THE GUDGEON, THE RUFFE, AND THE BLEAK 



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 so 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 in motion, making short and quick turns when 

 he flies to catch flies in the air, by which he lives, so does the 

 Bleak at the top of the water. Ausonius would have him called 

 Bleak, from his whitish colour : his back is of a pleasant sad 

 or sea-water-green, his belly white and shining as the mountain- 

 snow ; and doubtless, though he have the fortune, which virtue 

 has in poor people, to be neglected, yet the Bleak ought to be 

 much valued, though we want Allamot-salt, and the skill that 

 the Italians have to turn them into Anchovies. This fish may 

 be caught with a Pater-noster line, that is, six or eight very 

 small hooks tied along the line, one half a foot above the other : 

 I have seen five caught thus at one time, and the bait has been 

 Gentles, than which none is better. 



Or this fish may be caught with a fine small artificial fly, 

 which is to be of a very sad, brown colour, and very small, and 

 the hook answerable. There is no better sport than whipping 

 for Bleaks in a boat, or on a bank in the swift water in a 

 Summer's evening, with a hazle top about five or six foot long, 

 and a line twice the length of the rod : I have heard Sir Henry 

 Wotton say, that there be many that in Italy will catch Swallows 

 so, or especially Martins, this Bird-Angler standing on the top 

 of a steeple to do it, and with a line twice so long as I have 

 spoken of : and let me tell you, Scholar, that both Martins and 

 Bleaks be most excellent meat. 



And let me tell you, that I have known a Hern that did 

 constantly frequent one place, caught with a hook baited with 

 a big Minnow or a small Gudgeon. The line and hook must 

 be strong, and tied to some loose staff, so big as she cannot 

 fly away with it, a line not exceeding two yards. 

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