242 THE PERCH 



October is often a first-rate month for perch fishing. 

 One does not then, as a rule, get such days of brilliant 

 sport as occasionally occur in the winter after a big 

 flood, but the fishing is on the whole better, and the 

 meteorological conditions generally more agreeable. 

 In a small river we shall find the perch in little 

 pools here and there, catching perhaps half a dozen 

 in one place and a few in another. But in big 

 rivers the best places in autumn are under overhang- 

 ing banks, where the water runs not too rapidly, and 

 particularly where the withy bushes project their 

 branches into the water. Very gently should the 

 punt be dropped down stream, and the paternoster 

 shot in here and there close to the edges of the 

 bushes. Paternostering should now be done in a 

 more leisurely manner than at the commencement of 

 the season, and when a fish is caught another trial 

 should' be made in the same place, for the perch are 

 beginning to congregate. Both minnows and gudgeon 

 are still good baits ; but as likely as not a few sharp frosty 

 nights will send the gudgeon off the feed, and they 

 will be unobtainable except with the aid of a cast net. 

 And soon, alas ! the glorious tints of autumn 

 disappear ; the withies no longer quiver golden in 

 the westering sun ; the land becomes soddened 

 wkh continuous rain. Inch by inch the river rises, 



