890 MANUAL OF MODERX FARPJERY. 



ditches and the back streams that have communication with 

 larger rivers. Ponds, which are fed by a brook or rivulet, 

 are favourable receptacles for this fish, and they feed very 

 fat in them. In such situations their haunts are chiefly 

 deep holes, between weeds, or stumps of trees, or on gravelly 

 scours. The perch spawns in the end of April or beginning 

 of May. 



Angling for perch affords great diversion, not only on 

 account of the variety of baits, but also the modes of using 

 them. Of worms, the best kinds are small lob-worms which have 

 no knot, brandlings, red-dunghills, or those found in rotten 

 tan, all well scoured ; the hook may be varied from Xo. 2 to 6, 

 being well whipped to a strong silkworm-gut, with a shot or 

 two a foot from it ; put the point of the hook in at the head 

 of the worm, out again a little lower than the middle, passing 

 it above the shank of the hook upon the gut : take a smaller 

 one, beginning the same way, and bring its head up to the 

 middle of the shank only, then draw the first worm down to 

 the head of the latter, so that the tails may hang one above 

 the other, keeping the point of the hook well covered. This 

 is the most enticing method that can be adopted in worm- 

 fishing : use a small cork-float, to keep the bait at six or 

 twelve inches from the bottom, or sometimes about mid- 

 water : in angling near the bottom, raise the bait very fre- 

 quently from thence almost to the surface, letting it gradu- 

 ally fall again. Should a good shoal be met with, they are 

 so greedy that they may be all caught, unless one escapes 

 that has felt the hook, then all is over ; the fish that has 

 been hooked becomes restless, and soon occasions the shoal 

 to leave the place. Two or three rods may be employed, as 

 they require time to gorge sufl^cient to allow the angler to 

 be prepared to strike them. To draw a shoal of perch toge- 

 ther, three or four balls of stiff clay should be procured, and 



