Perch are one of the handsomest and, in its larger sides, the most desirable of British freshwater fish. Its vivid olive-green colouring with dark stripes down its sides and brilliant red fins are known to every boy who has spent happy days dabbling in a stream or pond. It is certainly the easiest of all fish to catch when it is young, and perhaps the most difficult to catch when it has grown to proportions which make its capture a matter for congratulation. A lake which has not been fished very regularly for some years generally contains some substantial specimens of 2lb and upwards, but it is the river Perch which puts up the great fight, and of these there are sadly few. Probably it is a slow-growing fish and since it is predacious, finds a living not too easy to get.
Like all freshwater fish of prey, Perch are solitary fish if they are of any side. They have to be, of course, because other fish on which they feed would soon desert a reach, which contained a shoal of them. It is true that you will find quite a number of them together when they are small, but of fish from three-quarters of a pound upwards it is seldom one finds more than a brace to a swim.
Their natural food is small fish or any large-sized worm, which may drop into the river from the bank or be swept in from a ditch during a flood. Probably many more worms get into a river than one would suppose; other- wise it is difficult to account for the partiality for them, which all fish show.
A Perch's method of feeding is to lie close to the bank or alongside a weed-bed, where its protective colouring makes it more or less invisible. It will then dash out and give chase to any unsuspecting minnow or small fry, which comes within range and the angler has so to arrange the live minnow on his tackle that it swims round in midwater after the manner of a small free fish.
The other principal coarse fishing bait for Perch, the worm, has to be made to behave rather differently. If you drop a worm into the water where you can watch its movements you will see that it sinks fairly quickly, turning and twisting as it goes down and being carried along gently by the current until it comes to rest on the bottom.
Thereafter it lies comparatively still but moves about a little, trying to get into the ground perhaps, and from time to time is lifted slightly by the current and carried a foot or two down- stream until it is held up again by some other small obstruction. Perch will, often enough, pick up a worm from the bottom if they see it, but normally, they notice it sinking through the water and follow it down. Regular bottom feeders like bream, however, hunt for their food on the bottom and will consequently find the worm while it is lying still.
(ArticlesBase SC #4768698)
