a larger Black 

 Bass than ever struck it; and with that rig I would like to 

 strike a ten-pound Salmon. True, it might be a bad day for 

 the "rig," but if the fly had done its full duty and neither 

 man nor age had impaired the strength of the leader, it would 

 delight me to see a ten-pound fish, of any species, smash the 

 rod or break the line. This rod has stood the severest strain 

 that a rod can get, and that is in tournament casting, and 

 the necessary preliminary practice; and it has won prizes, 

 in other hands. But all this is a digression, provoked by an 

 inviting foot-path across the untrodden fields of fly-fishing 

 for White Perch, and just how to get back into the forsaken 

 highway is a problem. My evil genius suggests that I give 

 a technical description of the White Perch ; beginning with 

 its systematic name, or names, and after giving all the syn- 

 onyms, and a map of its fin-rays, to enumerate its scales in 

 both lateral and vertical rows, ending with its dental and 

 digestive apparatus, which all readers will acknowledge to be 

 the product of a learned man but will not read. A better 



