Perch (fish)

“ The Common Perch, Perca flavescens, which name describes well the gleaming, golden reflections of its scales as it is drawn out of the water, its red gills standing out in vain in the thin element, is one of the handsomest and most regularly formed of our fishes, and at such a moment as this reminds us of the fish in the picture which wished to be restored to its native element until it had grown larger; and indeed most of this species that are caught are not half grown. ”

“ He is the aristocrat of the pool, his family being one of the very oldest in the fish domesday book. He lies in deeper water than the sunfish, and his bite varies from a gentle nibble to a good strong succession of pulls which finally end in the cork going down out of sight altogether. Yet when he is at the bait you shall not mistake any motion of that bob for the ones made by the sunfish. The perch has a daintier, more gentlemanly touch. It is sure and strong, but it lacks the roistering vitality of the sunfish. ”

“ Perch seldom weigh more than one or two pounds. They feed on grubs, worms, insects, and small fishes. They are graceful in movement and the coloration is beautiful. The sides are streaked with dusky bands and the fins are ruddy.
One way to catch perch is with a pole, stout line, large float, and heavy sinker, using a worm or minnow for bait. This will do when the water is muddied and the fish are hungry. In clear water, use a finer line and reel, a small float and a sinker only heavy enough to keep the float [155] steady. The bait should be suspended about a foot from the bottom. ”

“ Even the cruel and voracious pike is slow to attack the perch, and when urged to it by extreme hunger usually gets the worst of it. The formidable fin on the back of the perch, armed as it is with excessively sharp spikes, causes it to be much feared by other fish, and a roach or dace of a pound weight will often fly from a perch not one quarter the size. It is not at all uncommon for a baby-perch not two inches in length to attempt to swallow a minnow, and, as the perch has a most capacious mouth, the attempt is sometimes successful. ”

“ The back fin of the perch is large, and armed with strong spines. He is bold and ravenous. He will not give way to the pike or to the black bass; and though he may sometimes be eaten by them, his comrades will retaliate upon the young of his destroyers.
“The proper bait for the perch is the minnow. He will take that all seasons. In mid-summer, however, he prefers the worm, at which he generally bites freely. He is often taken with the grub, or with small pieces of fish of any kind.
“He is a capital fish at all times for the table. His flesh is hard and savory. ”

“ In the months of September, October, November, and so on until February, there is no fresh water fish that affords the angler more sport than the perch—perhaps none that affords so much—as he is a very greedy feeder, and, when the rivers and ponds begin to get clear of weeds, may be taken with almost any bait at any hour of the day. When the days are warmish, very early and very late is the best time for perch-fishing ”

“ I have often attracted these small perch to the shore at evening, by rippling the water with my fingers, and they may sometimes be caught while attempting to pass inside your hands. It is a tough and heedless fish, biting from impulse, without nibbling, and from impulse refraining to bite, and sculling indifferently past. It rather prefers the clear water and sandy bottoms, though here it has not much choice. It is a true fish, such as the angler loves to put into his basket or hang at the top of his willow twig, in shady afternoons along the banks of the stream. ”

“ Another very handsome fresh-water fish is the perch, which is plentiful in almost every river and lake in the warmer parts of the whole world. In color it is rich greenish brown above and yellowish white below, with from five to seven upright dark bands on either side of its body, while the upper fins are brown and the lower ones and the tail bright red. ”

“ The perch is strictly carnivorous and most voracious; it wanders about in small shoals within a certain district, playing sad havoc among small fishes, and is therefore not to be tolerated in waters where valuable fry is cultivated. Perch of three pounds in weight are not infrequently caught in suitable localities ”

“ Perch are good, wholesome food, and highly esteemed in inland countries where marine fish can be obtained only with difficulty. The nearly allied pike-perch is one of the best European food fishes. The perch is exceedingly prolific ”

