242 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 



Another method of fishing for Perch with Minnows, 

 sometimes used also for Trout and Pike, is what used to 

 be called by the old writers "roving." It consists 

 simply in substituting an ordinary gut-line, single hook, 

 and float for the paternoster, and baiting with a live 

 Minnow hooked through the upper lip. This method 

 is, however, very inferior to the paternoster for either 

 Perch or Pike ; and for Trout is not to be named with 

 either fly, worm, or spun Minnow fishing. 



Besides Minnows and small Gudgeon, the only live 

 bait that Perch take freely, both in rivers, lakes, and 

 ponds, is the worm — a brandling being much the best. 

 It may be used either in the ordinary or " Nottingham 

 style," in the mode already described in the preliminary 

 chapter on " Bottom or Float-fishing." The hook, 

 single, should be from No. 6 to 8 or 9, according to the 

 average size of the Perch in the waters fished. I cannot 

 but think, however, that the two-hook tackle recom- 

 mended for Trout, p. no, may probably eventually 

 supersede the single hook for all kinds of worm fishing, 

 at any rate in running waters, and not impossibly in 

 pond fishing also. At the same time, I have myself 

 tested the tackle in this department of angling suffi- 

 ciently to put the above forward as more than an 

 opinion — an opinion, however, in favour of which strong 

 prima facie arguments exist, and which I should be very 

 pleased to find confirmed by that of any other anglers, 

 who may be inclined, for the sake of experiment, to 



