PERCH. 39 
exaggerated illustration of the degradation to 
which the float-fisher may occasionally be brought. 
Anglers try to lure the perch with a great variety 
of mysterious compounds, but usually the most 
successful is a small red-worm. This should 
be allowed to rise and fall, for the apparent 
animation of the prey invariably excites the 
fish to come at the bait with arush. Immature 
perch bite recklessly, larger ones much more 
circumspectly. There are certain climatic con- 
ditions, however, when almost every fish of a 
shoal may be bagged. The dark, golden shadows 
pass and re-pass beneath ; though immediately a 
bait touches the water every fish rushes towards 
it. The wide-open mouth, the flashing fins, the 
erect dorsal spines—all show irritation when the 
worm is withdrawn. If the tactics are changed, 
and a perch is hooked, he fights not ungamely, 
though he sometimes succeeds in shaking himself 
free. If, however, he is landed, his fate in no way 
intimidates his neighbours; they come, one by 
one, until the last of the shoal is lying among 
the docks and nettles. More frequently the big 
fish are slow to be thus lifted out, though the 
smaller ones seem to have no such clear objection. 
In Windermere and Derwentwater, perch are 
exceedingly abundant, and sometimes hundreds 
are taken from a boat in a single evening’s fish- 
