168 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE BLEAK THE GUDGEON THE RUFFE THE MINNOW. 



THIS is a batch of small fry, and as it is not much trouble to 

 take them, very few instructions for their capture will suf- 

 fice. The reason why I mention them is because three of them 

 out of the four are very good baits for much more valuable 

 fish. This chapter will be a short one, as a sort of tail end 

 to my instructions for " Bottom Fishing in the Nottingham 

 Style." 



The words of Michael Drayton will just fit in here for a 

 text, as regards these fish : 



" The dainty gudgeon, ruffe, the minnow, and the bleak, 

 Since they but little are, I little need to speak/' 



I have substituted the word " ruffe " for " loche," which 

 appears in the original. 



The bleak, sometimes called a "blay," or " willow blade," 

 or as it is known on the Trent, " the whitling " is a member 

 of the carp tribe, and its scientific name is Cyprinus Albur- 

 nus. It is a small fish, six inches in length, and two ounces 

 in weight, this being about its extreme size, and is a very 

 pretty fish, narrow and flat, sides glittering like silver. Bleak 

 spawn about May, and are soon as active as ever; they 

 delight in warm summer weather, and will then disport them- 

 selves near the surface of the water ; they are very active and 

 glitter in the water, turning from side to side. They are 

 found in great quantities in different parts of the Trent, and 

 generally in large shoals in an eddy by the side of a swift 

 stream, or about the piles or buttresses of old bridges ; in fact, 

 the angler can soon find them, for they are mostly near the 

 surface. I read that the scales of these fish were once used 

 in the manufacture of " artificial pearls," a pound of which 



