CHAPTER XY. 



SMALL FRY, 



Minnow — Stone Loach or Colloch — Buffe or Fope — Miller's 

 Thumb or Bullhead— Stichlehach. 



HE first two fish coming under tlie term 

 small fry are most useful as bait for trout, 

 perch, and, occasionally for pike and salmon. 

 Minnows are found in very many of the 

 brooks and rivers of the United Kingdom. 

 They rarely exceed S^in. in length, and in 

 shape and colouring are not unlike a brown 

 trout without the red spots. In the spring, 

 about spawning time, they put on most gorgeous hues. They 

 are found in shallow water. In winter, they leave the rivers 

 to escape the floods, and crowd into ditches and drains. For 

 their wholesale capture for bait, I have given directions on 

 pages 66 and 67. They are easily caught with rod and line, 

 provided the hook is small enough. It frequently happens 

 that hooks of the requisite degree of smallness are not kept 

 in stock at the tackle-shops. The line cannot be too fine, the 

 float too small, nor the fragment of worm on the hook too 

 fragmentary. The angler has only to walk along the river's 

 bank until he sees the minnows, cast in his tackle (first 

 adjusting the float so that the worm escapes the bottom), and 

 success is certain. Minnows are by no means bad eating if 

 cooked a la whitebait. 



The Stone Loach, or Colloch of Ireland, sometimes also 

 called the colley-bait, lives for the most part under stones in 



