FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 he gives a very good, if not very scientfic, fight. If he runs you into weeds 

 it seems to be more by accident than design, as in the case of the trout. 

 I have had all sorts of fights with all sorts of fish from salmon down, 

 but for cunning and for testing fine tackle to the utmost give me a trout 

 of about two and a half pounds to three pounds. 



Perch, when healthy and hungry, will rarely refuse a good live minnow, 

 worm, or freshwater shrimp, or the shrimp of brackish water, which 

 can be caught in a gauze net in the tidal waters of East Anglia, and makes 

 a deadly bait for a perch. For spinning for perch a smallish silver or gilt 

 spoon is as good as anything. I have taken him on a small spinner, just 

 a screw blade behind a swivel, like the " Halcyon," with two or three red 

 worms on the hooks. 



Dr Karl Heintz, in his very charming " Angelsport im Susswasser " 

 ("Angling in Freshwater "), says that exceptionally large perch up to six 

 and eight pounds are caught in the Laacher Lake, near Kloster Maria 

 Laach, in the Eifel. I should like to make a pilgrimage to get some of those 

 fellows! 



Perch are found in nearly all parts of the United Kingdom, although 

 Couch thinks they were not introduced into Cornwall until last century, 

 or to Scotland north of the Forth.* I have caught perch of between one 

 and two pounds' weight when spinning a spoon or minnow for salmon 

 on the Bann, in Ireland, also when spinning for salmon on the Wye, in 

 Herefordshire. The biggest perch I ever nearly caught was a great fellow, 

 certainly over four pounds, which followed my ledger lead as I drew it 

 in after fishing out in a deep hole in the Severn, near the fascinating re- 

 mains ^of Roman Uriconium. The water was very clear, and I saw this 

 splendid perch following, and every now and then dashing at my ledger 

 lead as I drew it along the bottom. Twice the fish did this, for it came 

 out of the depths exactly in the same way after a second cast out. The 

 lead being long and somewhat fish-shape, attracted it, whereas the fine 

 worm, a foot or so behind it, was ignored. Linnaeus says the Laps make 

 a wonderfully strong glue out of perch skins. Four or five large skins 

 are dried, then soaked in a little cold water, so the scales can be rubbed 

 off. Four or five are then wrapped together in a bladder, so the water 

 cannot get to them, and then set on the fire in a pot of water to boil, 

 a stone being placed over the pot to keep in the heat. This glue is 



'Colonel Thornton reports, in hit Sportmg Tour, having killed upwards of ninety perch in Loch Lomond on July 1, 

 1786, one of them weighing 7 lb. 3 oz.— ED. 



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