254 THE PERCH 



friend who knows little of angling but has ambitions 

 in that direction, it is a good plan to instruct the 

 gamekeeper to collect worms and throw in a few every 

 day, or every other day, at certain spots. At the end 

 of a month or six weeks fresh fishing places should 

 be chosen and baited up. As a rule, paternoster or 

 float tackle is most useful ; but if the bottom is hard 

 gravel or sand, then a ledger may be used. One 

 advantage of the ledger is that the gut, lying on the 

 bottom, is not observed by the fish, which pick up 

 the worm or other bait, and are quite ignorant of 

 the fact that there is a line attached to it. But both 

 the ledger and float-ledger tackle, baited with worms, 

 are more appropriately used when fishing for carp or 

 tench than perch. 



Spinning for perch may be practised with very 

 good results in lakes. Whether on fishing intent or 

 not, I generally carry a few flies, hooks, and artificial 

 spinning baits in my portmanteau ; and the last time 

 I was on the Continent, when rowing across the 

 Boden See from Constance to the Duke of Baden's 

 beautiful place on the island of Mainau, I trailed an 

 artificial minnow behind the boat, and was delighted 

 to catch half a dozen fair-sized perch quite different 

 to anything I had hitherto seen. They were of the 

 familiar shape and had the usual bars of colour, 



