212 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, 



year. He is very abstemious in winter, yet will 

 bite then in the midst of the day, if it be warm ; 

 and note that all fish bite best about the midst of 

 a warm day in winter, and he hath been observed 

 by some, not usually, to bite till the mulberry- 

 tree buds, that is to say, till extreme frosts 

 be past the spring : for when the mulberry-tree 

 blossoms many gardeners observe their forward 

 fruit to be past the danger of frosts ; and some 

 have made the like observation of the perch's 

 biting. 



But bite the perch will, and that very boldly ; 

 and as one has wittily observed, if there be twenty 

 or forty in a hole, they may be, at one standing, 

 all catched, one after another; they being, as 

 he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, 

 though their fellows and companions perish in 

 their sight. And you may observe that they are 

 not like the solitary pike, but love to accompany 

 one another, and march together in troops. 



And the baits for this bold fish are not many : 

 I mean he will bite as well at some or at any of 

 these three as at any or all others whatsoever, a 

 worm, a minnow, or a little frog, of which you 

 may find many in hay-time ; and of worms, the 

 dung-hill worm, called a brandling, I take to be 

 best, being well scoured in moss or fennel ; or he 

 will bite at a worm that lies under cow-dung with 

 a bluish head. And if you rove for a perch with 

 a minnow, then it is best to be alive, you sticking 

 your hook through his back fin ; or a minnow 



