SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND 



by children in America, who fish for it and the sunflsh with pin 

 hooks, or by heating the point of a needle and bending it into a 

 point qnickly, obtaining a strong, smaU. hook of any kind, as I 

 often did for very smaU game, especially sardines. A dace at a 

 pound weight is an active fish, especially on a very light fly rod. 

 With the dace comes the gudgeon (Gdbis) looking like a barbel, 

 but with two barbules instead of four. It is very common in 

 the Thames, taken after the fashion and forms successful for 

 roach. John Bickerdyke's instructions for gudgeon angling 

 might weU astound an American angler, as our methods must 

 on occasion excite the mirth of British anglers. He says : ' The 

 essentials are a punt, two rypecks, a rake the head of which 

 contains four or five teeth and weighs from five pounds to ten 

 pounds . . . some well scoured red worms and brandlings.' 

 Tour American angler would hesitate at the ' pimt ' and stop 

 short at the ' rake,' and if facetious, would suggest that it was to 

 comb the hair of a mermaid ; but he would never suspect that 

 it was to cleverly rake the bottom when the gudgeons stopped 

 biting, to raise a cloud of mud, and give them a muUetean con- 

 dition they adore, as they swim to it in search of food, and the 

 sport goes merrily on. 



The gudgeon is a humble little fish with no suggestion of 

 romance, but poets have, if not raved over him, not passed him 

 by. Pope 



' 'Tis true, no turbots dignify my board, 

 But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords.' 



The carp is certainly a game fish in India, but in America 

 even the big German carp of great weight is considered a nuisance. 

 In England the carp is taken up to twenty-nine pounds, but the 

 average is very much smaller. There are many other small fishes 

 in English waters that are taken with rod, reel and hne and cleverly 

 designed tackle ; which have their literature, their admirers, 

 and most of them are referred to and described by the father of 

 British angling, Walton. Such are the tench (Tenea), the bream 



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