60 ANGLING. 



often does ; and if you lose two or three it is pretty nearly 

 a certainty. 



Where the water is not deep and is pretty clear, two 

 hooks will be enough; but in coloured water of six or 

 eight feet, I like three. Perch choose a quiet eddy, not a 

 wild one, and the big ones always rest nearest to the edge 

 of the stream, as the best feeding place, and a big perch 

 prefers a fat little gudgeon to a small minnow he has an 

 eye for size when hungry. I like the bottom hook pretty 

 close to the bottom, as the bait always strikes up towards 

 the surface ; and if the hook is fixed high up, it will not 

 easily be seen by the perch which happen to be on the 

 bottom, and which are always the majority. You may 

 take hold of a few more weeds, but that cannot be helped. 

 The loss of a perch hook or two is not of much con- 

 sequence, and is nothing to the loss of a score or two of 

 perch. When gudgeon fishing, a paternoster laid out 

 beside the swim is often very effective. The gudgeon con- 

 gregate to feed on the larva and worms, and the perch 

 congregate to feed on the gudgeon, and, if you are on the 

 look-out, you will feed on the perch. 



The next best method is to fish with a float and two 

 hooks, one near the bottom and one a foot higher, the 

 lower baited with worm, the upper with minnow ; and 

 there are times, in the summer, when the fish are shy, that 

 they will take float tackle better than paternoster. There 

 is little to be told of this style : when the float bobs, which 

 it does usually smartly, give the fish time and you cannot 

 miss him ; a somewhat smaller hook does for float tackle, 

 as you give more time. In the summer the streams are 

 the best place for perch ; with the autumn they get into 

 the eddies, and near old locks and hatches. In lakes, the 

 shallow weedy-bottomed bays are the home of the perch. 



