WHERE TO FISH FOR PERCH. 161 



of the sun ; the moss-grown piles and camp- 

 sheating about locks and sluice-gates, and the 

 back-waters of mill-streams are all favourite perch 

 haunts. In canals and navigable rivers perch seek 

 the deeper parts where barges lie, and about floats 

 of timber, choosing in preference (if obtainable, 

 places where the bottom is sandy and pebbly. It 

 is advisable when for the first time on an unknown 

 river in quest of perch, to note where the small fry 

 of dace, roach, gudgeon, &c., congregate, and there 

 to drop the paternoster quietly in, and keep the 

 line taut from the winch the moment the bottom 

 is felt ; then move it gently along the bottom 

 lifting it now and again by the point of the rod 

 until the water adjacent has been thoroughly 

 searched. If fish are there, and in a feeding 

 humour, the angler will soon be aware of it ; at the 

 sharp " tug-tug " he should strike at once, and the 

 perch nine times out of ten will be hooked. If it 

 proves to be a good fish, be in no hurry, but play 

 him gently, for perch have tender cheeks, and if 

 handled roughly, a hole is easily torn, out of which 

 the hook may very likely drop if the slightest 

 slackness of line is allowed, and the perch be lost. 

 If played properly, after the first few plunges are 

 over the fish is your own ; then get him to your 

 landing-net, and mind his prickly back fin. Perch 

 sometimes refuse a minnow on paternoster, or 

 only mouth and kill it ; if the angler finds this is 

 the case, he should hold a loose yard of line in his 

 left hand, and on feeling the fish's tug slack the 

 line and drop the point of his rod ; wait two or three 

 seconds, then recover the slack line, strike firmly 

 but gently, and the chances, are he will hook his 

 fish ; by following this suggestion, he gives the 



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