PERCH. 39 



exaggerated illustration of the degradation to 

 which the float- fisher may occasionally be brought. 

 Anglers try to lure the perch with a great variety 

 of mysterious compounds, but usually the most 

 successful is a small red-worm. This should 

 be allowed to rise and fall, for the apparent 

 animation of the prey invariably excites the 

 fish to come at the bait with a rush. Immature 

 perch bite recklessly, larger ones much more 

 circumspectly. There are certain climatic con- 

 ditions, however, when almost every fish of a 

 shoal may be bagged. The dark, golden shadows 

 pass and re-pass beneath ; though immediately a 

 bait touches the water every fish rushes towards 

 it. The wide-open mouth, the flashing fins, the 

 erect dorsal spines all show irritation when the 

 worm is withdrawn. If the tactics are changed, 

 and a perch is hooked, he fights not ungamely, 

 though he sometimes succeeds in shaking himself 

 free. If, however, he is landed, his fate in no way 

 intimidates his neighbours ; they come, one by 

 one, until the last of the shoal is lying among 

 the docks and nettles. More frequently the big 

 fish are slow to be thus lifted out, though the 

 smaller ones seem to have no such clear objection. 

 In Winderniere and Derwentwater, perch are 

 exceedingly abundant, and sometimes hundreds 

 are taken from a boat in a single evening's fish- 