“ The excellence of the Perch, as a table fish, is generally acknowledged; in this respect, perhaps, it is exceeded by none of our fluviatile species, with the exception of the Trout and the Salmon. Perch of five pounds are not uncommon, and they have been known to attain even double this weight. A Fish of large size needs good tackle as well as skill in the angler, for it is powerful in proportion to its size. When Perch run large, a minnow, roach, or gudgeon is a successful bait ”

“ The readiness with which this beautiful fish is taken is partly due to its voracity, in which it almost equals the ravenous Pike; when hungry indeed, it will seize almost any object that is presented to it. A writer in the New Sporting Magazine, says that he has repeatedly taken a Perch with no other bait than a portion of the gills of one just captured, accidentally remaining on the hook, the line having been carelessly allowed to drop into the water while a fresh bait was being selected. ”

“ When, by the disappearance of the float under water, the angler becomes aware that a fish has taken the bait, a short time should be allowed [Pg 215] before striking as it must be remembered that the perch has to swallow part of the minnow before arriving at the hook. If left too long, the perch will gorge the bait (and this applies also to pike) , the result being very unpleasant for all parties concerned. I have also caught perch with a worm, in which case the bait should be almost on the bottom of the river. ”

“ The perch, which is one of the commonest of our fresh-water fish, is also one of the best. It is met with in almost all lakes and rivers in temperate regions. When full-grown it is a large fish, although one weighing a pound is thought a good size, and one of three pounds very large. The flesh is white, firm, of a good flavour, and easily digested. ”

“ Worms and small live-baits are the principal lures, but at times the fish will take small bright artificial spinning-baits well, and odd attractions such as boiled shrimps, caddis-grubs, small frogs, maggots, wasp-grubs, &c. are sometimes successful. The drop-minnow is one of the best methods of taking perch. Very occasionally, and principally in shallow pools, the fish will take an artificial fly greedily, a small salmon-fly being the best thing to use in such a case. A perch of 2 lb is a good fish, and a specimen of 41⁄2 lb about the limit of angling expectation. ”

“ A jack or a trout will eat his own weight of food in forty-eight hours, and be ready for more.
It has been asserted that there is no better bait for a perch than a perch’s eye, which I am not at all unwilling to believe, having myself caught whitings with a whiting’s eye. Mackerel will bite at a piece of a mackerel, as will sanddabs at a piece of a dab, and cod and pike swallow their own young wholesale. It is difficult to account for this unnatural voracity on the part of fish, inasmuch as their supply of proper food is inexhaustible. ”

“ Large perch are also easily taken by trolling with the minnow, or a very small spoon on lakes or ponds. If the spoon is employed, but a single hook should be used, and that not too large. I am not an [170] advocate, however, for trolling for so small a fish, and merely mention it as one of the ways and means that may be followed. There are men who never rise above this method for any game-fish, but they are more to be pitied than blamed. They either lack the skill to practise more approved methods, or are too indolent to learn them. ”

“ From this circumstance they are known as "lucky-stones," and are often carried by boys as pocket-pieces.
It is of a grayish silvery hue, dark on the back, fading to white on the belly. In the lakes of the North it has several oblique dusky streaks [234] or bands, resembling in a minor degree those of the sheepshead of the coastwise streams and bays. In southern waters the streaks are not so apparent, and it is called white-perch, owing to its silvery appearance. It is a bottom fish, feeding mostly on mollusks, which it crushes with the blunt teeth of the throat. ”

“ The little eagles seemed in luck that day, for soon their mother appeared in sight carrying in her claws a perch. But either the watcher below made some movement, or else her eyes were far sharper than her mate’s, for with a loud cry she [Pg 400] dropped her fish, and hovered over the nest to protect it in case of an attack. When all was quiet again, the naturalist went out cautiously to examine the perch, which he found to weigh as much as 51⁄2 lbs. You do not catch such big perch in England. ”

“ Years ago I had fine sport on several occasions, about sundown, fly-fishing for pike-perch from the bridge over Neenah channel, the outlet of Lake Winnebago, in Wisconsin. It was really the best fishing I have ever had for this fish. All the conditions seemed to be just right, and they responded eagerly to the coachman and oriole at first, but at the approach of dusk they preferred the dusty miller and gray hackle. The fish averaged three pounds, and in the swift water were quite gamy. ”

