SIZE OF PERCH 69 



country, but this is a less general method of fishing for them 

 even than spinning. A showy fly with tinsel on the body is 

 most to be commended, the fashion being of no great conse- 

 quence, perch not being very particular in this respect. 



Perch in this country seldom exceed four pounds in weight, 

 one of three pounds is a rarity, while a two pound perch 

 is a fine fish. They have been known to reach nine pounds 

 weight, and in the large lakes of Germany and Scandinavia 

 they occasionally reach a very large size.* A dish of half-pound 

 perch, however, is not in our less favoured land to be despised. f 

 The best day's perch-fishing I ever had was on the Kennet, 

 a capital perch river. I fished with a friend and we took 

 home thirty-seven perch which weighed sixty pounds many 

 of them weighed two pounds and some were over that weight. 

 My companion had three large perch on his paternoster at the 

 same time ; he bagged two of them : one was two pounds, the 

 other two pounds and a quarter, and the one which got away 

 was larger than either of them. We lost a great many fine fish 

 in the course of the day, I in particular losing nearly as many 

 as I caught. I had another excellent day's sport on the Kennet 

 last season, though of a mixed character, consisting of pike 

 and perch, and which I have alluded to in the chapter on the 

 pike. 



* Colonel Thornton in his Sporting Tour, chapter iii., records having 

 killed a perch " of about seven pounds and a half " in Loch Lomond. ED. 



f All British freshwater fish except eels, burbot and fish of the salmon 

 family, are devoid of fat. Continental cooks understand this and supply 

 the deficiency by skilful dressing ; but in England our people have every- 

 thing to learn in this matter. ED. 



