PERCH-FISHING 65 



Walton remarked of a fishing reel, which he had never seen, 

 and as lesser men might observe of ghosts or ping-pong, or 

 The Pater- a fashionable lady's hat, which "is to be observed 

 noster. b^ter by seeing one of them than by a large demon- 

 stration of words." To the running line is attached a gut 

 trace about four feet long, with a small leaden plummet at the 

 end thereof, and to this trace are looped at intervals three 

 pieces of fine salmon gut five inches long, each armed with 

 a hook. The uppermost hook is generally baited with a live 

 minnow, the two lower ones with choice earthworms. The 

 paternoster is used without a float ; the plummet is dropped 

 into those parts of the water which experience points to as the 

 likeliest haunts for perch hollow banks, tree roots, piles, camp- 

 sheating by locks and weirs, and, in lakes, especially along the 

 margins of beds of that dark green, round-stemmed rush which 

 some people call bulrush, while others apply that name to the 

 reedmace. One place after another should be tried ; the 

 presence of feeding fish is signified by a sharp tug on the line, 

 which should be kept moderately taut ; where one fish is, good 

 sport may be expected, for perch are seldom solitary swimmers. 

 The paternoster, however, is an elaborate artifice which is 

 seldom resorted to except in the neighbourhood of large towns, 

 Float-fish- where fish have become scarce and wary. Nine 

 ing * anglers out of ten content themselves with a float 

 and a single hook, baited with a worm or small live fish. 

 Floats are of many varieties, from the homely cork to the 

 delicately fashioned quill ; but they fall under two principal 

 kinds the stationary float, for fishing in still water, and the 

 travelling float, for streams into which a skilful Nottingham 

 angler will search the ground to a distance of seventy or eighty 

 yards below where he stands. 



Perch may be taken by the spinning bait, but inasmuch as 

 they swim in shoals, confined to a limited extent of water, the 

 live bait is found a more profitable means of capture. They 

 also take the artificial fly, but this is only exceptionally successful. 



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