110 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING* 



and in a slow stream ; though they inhabit large rivers, 

 and often little brooks, yet they are chiefly to be found 

 in small rivers of a fine sandy gravel bottom : in the 

 hot months they lie in much shallower waters, but all 

 the rest of the year, from about Michaelmas till April, 

 they dwell in the deepest places that are most sandy. 

 They spawn in the latter end of April or May, and, as 

 some say, three *or four times in the year. They may 

 be easily taken with small worms or maggots; by mud- 

 dying the water and stirring up the sand with a pole you 

 may draw them together in shoals, and by now and 

 then throwing in a few chopped worms or maggots you 

 may take great quantities of them with a bait on or 

 near the ground; they are usually scattered up and 

 down the shallows of every river in the heat of the 

 summer, but in autumn, when the weeds begin to 

 grow sour or rot, and the weather begins to be cold, 

 they keep together in the deeper parts of the water. 

 If you angle for them with a float or cork your 

 hook must always touch the ground: but many fish 

 for the gudgeon by hand with a running line upon the 

 ground without a float, and it is an excellent way if 

 you have a tender rod and a gentle hand; he bites all 

 day long from March till Michaelmas, but will not 

 bite in very cold weather, nor for some time after 

 spawning, nor immediately after a shower or land- 

 flood; he bites well in gloomy, warm, or hot sun- 

 shining weather, but seldom before sun-rising, com- 

 monly beginning at or about an hour after the sun rises, 

 or after sun-setting, ceasing indeeed, about an hour 

 before the sun sets ; perhaps fearing lest he should be 



