FISH AND FISHING IN AMERICA. 



BY WM. C. HARRIS. 

 (Continued from page 161.) 



Insignificant in size as is the little 

 cyprinoid, called in Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia "the gudgeon," it has been from 

 the earliest settlement of those States 

 an object of eager pursuit by the resi- 

 dent fishermen. A similar condition 

 exists at the present time in England, 

 and " weigh-in day " at the London 

 angling clubs often shows that a catch 

 of gudgeons wins the much-coveted 

 high-hook award. But the gudgeon of 

 Europe, though one of the smallest 

 fishes caught on the rod, is not identical 

 with the American fish, except in its 

 exquisite savor ; zoologically consid- 

 ered, we have no true gudgeon in our 

 waters. The foreign fish, Gobio fluvia- 

 tilts, is, however, also a cyprinoid, grows 

 to a length of ten inches, has distinct 

 barbels or feelers, but is found only in 

 fresh, clear waters. The American fish 

 has no barbels, never grows larger than 

 nine inches, and is caught in greatest 

 numbers in brackish waters and a short 

 distance above tide-water, in the spring 

 of the year. I have taken them in my 

 school-boy days by the gross, when fish- 

 ing from the wharves in Baltimore, on 

 a minnow-hook baited with small pieces 

 of earthworms. In this connection Mr. 

 A. F. Dresel, of Baltimore, wrote me : 

 " Our gudgeon is caught in the fresh- 

 water streams in the vicinity of Balti- 

 more from April to June, when they 

 ascend from salt water to spawn. In 

 the fall and winter months they are 

 caught in the brackish waters near the 

 mouths of rivers, and are undoubtedly 

 larger in such waters than in fresh. 

 They are, therefore, anadromous, and 

 should go in your list of such fishes." 



The attraction of gudgeon-fishing 

 seems to grow among Maryland and 

 Virginia anglers ; with them, as it 

 should be among all good members of 

 the craft, the delicacy and flavor of this 

 fish, when properly cooked, increase the 

 pleasure of catching them. The cap- 

 ture, except as a casual or incidental ex- 

 perience, of fishes that are unfit for the 

 table, is justly considered as unsports- 

 manlike ; it is destroying life for the 

 pleasure of killing something. The 

 true angler will carry his better nature 

 to the waters, and on his way thereto 

 will lift his heel for fear of crushing a 

 creeping insect, and take the hook ten- 

 derly from the mouth of an unsavory 

 or undesirable fish, and gently return it 

 to the water to fulfill the purpose of its 

 creation — that of food for predatory 

 fishes, which in turn are devoured by 

 their stronger, fiercer, and less procre- 

 ative congeners. If this law of nature 

 ceased its operation, the waters of the 

 earth would become matter composed 

 of decayed fish-forms, causing disease 

 and death. Thus we see in the cosmos 

 of Providence conditions which are re- 

 pugnant to our sympathies, but neces- 

 sary to our existence. We feel effects, 

 endeavor with our feeble powers to find 

 the causes thereof, and, despite our ela- 

 tion at being God's elect in intellect, 

 drift rudderless and helpless on the sea 

 of human fallibility. The angler, when 

 wading a mountain stream or alone on 

 a secluded lake or salt-water channel- 

 way, is more apt to be impressed with 

 such influences than a denizen of bricks 

 and mortar. His environment, with its 

 dense solitude, that seems almost tangi- 



