The Compleat ^Angler 



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 

 perch for his shape, and taken to be better than the perch, but 

 will not grow to be bigger than a gudgeon. He is an excellent 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 reserved 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 as many, 

 at a standing. 



You must fish for him with a small red-worm ; and if you bait 

 the ground with earth, it is excellent. 



There is also a bleak, or fresh-water sprat, a fish that is ever in 

 motion, and therefore called by some the river swallow ; for just as 

 you shall observe the swallow to be most evenings in summer ever 



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