THE YOUNG ANGLER. 



265 



THE FLOUNDER, 



Though a sea- loving fish, is found in some of our English livers, 

 especially the Thames, where it affords great sport to the London 

 boys. As everybody knows, it is a flat fish, the upper part of a 

 dirty- brown colour dashed with dusky yellow spots; the belly is 

 white, while round its body there runs a row of sharp spines, which 

 distinguish it from all other kinds of flat-fish. In weight it is 

 seldom caught above 2 pounds, though it grows much larger. It 

 may be taken from March to August, but as their spawning time is 

 in June, they should not then be eaten. Small red worms, marsh 

 worms, and brandlings, are the best baits, and they should be put 

 on No. 6 hooks. Let the bait touch the bottom, and keep it con- 

 tinually moving, as these fish are exceedingly cunning. 



The SMELT abounds in so few places, and the Rudd is a fish so 

 little cared for, that here the boy's first lesson in angling may be 

 considered to end, as none of the fishes we have hitherto described 

 are either very large or difficult to capture, and are generally as 

 commonly to be found " as way to parish church." We now come 

 to sharp- biting Pike, great, bony Barbel, and slippery Eels. 

 Pike, Barbel, and Eels are common enough, but we have 

 declined entering them under the head of fishes already given, 

 as they require different tackle and different management ; and 

 as a boy unused to angling would not only be likely enough 

 to lose his line every time he hooked a fish, to say nothing of 

 the top of his rod, and perhaps himself. We will suppose him to 

 have become proficient through fishing for the " smaller fry" already 

 described, before commencing with the fresh- water giants he is now 

 about to be introduced to. As for Salmon, Trout, &c., they belong 

 to too high an art of angling to have a place here. 



Is found in ponds, 

 brooks that empty them- 

 selves into rivers, and 

 also in rivers. It is 

 called a jack until it 

 weighs 4 pounds ; when 

 it has attained that size, 

 it becomes a pike, ' * a 



fresh- water shark," a 



devourer of almost every fish that it can get into its mouth, and a 

 terrible mouth the pike has, I can tell you ; for its long, frightful 

 jaws are armed with several hundreds of sharp teeth, and it can 

 bite like a shark too. It has an ugly, savage- looking head, though 

 it is rather prettily marked, being of a pale olive-grey colour, which 

 deepens on the back, while it is dashed on the sides with yellow spots 

 of all forms. The size it reaches at times is enormous, having fre- 

 quently been caught a yard long. 



Pike are in season from May to February, and the best time to 



