248 THE PERCH 



Next day I went and fished patiently for an hour, with- 

 out a single bite, all round and about that pickle bottle. 

 Then I hauled on the string and found the minnows 

 dead and bloated. Still, I did not despair of some 

 day proving the utility or otherwise of the apparatus. 

 If tench are to be attracted into a basket trap by a 

 bunch of brightly coloured flowers, surely perch, 

 which are inquisitive fish, will be curious concerning 

 a submerged aquarium. I have often thought that 

 the pickle bottle, if of any use whatever, would be 

 most of all useful in ponds, for there the position of 

 the fish is not so easy to ascertain as it is in rivers, 

 where the angler is guided to the stronghold of the 

 fish by the contour of the bank, the depth of the 

 river, the nature of the bottom, and the colour of 

 the water. 



Perch fishing in a lake of a few miles in circum- 

 ference has many more charms than that afforded by 

 the best stocked pond. The big lakes of the Shannon, 

 for instance, afford most glorious perch fishing, which 

 comes most conveniently at a time when the spring 

 trouting is over and the pike and salmon fishing of 

 autumn has not yet commenced. August, that worst 

 of fishing months in rivers for almost every kind of 

 fish except gudgeon and chub, is in my experience 

 the best time of all for perching in large lakes ; for 





