THE COMPLETE ANGLER 177 



happy memory. Well, being I have now rested myself a 

 little, I will make you some requital, by telling you some 

 observations of the eel, for it rains still, and because, 

 as you say, our angles are as money put to use, that 

 thrives when we play, therefore we'll sit still and enjoy 

 ourselves a little longer under this honeysuckle hedge.* 



* Although perch, like trout, delight in clear swift rivers, with 

 pebbly, gravelly bottoms, they are often found in sandy, clayey 

 soils ; they love a moderately deep water, and frequent holes by 

 the sides of or near little streams, and the hollows under banks. 

 The perch spawns about the beginning of March : the best time 

 of the year to angle for him is from the beginning of May till the 

 end of June, yet you may continue to fish for him till the end of 

 September ; he is best taken in cloudy, windy weather, and, as some 

 say, from seven to ten in the forenoon, and from two to seven in 

 the afternoon. Other baits for the perch are loaches, miller's thumbs, 

 stickle-backs ; small-lob, and marsh, and red-worms, well scoured ; 

 horse-beans, boiled ; cad-bait, oak-worms, bobs, and gentles. 

 Many of these fish are taken in the rivers about Oxford ; and the 

 author of the Angler's Sure Guide says he once saw the figure of 

 a perch, drawn with a pencil on the door of a house near that city, 

 which was twenty-nine inches long ; and was informed it was the 

 true dimensions of a living perch (Angler's Sure Guide, p. 155). The 

 largest perch are taken with a minnow, hooked with a good hold 

 through the upper lip ; for the perch, by reason of the figure of his 

 mouth, cannot take the bait crosswise, as the pike will. When you 

 fish thus, use a large cork float, and lead your line about nine inches 

 from the bottom, otherwise the minnow will come to the top of the 

 water ; but in the ordinary way of fishing, let your bait hang within 

 about six inches of the ground. H. 



