THE PIKE PERCHES . 
I have an impression that the delicacy of the Zander in Germany is greatly 
due to the fact that the fish are bled, when taken from their tubs to be de¬ 
livered to the purchaser. In Sweden the fishermen are said to pierce 
their tails, to allow the blood to escape and thus blanch the flesh. 
In the south of Russia one of the Pike-Perches, the Berschick, is exceed¬ 
ingly abundant. In former years it was held in low esteem and used in the 
manufacture of oil, but of late, Astrakhan has been sending annually to 
Turkey and Greece about eighty millions of pounds of this fish, salted and 
two or three million pounds of a kind of caviar, called tchastikovi, made 
for the most part from its roe. 
Travellers in Austria and Russia tell of the great piles of salted Pike- 
Perch, stacked up like cord wood along the banks of lakes and rivers. 
In angling for Pike-Perch, a bass-rod, reel and float are generally used by 
American anglers. In quiet waters live minnows are preferable for bait, but 
in rapid currents slices of fish are quite as good, especially if these are 
trimmed so as to spin nicely. Bischoff, a Bavarian authority, recommends 
the use of long thin strips, fastened to the hook at one end so as to wriggle 
like snakes. European anglers generally prefer live bait, with the pater¬ 
noster or even with the simple float-line. 
In fishing in rapids the bait should be allowed to run down with the cur¬ 
rent, guiding it as far as may be in and out among the largest rocks. 
Genio Scott found this method effective at the Little Falls of the Mohawk 
River. 
It should always be remembered that the Pike-Perch rarely leaves the 
bottom, and the line should always be baited with reference to this fact. 
The artificial fly is sometimes used. A correspondent of the American 
Angler* wrote sometime ago to that journal that he had fished the streams 
and lakes of southern Wisconsin for twelve years, and had found no fish 
which afforded him better sport than the Pike-Perch. It will take the fly as 
readily as the brook-trout or the black-bass, and while it will not fight as long 
as the bass, it furnishes the fly-fisher with a fair amusement, and as a table 
fish is infinately its superior. With a light rod, weighing from five to nine 
ounces, a four foot leader, and a bass-fly, this fish may be readily taken. 
The angler should whip the white foaming water below a dam, on some 
frosty morning, using a dark fly, or cast upon the same water toward even¬ 
ing with a light fly. He will learn that there are new possibilities for him 
in the way of sport with a rod. 
* American Angler, Oct. 7, 1882. 
