THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 171 



as money put to use, that thrives when we play, therefore 

 we'll sit still and enjoy ourselves a little longer Tinder this 

 honeysuckle hedge.* 



[A FEW WOEDS ABOUT THE PEECH. The good old father of us all 

 Izaak of venerated memory hath well and truly written in the pre- 

 ceding chapter of the perch. I wish he had left out the fourth 

 paragraph ahout Sir Abraham Williams' perch, " almost two foot long." 

 No perch ever attained that length in this country, and there is not one 

 angler in five thousand that ever saw an English perch twelve inches 

 long. Pennant speaks of one weighing nine pound caught in the 

 Serpentine; and in an obscure angling book, mention is made of one 

 caught near Oxford, of the alleged length of twenty-nine inches. Such 

 giants have disappeared from the depths of our waters long ago. I have 

 seen pond-fed perch of four and five pounds in weight, but for one 

 perch caught by me, or others of my acquaintance, of two pounds 

 weight, I have seen hundreds of less than ten ounces. I like the fish 

 much. He is a daring fellow, of burly beauty; no dainty epicure, 

 though epicures consider him when dished a dainty, and is satisfied with 

 a plentiful repast, in fresh water, of worms and small fish ; and in tide- 

 ways, or brackish water, with a meal of fresh shrimps. Give him three 

 dishes, and he will not ask you for entremets or liors d'ceuvres. His 

 Latin name is Perca flumaiilis, and Fleming thus describes him : 

 First dorsal fin longer than the second; length about a foot; back 

 arched greenish black; sides with fine transverse black bands; belly 

 reddish white ; ventral, anal, and caudal fins red ; irides golden. Each 

 dorsal fin has fourteen rays ; the pectoral twelve. I am a great admirer 

 of Thames perch. They are beautifully coloured, and they are less round- 

 shouldered than those of other waters. The first dorsal-fin of the perch 

 is very large, bristling with strong, pointed spines, which are to him a 



* Although perch, like trout, delight in clear swift rivers, with pebbly, 

 gravelly bottoms, they are often found in sandy, clayey soils ; they love a 

 moderately deep water, and frequent holes by the sides of or near little streams, 

 and the hollows under banks. The perch spawns about the beginning of 

 March : the best time of the year to angle for him is from the beginning of 

 May till the end of June, yet you may continue to fish for him till the end of 

 September ; he is best taken in cloudy, windy weather, and, as some say, from 

 seven to ten in the forenoon, and from two to seven in the afternoon. Other 

 baits for the perch are loaches, miller's thumbs, stickle-backs , small-lob, and 

 marsh, and red-worms, well scoured ; horse-beans, boiled ; cad-bait, oak-worms, 

 bobs, and gentles. Many of these fish are taken in the rivers about Oxford ; 

 and the author of the " Angler's Sure Guide," says, he once saw the figure of a 

 perch, drawn with a pencil on the door of a house near that city, which was 

 twenty-nine inches long ; and was informed it was the true dimensions of a 

 living'perch (" Angler's Sure Guide," p. 155). The largest perch are taken 

 with a minnow, hooked with a good hold through the upper lip ; for the perch, 

 by reason of the figure of his mouth, cannot take the bait crosswise, as the pike 

 will. When you fish thus, use a large cork float, and lead your line about nine 

 inches from the bottom, otherwise the minnow will come to the top of the 

 water ; but in the ordinary way of fishing, let your bait hang within about six 

 inches of the ground. H. 



