172 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



good defensive armour. It saves him from the attacks of pike and other 

 enemies. Fish of prey are generally solitary. The perch is a remark- 

 able exception, for although fiercely predatory, he is very socially 

 gregarious. The lion hunts alone, so does the pike ; the wolf hunts in 

 packs, the perch in shoals. The largest perch are caught by sinking 

 and roving with a live minnow or gudgeon, or by spinning with a dead 

 one. I have taken them well by spinning with Flinn's flexible fish- 

 baits, and sometimes I have caught them with large, gaudy artificial 

 flies. There is no better way of fishing for perch than with the pater- 

 noster line a gear consisting of three hooks, whipped on strong three- 

 inch lengths of gut, or hog's bristles, projecting twelve or fifteen inches 

 apart from a very stout salmon-gut foot-line. On the hook nearest the 

 bottom I would put a worm ; on the one next to that a live minnow, or 

 middle-sized gudgeon : and on the uppermost hook a fresh shrimp, 

 small frog, a gentle, caddis, wasp-grub, or caterpillar. At the extreme 

 end of the foot-line, a perforated bullet should be attached. By its 

 means your bait will be kept down, and will move slowly, or otherwise, 

 according to the flow of the water. Strike rather sharply as soon as you 

 feel a bite. Fish for perch from February to November, in deep gravelly 

 streams, by the sides of the buttresses of bridges, piles, camp-sheds, in 

 eddies, below weirs, and in back waters, in docks, near sluices, and in 

 deep holes in the middle of strong currents. In a "Handbook of 

 Angling," I write, " If you fancy perch-poaching, get a very large, 

 wide-mouthed glass bottle, and half fill it with pure water, into which 

 put a dozen of bright, lively minnows ; give them air by inserting the 

 barrel of a quill, open at each end, through the bung of the bottle, 

 which sink in a pond, or the whereabouts of perch in a river. The 

 bottled minnows will attract perch to them. In about twenty-four hours 

 or more after you have sunk your decoy, come with a paternoster-line, 

 baited with live minnows or small gudgeons, and you cannot but catch 

 several of the assembled and prowling perch." In the spring months, 

 fish for perch from seven to ten, a.m., and from two o'clock, p.m., to 

 dusk. In summer, from sunrise to nine a.m., and in the afternoon, from 

 four to sunset. ED.] 



CHAPTER XIII. 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL, AND OTHER FISH THAT WANT SCALES ; 

 AND HOW TO FISH FOR THEM. 



[JFourtf) Ban.] 



PiSC. It is agreed by most men, that the eel is a most 

 dainty fish ; the Romans have esteemed her the Helena of 

 their feasts, and some the queen, of palate-pleasure. But 



