PIKE AND PERCH 



569 



o 



the stock of these fish will increase in 

 a few years. 



Unlike the Pike, the habits of Percli are 

 gregarious. They swim in shoals, the 

 bigger fish keeping company with Perch 

 of about a similar size. Now and again, 

 I ha\'e chanced upon a company of large 

 Perch while fishing in rivers and lakes, 

 and the sport has been fast and furious. 

 But in some big rivers it is not always easy 



of over three pounds is considered a very 

 good fish. Five pounds is stated to be 

 the record weight of the Perch of Bala 

 Lake, and from Norfolk waters fish of 

 this species have been secured up to four 

 and a half pounds. Jesse states that a 

 Perch of five pounds ten ounces was 

 caught in the Colne. On the authority of 

 Thomas Pennant, whose " British Zoo- 

 logy " was completed in 1770, a Perch of 



A HAUNT OF PERCH. 



to locate the fish, and the angler has often 

 to roam far before he comes upon a shoal. 

 On the other hand, there are waters 

 wherein Perch swarm, where they may be 

 captured almost anywhere, though in such 

 cases the fish are generally small. 



Perch are fairly distributed throughout 

 our islands. They inhabit waters in the 

 North of Scotland, and many rivers and 

 meres in England, and they are found in 

 some of the Welsh lakes among the moun- 

 tains, such as Llyn Arenig, many himdred 

 feet above the level of the sea. Perch grow 

 to a fair size in the Loddon — a Thames 

 tributary ; in the Way, the Lea, some of 

 the Sussex streams, and in the rivers and 

 broads of Eastern England some heavy 

 examples have been caught. Mr. F. G. 

 Aflalo mentions seven to eight pounds as a 

 maximum weight for Perch, but a specimen 



nine pounds has been taken from the 

 Serpentine in Hyde Park. 



I have caught Perch of two and a half 

 and three pounds from a private lake, 

 and specimens of about two ounces from 

 the Chelmer, and an overstocked pond 

 in South Wales, where the fish literally 

 swarmed. This difterence in weight is to 

 be explained by the liberal food supply in 

 the lake, and the fact that the numbers of 

 Perch were kept down by Pike ; whereas 

 in the Chelmer and in the pond in Wales, 

 the Perch were poorly fed, and but little 

 exposed to the depredations of Pike and 

 other enemies. 



Perch like a sandy bottom, and in the 

 Norfolk rivers they arc found in shoals 

 wherever the sluggish stream flows over 

 a bed of sand. They are equally fond of 

 weedy waters, but do not, as a rule, con- 



