158 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



up his fins, much like as a turkey cock will sometimes set up 

 his tail. 



But, my scholar, the Perch is not only valiant to defend 

 himself, but he is, as I said, a bold biting fish : yet he will not 

 bite at all seasons of the year ; he is very abstemious in winter, 

 yet will bite then in the midst of the day, if it be warm : and 

 note, that all fish bite best about the midst of a warm day in 

 winter. And he hath been observed, by some, not usually to 

 bite till the mulberry tree buds ; that is to say, till extreme' 

 frosts be past the spring ; for, when the mulberry tree blossoms, 

 many gardeners observe their forward fruit to be past the 

 danger of frosts ; and some have made the like observations of 

 the Perch's biting. 



But bite the Perch will, and that very boldly. And, as one 

 has wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in a hole, they 

 may be, at one standing, all catched one after another ; they 

 being, as he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, 

 though their fellows and companions perish in their sight. And 

 you may observe, that they are not Like the solitary Pike, but 

 love to accompany one another, and march together in troops. 



And the baits for this bold fish are not many : I mean, he will 

 bite as well at some, or at any of these three, as at any or all 

 others whatsoever, a worm, a minnow, or a little frog, (of 

 which you may find many in hay time.) And of worms, the 

 dunghill worm called a brandling I take to be best, being well 

 scoured in moss and fennel ; or he will bite at a worm that lies 

 under cow dung, with a bluish head. And if you rove for a 

 Perch with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, you sticking 

 your hook through his back fin ; or a minnow with the hook 

 in his upper lip, and letting him swim up and down, about mid- 

 water, or a little lower, and you still keeping him to about that 

 depth by a cork, which ought not to be a very little one. And 

 the like way you are to fish for the Perch with a small frog, 

 your hook being fastened through the skin of his leg, towards 

 the upper part of it : and lastly, I will give you but this advice, 

 that you give the Perch time enough when he bites ; for there 

 was scarce ever any angler that has given him too much.* And 



* 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, sticklebacks, 

 small lob and marsh and red-worms, well scoured; horse beans boiled, 

 cad-bait, oak-worms, bobs, and gentles. 



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



