CHAPTER YIII. 



THE GUDGEON. 



Sdbits and Haunts — Tackle and Baits — Thames and other 

 Methods of Gudgeon-fishing. 



LITTLE fish, whicli takes the bait as eagerly 

 as the most impatient angler could wish all 

 through the hot weather, when no other fish, 

 except chub, can be persuaded to look at 

 the most tempting morsels, can only be 

 described as amiable. The amiability of 

 the gudgeon extends, indeed, to the table, 

 where, after having been carefully egged, 

 bread-crumbed, and fried, he makes a most delicious dish, as 

 any visitor to a Thames-side hotel, or restaurant on the banks 

 of the Seine, can no doubt testify. Moreover, as a bait for 

 large perch he is unrivalled, and is by no means despised by 

 our friend Esox Lucius. In shape, the gudgeon is something 

 like a barbel, with two barbs and an overhanging upper lip. His 

 colour on the back is brown, with slight silvery sheen over the 

 sides and belly. He rarely grows longer than 6in. or 7in. 



Habits and Haunts of Gudgeon. — Gudgeon spawn in May, 

 and are very prolific. So numerous are they in the Thames, that 

 it is no uncommon thing for twenty dozen to be brought in as 

 the result of a day's fishing by two anglers. I have known an 

 angler to catch sixteen dozen to his own rod in one day. 

 Gudgeon-fishing begins about the end of June, provided the 

 weather is warm ; but these fish bite best in August and Sep- 

 tember. In June and July they should be fished for in water 