“ THIS is a fresh-water fish and is generally distributed over Europe, northern Asia, and North America, and so well known as to have been, it is said, selected for the type of an entire family of spiny-rayed fishes, the percidas, which is represented in European fresh waters by several other fishes such as the pope and the pike-perch. It inhabits rivers as well as lakes, and thrives best in waters of a depth of not less than three feet; in large, deep lakes it frequently descends to depths of fifty fathoms and more. ”

“ The eggs, which were almost transparent, were in the water in masses, kept together by a glutinous substance, and each marked with a black spot, and could be taken up in the net, straining slowly through the meshes.
Yellow perch will take worm or minnow, preferring the former, and it is probable destroy numbers of young trout. Their flesh is coarse, white and tasteless. They are pursued only by boys and ladies. ”

“ The species of fish generally caught in the nets are tittemeg, pike, and barble; and the only sorts caught with hooks are trout, pike, burbut, and a small fish, erroneously called by the English tench: the Southern Indians call it the toothed tittemeg, and the Northern Indians call it saint eah. They are delicate eating; being nearly as firm as a perch, and generally very fat. They seldom exceed a foot in length, and in shape much resemble a gurnard, except that of having a very long broad fin on the back, like a perch, but this fin is not armed with similar spikes. ”

“ Two flies on a four-foot leader may be used, one of which should be a light-colored one, as the coachman, or white miller; the other may be any of the hackles or the stone fly, oriole, gray drake, polka, professor, or Montreal. The same instructions concerning fly-fishing for black-bass may be profitably followed for the pike-perch, allowing the flies to sink two or three feet after each cast, though it is a more uncertain fish to locate, being much given to roaming in its search for food at different seasons. ”

“ It takes small worms, maggots and similar baits greedily, and is often a nuisance when the angler is expecting better fish. Allied to the perches is the pike-perch, of which two species are of some importance to the angler, one the wall-eye of eastern America (Stizostedion vitreum) and the other the zander of Central Europe (Sandrus lucioperca) . The last especially is a fine fighter, occasionally reaching a weight of 20 lb. It is usually caught by spinning, but will take live-baits, worms and other things of that nature. ”

“ The pike-perch is a good game-fish, taking live bait eagerly, and rising pretty well to the fly. When hooked it is a vigorous fighter, pulling strongly and lustily. It does not exhibit much dash or take line rapidly, but swims away rather slowly, but at the same time is constantly tugging and jerking on the line in such a manner as to require careful handling with light tackle. Ordinary black-bass rods and tackle are well suited for the pike-perch up to six or eight pounds, either for bait-fishing or fly-fishing. ”

“ It varies in weight from six ounces to one hundred pounds; and though a native of the ocean, it spends a portion of every year in the fresh water rivers—yet it seems to be partial to the mouths of our larger estuaries. Our naturalists have pronounced it a member of the perch family, and doubtless with scientific propriety; but we have seen a basse that would outweigh at least four score of the largest perch found in the country. The rock is a thick-set and solid fish, having a strong bony mouth, and sharp teeth. ”

“ Perch, on the contrary, are said to be so ravenous that they will devour their own spawn, and that of other fishes. They breed freely and are quite hardy, but do not grow rapidly. Trout, when kept in ponds, are rather ravenous; but pike far exceed all other fish in this respect. A large pike will destroy nearly all the small weak fishes in a pond; and, indeed, he has been known to seize young ducks, and devour them. ”

“ I think it right to begin this letter with an account of a most prosperous fishing expedition Jack and I achieved the other morning. It is true we still occasionally drew up huge cat-fish, with their detestable beards and spikes, but we also captivated some magnificent perch, and the Altamaha perch are worth one's while both to catch and to eat. On a visit I had to make on the mainland, the same day, I saw a tiny strip of garden ground, rescued from the sandy road, called the street, perfectly filled with hyacinths, double jonquils, and snowdrops, a charming nosegay for February 11. ”