The Angling Season By the time these notes appear, the
angling season for coarse fish will be almost open. June 15th is the official date. Apart from the extraordinarily tranquillising effect of angling itself (I find it the only thing to have kept me more or less sane for the last twelve months) are fresh-water fish worth while in the kitchen? They are, of course, eaten very largely on the Continent, but prejudice is strong with us. From a study of Ambrose Heath's From Creel to Kitchen (Black, 2s. 6d.), I imagine that prejudice is fairly well justified in the case of about 5o per cent. of our English fish. Eels, perch, pike and trout are all good ; carp, roach and even tench are more than dangerous possibilities. You will find that Czechs, and indeed most central Europeans, speak of carp with reverence, and that even in England there are tench-epicures. Both pike and perch are white-fleshed fish, and Ambrose Heath quotes a French cookery book as saying that " after the salmon trout, the perch is the most delicate of river fish," and that they are excellent filleted, when large enough, and served cold with a mayonnaise-sauce. Pike (remember they may easily go up to 20 lbs.) have a great reputation in all Continental countries, and From Creel to Kitchen contains thirty very aristocratic recipes from Russia to the Cote d'or. Finally, an appeal to those who own private lakes, streams or even ponds stocked with fish. About the middle of June anglers get a kind of fever for which there is no cure except rod, rest and water. Even the army cannot kill an angler, and thousands of soldiers who were grateful last year for permission to fish in country places will be doubly grateful now.
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