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CHAPTER XV

Observations of the Gudgeon, the Ruffe, and the Bleak, and how to Fish for them.

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ISC. The Gudgeon is reputed a fish of excellent taste, and to be very wholesome he is of a fine shape, of a silver colour, and beautified with black spots. both on his body and tail. He breeds two or three times in the year, and always in summer. He is commended for a fish of excellent nourishment: the Germans call him groundling, by reason of his feeding on the ground; and he there feasts himself in sharp streams, and on the gravel. He and the barbel both feed so, and do not hunt for flies at any time, as most other fishes do: he is a most excellent fish to enter a young angler, being easy to be taken with a small red-worm, on or near to the ground. He is one of those leathermouthed fish that has his teeth in his throat, and will hardly be lost off from the hook if he be once strucken. They be usually scattered up and down every river in the shallows, in the heat of summer; but in autumn, when the weeds begin to grow sour and rot, and the weather colder, then they gather together, and get into the deep parts of the water, and are to be fished for there, with your hook always touching the ground, if you fish for him with a float, or with

Pope

EHN

Ruffe

or

a cork; but many will fish for the gudgeon by hand, with a running line upon the ground, without a cork, as a trout is fished for; and it is an excellent way, if you have a gentle rod and as gentle a hand.

There is also another fish called a pope, and by some a ruffe, a fish that is not known to be in some rivers he is much like the perch for his shape, and taken to be better than the perch, but will not grow to be bigger than a gudgeon. He is an excellent fish, no fish that swims is of a pleasanter taste, and he is also excellent to enter a young angler, for he is a greedy biter; and they will usually lie abundance of them together, in one reserved place, where the water is deep, and runs quietly; and an easy angler, if he has found where they lie, may catch forty or fifty, or sometimes twice as many, at a standing.

You must fish for him with a small red-worm; and if you bait the ground with earth, it is excellent.

There is also a bleak, or fresh-water sprat, a fish that is ever in motion, and therefore called by some the river swallow; for just as you shall observe the swallow to be most evenings in summer ever in motion, making short and

quick turns when he flies to catch flies in the air (by which he lives) so does the bleak at the top of the water. Ausonius would have him called bleak from his whitish colour:

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his back is of a pleasant sad or sea-water green, his belly white and shining as the mountain. snow; and doubtless, though he have the fortune (which virtue has in poor people) to be neglected, yet the bleak ought to be much valued, though we want Allamot salt, and the skill that the Italians have to turn them into anchovies. This fish may be caught with a Paternoster line; that is, six or eight very small hooks tied along the line, one half a foot above the other I have seen five caught thus at one time, and the bait has been gentles, than which none is better.

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Or this fish may be caught with a fine small artificial fly, which is to be of a very sad brown colour, and very small, and the hook answerable. There is no better sport than whipping for bleaks in a boat, or on a bank, in the swift water, in a summer's evening, with a hazel top about five or six foot long, and a line twice the length of the rod. I have heard Sir Henry Wotton say, that there be many that in Italy will catch swallows so, or especially martins (this birdangler standing on the top of a steeple to do it, and with a line twice so long as I have spoken of). And let me tell

you, scholar, that both martins and bleaks be most excellent

meat.

And let me tell you, that I have known a hern, that did constantly frequent one place, caught with a hook baited with a big minnow or small gudgeon. The line and hook must be strong, and tied to some loose staff, so big as she cannot fly away with it, a line not exceeding two yards.

Bleak

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Is of nothing, or that which is nothing worth.

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ISC. My purpose was to give you some directions concerning roach and dace, and some other inferior fish, which make the angler excellent sport, for you know there is more pleasure in hunting the hare than in eating her; but I will forbear at this time to say any more, because you see yonder come our brother Peter and honest Coridon: but I will promise you, that as you and I fish, and walk to-morrow towards London, if I have now forgotten anything that I can then remember, I will not keep it from you.

Well met, gentlemen: this is lucky that we meet so just together at this very door. Come, hostess, where are you ? Is supper ready? Come, first give us drink, and be as quick as you can, for I believe we are all very hungry. Well, brother Peter, and Coridon, to you both; come drink, and then tell me what luck of fish: we two have caught but

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