234 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



internal capacity for stowage. When " well on," he seldom 

 joins a " Committee of Taste " such as that which Mr. 

 Rolfe, fish artist and angler, has so pleasantly delineated 

 in his well-known picture. Still, like other fish, he has 

 his " times and seasons," and is by no means always 

 " well on." He is affected, though perhaps not to the same 

 degree as many other inhabitants of our waters, by 

 wind and weather and by other circumstances. In some 

 rivers, the Thames and Kennet, for instance, and in 

 some still waters, as in Virginia Water, he has become 

 a highly educated fish. He is discriminating, and must 

 be fished for with fine tackle, and selected and well- 

 adjusted baits. He is seldom in a very great hurry to 

 appropriate what is offered him, and hence one rule for 

 the angler for " educated " perch is to " give them time." 

 The angler also will do well to recollect that the perch has 

 a rather tender mouth, and therefore should not be struck 

 at too sharply or played too roughly. 



As to the tackle to be used, and the most approved 

 methods in angling for perch, little need be said. The 

 perch is taken with almost any bait, and when bottom 

 fishing for almost all kinds of other fish. He is taken 

 when roach fishing ; on the leger when barbelling ; on 

 Nottingham tackle, with the tail end of a lob, in a long, 

 deep swim ; on spinning tackle and live-bait tackle when 

 fishing for jack. The paternoster, however, is the " most 

 approved " method for perching (paternoster, so called, I 

 suppose, from the shot or other expedients on the line to 

 which the hooks are fastened, and which faintly resemble 

 the beads Romanists use to calculate their prayers by). 

 Personally I think paternostering is a tame kind of fishing, 

 though in one sense it suits me as a confessedly idle 



