PERCH AND PERCH FISHING 217 



hooked fairly and squarely in the mouth or not at all 

 Still, when fishing with a somewhat too large worm, 

 on a somewhat too small hook, Walton's advice 

 should be borne in mind or the fish will not adorn 

 the creel. 



Another mistake of ancient anglers and natu- 

 ralists was that the perch was self-conceptive in other 

 words, a hermaphrodite. It is certainly true that 

 instances of hermaphrodkism among fish, including 

 the perch, have been recorded I have myself seen a 

 live hermaphrodite trout but perch, like other fresh- 

 water fish, are divided into two sexes, the males milting 

 the spawn which is deposited by the females. It is a 

 curious fact, however, which I have often noticed, that 

 one catches very few male perch with rod and line. 

 Among a basket of twenty or thirty fish I have some- 

 times failed to find a single male. 



The time of spawning is in the early spring, vary- 

 ing from the end of February to April or even later, 

 according to the season and the climate of the district. 

 The female perch seeks quiet waters for this purpose. 

 I have seen them in hundreds in the canal above New- 

 bury, near its junction with the Kennet, where they 

 had retired from the river to pass their brief honey- 

 moon. But though I have watched perch lying 

 among the weeds of the canal, close to the bank, ready 



