235 



CHAPTER III 



THE PERCH OF THE RIVER 



THE perch of the river is cautious to a degree, 

 particularly where he has been caught times and oft 

 in babyhood and returned to his native element 

 to grow bigger. This is the general rule. We may 

 possibly come across some half-stagnant shallow 

 stream where perch are many and food is limited, 

 and here the fish bite eagerly enough. One such 

 little river that I have in my mind is a portion of the 

 Loddon, robbed of most of its water by a mill to 

 which the stream is led away through an artificial 

 cut. Here there is never more than a foot or two of 

 water, for mud and weeds accumulate, and there 

 rarely comes that winter torrent which, in scouring 

 out the bed of a river, does inestimable good to its 

 inhabitants provided those inhabitants are not trout, 

 or, if they be of the Salmonidae, the scouring is not 

 done in the spawning season. 



One day in a fit of curiosity I strolled to this 



