THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



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hunt for flies at any time, as most other fishes do : he is an 

 excellent fish to enter a young angler, being easy to be taken 

 with a small red-worm, on or very near to the ground. He is 

 one of those leather-mouthed fish that has his teeth in his throat, 

 and will hardly be lost from off the hook if he be once strucken. 

 They be usually scattered up and down every river in the shal- 

 lows, in the heat of summer ; but in autumn, when the weeds 

 begin to show sour or rot, and the weather colder, then they 

 gather together, and get into the deeper parts of the water ; and 

 are to be fished for there, with your hook always 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, without a cork, as a trout is fished for ; and 

 it is an excellent 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 pearch for his shape, and taken to be better than the pearch, 

 but will not grow to be bigger than a gudgeon. He is an excel- 

 lent 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 re- 

 served 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. 



* The Ruffe-Perch {Perca Cerntta of Linnaeus) is described by Yarrell 

 as " a fresh water fish closely allied to the pearch, but with a single dor- 

 sal fin. It resembles the pearch in its habits, and seldom exceeds six or 

 seven inches in length, but its flesh is considered excellent." — ^ni. Ed. 



