140 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



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 

 belly. 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 

 old piers and piles of bridges, weir depths ; and it is then 

 that they are very shy, being well fed. It requires fine 

 tackle and a very delicate bait to entrap them then. After a 

 sharp winter, when the frost has just broken up, and the 

 river is tearing down in high flood, the perch are driven 

 into the still corners and eddies, and at that time and in 

 those places they are sometimes congregated together in large 

 numbers. They have been on short commons most of the 

 winter, and are very hungry, and will then take almost any- 

 thing, after the water has cleared down a little. In good 



