146 



THE PERCH. 



" Some Anglers prefer roving for perch, in the following 

 manner : Use a reel on your rod, and have bottom tackle of 

 three yards of gut, a hook No. 8 or 9, one or two shot-corns 

 to sink the bait, which should be one or two well scoured 

 red worms ; and you must then cast your line across the 

 stream, letting it sink, and drawing it towards you alternate- 

 ly, until you feel a bite, then allow a few Beconds before you 

 strike. You may also drop this bait into a deep still hole, as 

 in trout-fishing ; indeed a practical Angler (especially an old 

 trout-fisher, will prefer this mode of worm-fishing to the use 

 of the float." 



Taylor directs : " If the Angler roves with a minnow, let 

 it be alive, and the hook stuck in under the back fin, or 

 through the upper lip ; let the minnow swim in mid-water, 

 or rather lower; use a cork float, of a size that he cannot sink 

 it under the water, with a few shot, about nine inches from 

 the hook, to keep him down, or when tired he will rise to 

 the surface. When using the frog, put the hook through the 

 skin of its back, and it will swim easier than if the hook was 

 thrust through the skin of its hind legs ; recollect to keep the 

 bait as far from the shore as possible, for he will constantly 

 be making to it ; always give line enough at a bite to let the 

 perch gorge. Where pike are suspected to haunt, the hook 

 should be attached to gimp, as in this way of fishing they will 

 take the bait as well as the perch." 



For taking the perch, some Anglers affix the bait by two 

 hooks, one inserted at the root of the back fin, and the other 

 attached to either the gill, lip, or nostril. We think this by 

 no means a bad plan ; but on the contrary, that it increases 

 the chance of fixing the fish, when he only makes a snatching 

 bite, as is common with the perch when not well on the feed. 

 The former pages of this work having passed through the 

 press, the following description of the perch of Western New 

 fork, his haunts, and mode of preparing for food, by an ardent 



