The GUDGEON is reputed a fish of excellent taste, and to be very
wholesome. He is of a fine shape, of a silver colour, and beautified with
black spots both on his body and tail. He breeds two or three times in
the year; and always in summer. He is commended for a fish of
excellent nourishment. The Germans call him Groundling, by reason of
his feeding on the ground; and he there feasts himself, in sharp streams
and on the gravel. He and the Barbel both feed so: and do not hunt for
flies at any time, as most other fishes do. He is an excellent fish to enter
a young angler, being easy to be taken with a small red worm, on or
very near to the ground. He is one of those leather-mouthed fish that
has his teeth in his throat, and will hardly be lost off from the hook if he
be once strucken.

They be usually scattered up and down every river in the shallows, in
the heat of summer: but in autumn, when the weeds begin to grow sour
and rot, and the weather colder, then they gather together, and get into
the deeper parts of the water; and are to be fished for there, with your
hook always touching the 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