THE PERCM AND PERCH FISHING 

 for more valuable fish. It is common in many of the East Anglian waters. 

 I have tried once or twice, and so have others, to introduce the pike -perch 

 (Lucioperca sandra) into some of our waters suitable for it, but the attempt 

 did not succeed. We tried eggs, but I feel sure young fish in large numbers 

 have the best chance. The pike-perch is the same fish, or almost identical 

 with, the glass-eyed or wall-eyed pike of America. It is not nearly such 

 a broad fish as the perch; it shows traces of bars on the sides, but not 

 nearly so distinct as the dark bars or stripes so often, though not always, 

 seen on the olive green sides and back of the perch, which vary in number 

 and remind one of the bars or finger marks on most of the salmon and 

 trout family for a year or so after birth. 



In angling for perch the ** paternoster " tackle, referred to above, is 

 one of the best, because it enables you to offer him a choice of baits; 

 and a healthy perch which can refuse a lively brace of red worms, or a 

 minnow or small gudgeon or other small fry, must have dined well just 

 before you tried for him. For it adds to the interest of perch fishing that 

 you can so often see your fish in a clear stream or lake — ^the strong stream 

 itself he avoids, but loves a quiet deep hole near the stream, as the eddy 

 from it brings him all kinds of food, especially the shoals of minnows 

 and small fry, into which, with fins erect and bristling, he dashes like a 

 fox among the farmyard fowls. Often he is so intent on his himting, that 

 if you keep still he will— as will the pike and trout— chase the fish almost 

 out of the water at your feet. 



With a light whole-cane fly-rod and a quarter -ounce " pater " bullet 

 and fine reel line you can cast the baits very lightly where you see the 

 perch, or think they are likely to be found. Especially try, as Walton says, 

 near bridges, weirs, near campsheathing under water, between weed 

 beds, and, in fact, all round the sides of a lake or river rather than out 

 in the middle, because the perch come out of the deeps after the minnows 

 and other small fry, which always are drawn to the sun-warmed shallows, 

 where they in turn can find their minute prey. Where perch are much 

 fished for they become bait and tackle shy, and in such cases I have often 

 had good sport by casting a well-scoured lively red worm on a single 

 hook with a tapered drawn gut fly cast like a fly, no lead, just allowing 

 it to sink slowly near the biggest perch you can see. If he does not sail 

 up to it and draw it in with a gulp of water, draw it gently away, and then 

 he is pretty certain to have a race with one of his friends for it. The single 

 small hook hooks and holds him well, and on the fine tackle and fly-rod 



219 



