66 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



CSfutrgeon He (Sottfon. 



The GUDGEON is a very handsome, active, well-shaped 

 little fish; most delicious in flavour when properly cooked, 

 and deservedly considered very recherche by the gas- 

 tronomes of France. 



This fish is to be found in almost all the rivers of Eng- 

 land, and indeed of Europe. He prefers running waters and 

 rapid curling streams which flow over a pebbly or sandy 

 bottom, although he will live and thrive in lakes and ponds 

 through which a gentle draw of water continually passes. 



The gudgeon is supposed to spawn about the month of 

 May. "Walton says they breed two or three times a year. 

 This does not appear to be very clearly established ; but 

 the prodigious rate at which these fish increase, would 

 seem to lend a certain degree of probability to the notion. 

 A French writer says, " They pass their winter in the 

 lakes and large ponds, and in the spring remount the 

 rivers, where they deposit their spawn on pebbles and 

 stones. This operation is, with the gudgeon, a very 

 laborious affair, and the fish is frequently occupied an 

 entire month in the difficult process. Towards the autumn 

 the gudgeons gain the lakes." This does not appear to 

 be the general opinion, neither is it our own ; but Walton, 

 who after all is a very high authority, seems to entertain 

 some such notion of the migratory habits of this fish, 

 although his language is vague and uncertain. 



The gudgeons, undoubtedly, multiply prodigiously, 

 and in certain favourable situations are to be found in 

 immense quantities. The waters of the Pas-de-Calais 

 abound with this fish, and they are to be caught freely in 

 a small rapid stream within the very walls of St. Omcr, 

 as well as in the surrounding running waters. 



