250 THE PERCH 



thanks largely to some eel-boys who came down from 

 Athlone to lay night-lines. They taught me to catch 

 perch fry and use them alive as bait. Their modus 

 operandi was very ingenious. First of all we had to 

 find the perch fry by standing in the bows of the 

 boat and slowly punting her over the rocky shallows 

 by the sides of the lake. As soon as a shoal 

 was discovered, one of my men would slide quietly 

 into the water, take the sprit-sail out of the boat, and 

 sink it by means of stones. The mast supported one 

 side of the sail, the oar, placed at an acute angle to it, 

 the other side, while the third side was pressed down 

 to the bottom of the lake by means of stones, a few 

 pebbles being thrown into the centre of the sail 

 to keep that from floating. Then the man would 

 clamber into the boat again and gently take her 

 towards the fry, which he drove before him, very 

 steadily and very slowly, over the sail. Just as they 

 were entering the trap he would slide into the water, 

 and, before the little fish discovered their danger, the 

 sunken edge of the sail was lifted up, and there would 

 be one or two hundred perch fry swimming about 

 in a kind of canvas bath. The next thing to do, after 

 throwing out the stones, was to get the water out of 

 the sail, and this was a tedious business, for it per- 

 colated very slowly through the canvas. Frequently 



