162 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



after another; they being, as he says, like the wicked of 

 the world, not afraid, though their fellows and compa- 

 nions 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 wonn called a brandling I 

 take to be best, being well scoured in moss or fennel ; or 

 he will bite at a worm that lies under cow. dung, with a 

 bluish head. And if you rove for a Pearch with a min- 

 now, 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 Pearch 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 Pearch time 

 enough when he bites; for there was scarce ever any 

 angler that has given him too much. 1 And now I think 



(I) Although Pearch, like Trout, delight in clear swift rivers, with pebbly, 

 Cravrlly bottoms, they are often found in sandy, clayey oils: they love mo- 

 derately deep water, and frequent holes by the sides of or Dear little streams, 

 and the hollows under banks. 



The Pearch spiwns about the beginning of March : the best time of the year 

 to ancle for him is from the beginning of May till me end of Jane, yet you may 

 continue to fit i tor him till the end of September: he. is hen taken in cloudy 

 windy weather, and, as some say, from seven to ten iu the forenoou, and from 

 two to -eveu in the alternooo. 



Other baits far the Pearch are. loaches, miller Vthumbs, stickle-hacks ; small 

 lob, aod marsh, and red-worms, well scoured ; hone-beans, boiled ; cad-bait, 

 oaa-woras, bobs, at.d gentles. 



Many of these fish are t*ken in the rivers about Oxford ; and the author of 

 Hie Angler's Sore Guide says, he once *w the figure of a Pearch, drawn with a 

 pencil on th. door of a house near that city, which was twenty-nine inches 

 long ; and was informed it was the true dimensions of a living Pearch. Angl. 

 Sure Guide, p. 155. 



