170 The Complete Angler 



touching the ground, if you fish for him with a float 

 or with a cork. But many will fish for the Gudgeon 

 by hand, with a running line upon the ground, with- 

 out a cork, as a Trout is fished for : and it is an ex- 

 cellent 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 ex- 

 cellent 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 so 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 called him Bleak from his whitish colour : his 

 back is of a pleasant sad or sea-water-green ; his 

 belly, white and shining as the mountain snow. 

 And doubtless, though we have the fortune, which 

 virtue has in poor people, to be neglected, yet the 

 Bleak ought to be much valued, though we want 

 Allamot saltj and the skill that the Italians have, to 

 turn them into anchovies. This fish may be caught 

 with a Pater-noster line ; that is, six or eight very 



