118 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



The Thames, the Kennet, and the Hampshire Avon, are perhaps 

 the best rivers in England for perch, for we hear of them 

 being taken out of those rivers very often of the weight of 

 from two to two and a half pounds, while in the broads of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, and the meres of Huntingdonshire, we 

 hear of them of the weight of four pounds and even a few a 

 little over. The Trent does not seem to be much of a perch 

 river, either as regards weight or numbers. I don't see why 

 it should not, but such is the fact. I have never yet seen 

 or heard of a two-pound perch being taken out of the Trent. 

 Some localities are better stocked with them than others, 

 perhaps, but I must confess that in all my rambles up and 

 down the Trent, I have never found a place that abounds 

 with perch either little or big. Once I got a pound fish from 

 out of the rough water of Averham weir, and two or three 

 three-quarter-pounders from the mouth of the Devon, and 

 another place or two, and a few half-pounders from various 

 places, but they are by no means common, and I don't think 

 I ever caught above half a dozen perch in one day from the 

 Trent in my life ; the Devon and the Witham seem to be 

 better stocked with perch than the Trent, for I have seen 

 several good catches from those rivers. An angler went up 

 to Barnby to fish the Witham a few months ago. It was, in 

 fact, just after the break up of last winter's frost, and when 

 he got there the river was tearing down nearly bank full and 

 very much discoloured. He thought when he saw it that it 

 would be no use fishing, but there was a big drain or dyke a 

 little distance away, and as there was a deep hole at the 

 mouth of this drain where it ran into the river he thought 

 he would go and have a look. He found that a short dis- 

 tance up this drain, a very few yards in fact, the water was 

 nothing like so much discoloured as it was in the river, so he 

 determined to have a try. It was a beautiful quiet eddy, 

 whereas a few yards outside the river rushed down in a tor- 



