116 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



or a brandling) ; minnows are an excellent bait for him, or a 

 very small gudgeon, or dace (all fry in fact not above two 

 inches long) ; minnows, however, if you can get them, are the 

 best. He will sometimes take a lump of paste, or a bunch of 

 gentles, when one is roach fishing, or a cad bait when fishing 

 for dace in a stream, and he will very often take the very 

 small hook and scrap of worm of the gudgeon fisher. When 

 ledgering for barbel with worms in a weir hole, he is often 

 taken, but I believe his principal food is the small fry of fish. 

 I have taken them when I have been spinning for pike with 

 an artificial bait, and have seen them dash at a six inch 

 dace on a spinning flight, with back fin extended, and mouth 

 open, to within a few inches of it, and then turn tail and re- 

 treat ; and very often they have only been perch of half a 

 pound or so. In lakes and waters where perch run very 

 large, it is astonishing the size of the bait a three pound 

 perch will take. You are perhaps fishing with a live bait, a 

 dace or roach, intended for (at least) a ten pound jack, and 

 a three pound perch will insist on trying to swallow it. A 

 big perch has a tremendous mouth, in proportion, and perhaps 

 he thinks that anything he can get into his mouth, he can 

 swallow. When I see a three-quarter pound perch hanging 

 from the triangle of a spoon bait (for instance), I always 

 think of the old saying about the eyes being bigger than the 

 beUy. Perch are found in almost any river, canal, lake, and 

 pond in the kingdom : and in ponds, &c., where they run 

 small, and are ill-fed, can be taken anyhow, a worm on coarse 

 tackle they will then take greedily. A good river perch, in 

 the months of August, September, or October, is quite another 

 thing ; he is a good deal like a roach, and is not to be had by 

 a mere tyro. About the latter end of June or so, perch are 

 found in the streams, and are often caught when dace fishing 

 with worm ; a month or two after they get into deeper and 

 stronger waters, or seek the quiet eddies and deep holes near 



