38 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



than lobworms in the evening. After this the float 

 soon disappears, and a fish is hooked, which turns 

 out to be a small chub of about Jib. It is returned 

 to the water, and so is a little perch which comes 

 afterwards. Again there is an interval, and then 

 comes a bite of rather different character from the 

 last. The float bobs about three or four times 

 before it goes under, and when the angler tightens 

 he feels scarcely any resistance. He has a fish, 

 nevertheless, a little, rather big-headed, round- 

 bodied fellow of bluish-silver colour, spotted along 

 the sides, with a feeler at each corner of its mouth, 

 and about 4in. long. This is a gudgeon, a fish 

 which is most valuable as bait for pike and perch, 

 though it is not bad eating. It will be worth while 

 dropping it in again on the hook just as it is, on 

 the chance of a big perch fancying it. There ; the 

 float is scarcely in the water before it shoots under 

 and stays under. The angler counts twenty this 

 time and then tightens. At once he knows he is 

 into something heavy, which moves slowly and 

 irresistibly out into the pool. Then suddenly the 

 strain on the line ceases and the line comes back, 

 with the hook and some 6in. of the gut bitten 

 off. The novice has been defeated by his first 

 pike, and must put on a new hook and let it soak 

 while he digests the information that pike have 



