Perch are found in ponds and in clear rivers with pebbly, clayey, or sandy bottoms. They are fond of water moderately deep, and frequent holes near to gentle streams where there is an eddy, the hollows under banks, among weeds and roots of trees, piles of bridges, or in ponds which are fed by a brook or rivulet. The perch is a bold biter in the summer, but scarcely ever in the winter. In the middle of a warm sunshiny day, you are sure to have him with a proper bait. In the winter he bites best in large quiet eddies, to which he retreats after the first heavy flood.
The baits for perch are various, as well as the manner of using them. Of worms, the best are brandlings, and red dunghill-worms, well scoured. The hook may be varied from No. 2 to 6, being well whipped to a strong silkworm gut, with a shot or two a foot from it. Put the point of the hook in at the head of the worm, out again a little lower than the middle, pushing it above the shank of the hook upon the gut; then put the point of the hook into the worm again the reverse way, and draw the head part down so as to cover the hook entirely. This is the most enticing method that can be adopted in worm-fishing. Use a small cork float to keep the bait at six or twelve inches from the bottom, or sometimes about mid-water. In angling near the bottom, raise the bait very frequently from thence almost to the surface, letting it gradually fall again. Should a good shoal be met with, they are so greedy that sometimes they may be all caught.
Other baits for perch are cadbait and gentles; but the best and most enticing bait is a live minnow. If you find the fish shy, try not long in one spot. In baiting your hook with the minnow, fix your hook through his upper lip, and use a small reel with your rod. Your hook should be No. 5, fastened to a link of gut.
THE GRAYLING.
The grayling is a fish of elegant form; the back is of a dusky purple, the sides of a fine silvery grey, with the scales in long parallel rows or lines (from which the fish derives its name), marked with black spots, irregularly placed. It is rather a hog-backed fish; and, from the nose and belly touching the ground together, is supposed to feed mostly at the bottom. In length it seldom exceeds sixteen inches, but some have been caught upwards of five pounds in weight.
The haunts of the grayling are in rapid, clear streams, particularly such as flow through mountainous countries. They are usually taken in the same manner as the trout, and with similar baits. They do not bite freely till late in August, or early in September, and may be found at the tails of sharp streams and in deep water. They rise more boldly than the trout, and if missed several times will still pursue the bait. They will bite during the whole of the cold cloudy days; but the preferable time to look after them is between eight and twelve o’clock in the morning, and from four in the afternoon till after sunset. Grasshoppers, wasp-grubs, maggots, and the artificial fly, are the most killing baits.
THE CHUB.
This fish takes its name from the shape of the head, not only in our own, but in other languages. The head and back are of a deep dusky green, the sides silvery. The tail is forked, and very black at the end, and altogether the chub is rather a handsome fish, although its flesh is not much in esteem.
The haunts of the chub are in rivers whose bottoms are of sand or clay, or which flow over a gravelly bottom, in deep holes, under hollow banks; in summer, particularly where shaded by trees, &c. they frequently float on the surface, and are sometimes found in streams and deep waters, where the currents are strong. In ponds fed by a rivulet they grow to a large size.