Small Fry

What’s your favourite fish? 

If you didn’t say the gudgeon or bullhead, or even the minnow, then this new book from Mark Everard may make you reconsider.

The usual suspects of carp, barbel, roach, salmon and trout may grow bigger, fight harder and look better in a catch shot on your mantlepiece but they aren’t as pretty as my personal favourite, the gudgeon. As Mark says in his new book ‘gudgeon are, in truth, rather splendid fish, among the most beautiful that swim British and European waters’ and I couldn’t agree more. If gudgeon grew beyond the mere ounces that they reach in the UK (the British rod caught record is 5oz exactly), we would have hordes of specimen anglers chasing them up and down the country. 

Marks new book focuses not only on the gudgeon but also the other diminutive species that inhabit UK freshwaters (he also includes the smelt as a salty visitor). From minnows and sticklebacks to bleak and spined loach (another favourite of mine), they are all given the attention they deserve. Despite been common around the country, and often, in the case of stickleback, the first fish that we catch with a net as children, they are under-studied and often overlooked by researchers and the public in favour of more glamorous species. 

Marks book aims to correct this oversight by shining a light on the unique qualities and ecological importance of these lesser known ‘tiddlers’. As with Marks other books it is written in an easily accessible and engaging format. Each species is accompanied by a full-colour photograph by acclaimed underwater photographer Jack Perks, complemented by sketches and other interesting images such as a traditional wine-bottle minnow trap or illustrations originally featured on 1960s tea cards.

The result is a book that will be as interesting and enlightening to a researcher as it will to an angler or nature enthusiast. 

It is well worth adding it to your fishy book collection. 

Reviewed by Paul Coulson

Publisher information

• Cost £35 

• Publisher: CABI Publishing
• ISBN: 9781836991670
• Number of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
• Languages: English