48 AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



Creep and crawl, wind your paternoster up to the rod 

 point ; see everything clear and swing gently the lead 

 out into a nice eddy swirling close under the bank. Let 

 the lead sink to the bottom and wait ten or twelve 

 seconds and then lift a little, letting the lead work 

 towards you, and again lower the rod point till the lead 

 settles. Thus cover the eddy gradually, paying special 

 attention to the slack water at the head, if there be any 

 stump or camp-shedding there. When a perch takes 

 hold you feel a twig-twig ; at once lower the rod-point, 

 and when you get a decided tug, tighten and give a 

 sideways stroke, when your fish is usually well hooked. 

 Occasionally a perch will take hold with a rush like a 

 trout, but this is rare. Now and then a perch will, even 

 in winter, refuse minnows and will only take worm, but 

 this is usually only in flood-time or if the water is 

 clearing but still coloured. Under these circumstances 

 the ledger is better than the paternoster. 



The ledger for perch must, like the paternoster, be 

 very light, and if properly constructed will in very bright 

 water entice fish when the paternoster seems to scare 

 them. One of the neatest forms of ledger is one intro- 

 duced by Anstiss, the tackle-dealer, who is himself a 

 good bottom-angler. He attaches to the brass ring of 

 an ordinary paternoster lead a short loop of gut, say 

 about two inches, to which is made fast a bone pater- 

 noster's ring. Through this the gut of the ledger runs 

 instead of through the lead ; the idea is that the pull of 

 a fish is transmitted to the angler direct, and at the 

 same time the bait is raised an inch or two off the 

 ground, and is, therefore, more freely taken by the fish. 

 In my hands, for perch, the tackle has proved most 

 successful. For minnows indeed the tackle is almost 

 necessary when ledgering, as they tend to involve them- 

 selves in any weed at the bottom just as dace do ; as 

 has been said when speaking of pike, this is not the case 

 with gudgeon. 



The water fished with ledger is not as a general rule 

 at all of the class suited for paternostering. There are 

 many places, however, on the river where perch may be 



