THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD 



There is roacli in winter and roach for the summer, roach in lakes, 

 brooks, meres, ponds and canals. 



' I pray you sir, give me some observations and directions 

 concerning the perch, for they say he is both a very good and a 

 bold biting fish, and I would faine learne to fish for him.' — The 

 Complete Angler. 



Cheek by jowl with the roach in English waters is this famUiar 

 American fish, the yeUow perch, Perca fiuviatalis, often a nuisance 

 in the St. Lawrence when black bass casting, but a fine little 

 fish on a very light (two or three oimce) ten-foot split-cane rod ; 

 and it has many admirers, being a table fish of the first class. 

 I have taken four or five pounders, and in England, while a 

 pound or two-pound fish is the average, certain giants, piscatorial 

 Daniel Lamberts, are occasionally found, weighiag four or five 

 pounds. The perch is a beautiful fish with a large, splendid and 

 expressive dorsal, which he expands and lowers and talks with. 

 It is not particular as to bait, but live minnows lure it invariably, 

 and I have taken it in Canada, or on the St. Lawrence with a St. 

 Patrick fly. There are scores of ways by which the clever anglers 

 of England decoy the perch into the creel or boat, from legering 

 to the float tackle, or paternosteriag to the plain hand-hue. 



In America, the perch is considered the finest pan fish, and it 

 has a high commercial value. It can be taken at any time, with 

 almost any bait, from skittering with a frog or minnow, to a fly 

 or grasshopper ; but the best sport is obtained by taking it in 

 deep, cold water twenty or thirty feet, with a very light rod, 

 when the little fish wiU make a desperate fight for liberty, that is, 

 desperate for a perch. Dr. Jordan refers to eight or nine pounders 

 in European waters, and Thoreau writes, ' It is a true fish such as 

 the angler loves to put in his basket or hang on the top of his 

 wiUow twig on shady afternoons along the bank of streams.' 



' Perch, like the Tartar clans, in troops remove. 

 And, urged by famine or by pleasure, rove ; 

 But if one prisoner, as in war, you seize, 

 You'U prosper, master of the camp with ease ; 

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