FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 smooth little balls like peas. It is just possible that a wild duck might 

 swallow fertilized trout eggs, fly away fifty miles, and then be compelled 

 involuntarily, by a shot or attack of some kind, to vomit the eggs into 

 another stream. 



Anglers who have only fished for perch in waters where they are very 

 numerous and run small in size, have no idea what good sport this hand- 

 some fish affords when fished for in really good perch waters and with 

 fine tackle. Formerly, if you asked for perch tackle at a London or other 

 fishing-tackle shop you were expected to require a perch paternoster, 

 i.e., a strong piece of salmon gut a yard or so in length with a loop at 

 each end— 4)ne to attach it to your reel line, the other to attach a foot of finer 

 gut with a small pear-shape plummet to. At equi-distant points on the 

 gut a small perforated bone ball the size of a pea was threaded on to the 

 gut and held in place by shot or knots — ^the little bone pea had a groove 

 round it, and round and in this groove the end of a bristle was secured, 

 on the other end of which was a strong perch hook. It was called ** pater- 

 noster " because it was, when there were three of these little revolving 

 balls and hooks, one above another, something like the beads of the 

 breviary. 



It is many years since I saw one of these original " pater " tackles 

 in use for perch, though all kinds of modifications of it with metal booms 

 to stand out at right angles from the gut are now used in sea angling. 

 At the present day the useful " pater " tackle for perch and pike is much 

 finer in every way — loops in the gut replace the bone bead and to these 

 loops are attached the loops of the finer gut holding a small hook some 

 six inches away from the gut line. Two hooks, one for worm and one for 

 minnow or small gudgeon, are quite sufficient. As regards size it is only 

 confusing to give hook numbers, because different makers have different 

 numbers for different sizes, but a hook three -eighths of an inch in width 

 at the gape, i.e., from the point across to the shank, is quite big enough 

 for any perch. The two biggest I have ever seen came from a reservoir 

 near Daventry, and weighed about five pounds each, but a perch of two 

 pounds is by no means common, and in the Thames and most other public 

 or semi -public waters a perch of a pound is considered a good fish. 



In this country the only other freshwater fish like the perch is the 



pope, or ruff, which never exceeds two or three ounces in weight, and is 



of no account as a sporting fish. It is, fortunately, not found in all waters, 



as it is a bold biting little fellow, and gets the bait you have prepared 



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