FEBRUARY 45 



pliability, as will be seen later, are absolutely essential 

 for comfort. As regards a winch, nothing need be added 

 to what has been said in Chapter II. The running line 

 for this work unless wanted for ledgering also should 

 be square-braided undressed silk, fine-chub or coarse- 

 roach size ; but should the angler wish to carry only one 

 line, he may use a fine dressed Olinea, special H. (see 

 Fig. 3), or the silk line rubbed down with Ceroleum 

 occasionally, which gives it enough substance to allow 

 of casting without entanglement, even from the coil. 



Of the paternoster itself a good deal must be written. 

 The perch paternoster of the shops is an abomination, 

 hardly fit for the capture of unwary sea-fish. In some 

 places the tackle is still in use, in which, threaded on 

 the gut, are found those bone beads from which the 

 "paternoster" takes its name. The gut, also, upon 

 which the hooks, large enough for barbel, are mounted 

 is quite as stout as that used for worming for salmon in 

 Ireland. 



Such a rig-out would meet with but little success 

 nowadays on the Kennet, and is, indeed, unnecessarily 

 strong for perching on that river. There is little doubt 

 that fine specimens are to be taken on the river in 

 certain favoured spots ; indeed, the largest perch that I 

 have ever seen, either in a glass case or out of it, was in 

 a mill-pool near Newbury. It was at that period when 

 the Kennet was supposed to have been denuded of all 

 its large perch. The sluice-gates of the weirpool had 

 been shut down and only a trickle of water was coming 

 over. I thought it would be a good opportunity to go 

 over and examine the back eddy under some bushes, 

 where previously I had been broken when spinning by a 

 heavy trout. I had a few red worms in my pocket, with 

 which I had been throwing the worm for chub. As I 

 stood on the partially submerged camp-shedding, look- 

 ing down into the depths I saw one or two dace swim 

 by, and dropped a worm or two in to see what the fish 

 would do. Down sank the worms past the fish, which 

 were not feeding. As I dropped in a final worm, I saw 

 a dark shadow uprising from the depths, evidently 



