'BLOWING THE TRUMPET.'

23

the fish are difficult to attract, whereas, if you could discolour the water a little, you would not only coax the fish to come to your swim but would induce them to take well. The readiest means it would seem is a rake, but however attractive this may be to small fry, it does not suit good roach. Get a tube shaped like a trumpet or a post-horn, or get a common funnel with a large tube. Then get three or four lengths of zinc or tin pipe, which will fit into each other in joints like ferrules, of a foot or eighteen inches each in length, screw on a sufficient number of these to reach the bottom of the water. Tie a stone or weight on to the small end, sufficient to sink it to the bottom, and keep it steady. Then thrust it overboard to the bottom of the water, the funnel remaining above the water, and handy to you. Have a tub near, in which mix up some clay or mould with bran and plenty of water. Stir it up until it becomes thick slush. Then take a half-pint mug full of this liquid and pour it into the funnel. This rises slowly from the lower end of the tube at the bottom of the water, and thickens it for two or three minutes, quite sufficiently to attract the fish and set them biting, while it does not fill their bellies like ground-bait. Dropping your hook-bait into the muddy stream, let it follow it down, and you will be likely to get a bite or two. You can renew the colouring matter about every quarter of an hour, and, said my informant, no matter how low or bright the water, you will get sport when none of the boats or fishermen near you will perhaps be able to get any."

Among other baits much favoured by roach are creed malt, boiled wheat; it must be boiled until it cracks, which takes a couple of hours. Green wheat in the milky state is a very good bait in some places; it lasts but a short time, however. Pearl barley, which answers the same purpose, is a favourite bait; it should be boiled till soft, but not too soft. It sticks on the hooks nearly as well as

24

BAITS. SINKING AND DRAWING.

gentles. Plain paste (see bait table) is an excellent bait. for roach, and usually comes into favour as gentles go out. A piece of the size of a big pea should be put on the hook, and the angler should be careful not to strike too violently, or he will constantly have to renew his bait. Some mix a little wool with the paste to make it stay better on the hook, and it answers the purpose pretty well. It is best used in eddies and slow streams. The red worm is a tolerably good bait also for roach, particularly in thick water, where the fish may have been feeding on worms, and the large roach will often take the tail of a lob worm sufficiently ravenously. Caddis bait is also a favourite bait with roach, but it is a bad substitute for gentles. The diminutive bloodworms, found in the muddy deposit at the bottom of stagnant waters, is held to be a great attraction for roach, but it requires a fine hook and great care to bait it well.

SINKING AND DRAWING.

Sinking and drawing with a large blow-fly on a small hook, and a single large shot, is a killing way in warm weather. It is, too, a scientific way, as the angler has to trust a good deal to the sense of feeling for knowing when he has a bite, as no float is used and the bait is often several inches under water. The method is to let out some ten or twelve yards of light silk line, at the end of which is some six feet of fine gut with a small hook baited with a large blow-fly or a wasp-grub, or even a gentle may be used in the same way, and about a foot above this a shot or two, according to the strength of the stream. Let the bait sink almost to mid-water by dropping the point of the rod, and then draw it to the top by raising the point, and so keep on falling and raising the point of the rod alternately, gradually following your bait down stream: strike gently but quickly at the least symptom of a bite or a touch. In

GROUND-BAITS FOR ROACH.

25

25

this way you will also kill dace and sometimes perch, and occasionally a trout. You may also take roach, and good ones by fly-fishing. Indeed, in some waters, excellent sport may be had with the artificial fly. An imitation of a bluebottle or a common red or black palmer, with a pair of wings of starling feather added to it, is a good fly. Dress it on a No. 8 hook. It will be all the more attractive if the hook be pointed with a gentle or a little bit of stringy bacon skin of the size of a gentle. In default of this, a small piece of white kid or wash-leather does well. As a rule, roach do not take fly well upon the Thames, though I have seen them at special times feeding voraciously on flies. One warm day, in October 1860, the ant fly was swarming in the air, and the water was thronged with it. I was fishing at Hampton, and every roach in the river was feeding most greedily on them, and on enquiry I found that the same thing had been noticed at Twickenham and elsewhere.

Large roach are often taken also with the lob worm when barbel-fishing. The ground-baits for roach are as various as the hook-baits. In still streams and quiet eddies these should be scattered loosely in, without any admixture of clay or any sinking matter, but the angler in doing so must always calculate whereabouts his bait is likely to ground, and fish there; for if he baits in one place, and fishes a few yards off it, his ground-bait will do him more harm than no bait at all would: never overbait roach, a very little bait will draw them together, and a few scraps occasionally will be all that is necessary to keep them on the watch. The angler wants to keep them hungry and expectant, not to fill their bellies; and therefore a little scattered over a space where all can get at it, is better than a mass where only two or three can plunge their noses into it, and succeed in gorging themselves. For this purpose there is no plan so absurd, so literally destructive of sport,

36

26

GROUND-BAITS FOR ROACH.

This is a very different thing

as that pursued by the majority of Thames fishermen, with their huge piles of puddings of clay, bran, gentles, greaves, bread, and what not; an occasional ball or two mixed up with clay, of about the size of a plum, is useful to keep the ground baited as it were. from casting in five or ten at a time, as big as large oranges. For casting in loose, in eddies, either gentles, pounded greaves, or chopped worms, may be used; these baits are likely to attract barbel to the swim also; or any of the above-named hook-baits, as bran (wetted) with ground barley, boiled wheat, grains, or rice boiled. Some folks use bread, but I cannot bring myself to like this plan; it goes entirely against my grain to take a half-quartern loaf and cast it to the fishes, it smacks too much of 'taking the children's bread and casting it to the dogs,' and seems to me too wholesale a waste. When used it is soaked, and squeezed up with the bran; but a handful or two of refuse rice is a much better and handier bait. It is a very good plan to damp the bran slightly, and mixing with a handful or two of pollard or meal and a little rice, to squeeze it, and work it lightly together over a small pebble into balls. about the size of large plums. This can be used instead of the clay bait, when the stream is only moderately rapid; it breaks directly it touches the bottom, and scatters all over the swim; but as it is soon swept away, a small ball now and then of clay, as recommended above, is advisable. If fishing with paste, a few pellets thrown in now and then near the float, will be found advisable. Some anglers use bullocks' brains as a ground-bait; but as it seems it is necessary to chew them raw-a process my gorge rises at the thought of-I have never tried them. In the midland counties, however, particularly on the Trent, the bait is in great request. But if gentles, greaves, worms, pearl barley, rice, and paste fail, the angler may very reasonably give it up. Although roach are not supposed to be fish-eaters, I have

THE RUDD AND THE DACE.

27

often seen and heard of their running at and taking a spinning bait; but I look upon such facts as mere aberrations.

THE RUDD

is a widely distributed fish, being found in many lakes, ponds, and rivers throughout the kingdom. The Norfolk Broads contain great quantities of them, as do some of the Irish lakes. I have taken large numbers in Osterly Park. They are a somewhat similar fish to the roach, though of a more coppery tinge, and of a rather deeper and shorter make. They seldom exceed one and a half pounds in weight, and are not common of that size. For all angling purposes, the directions given for roach answer for the rudd equally. In the Thames the two fish are often caught in the same swim, and confounded together. 'What a short thick roach!' the angler will sometimes observe, as he drops it into the well. They spawn in April, or early in May, and are said to be a better fish for the table than roach.

THE DACE (Cyprinus leuciscus).

The dace is an active and prolific little fish, slender and graceful in its proportions. It seldom exceeds a pound in weight, and in few rivers in England is it even taken up to that weight; in the Thames a dace of half a pound is unusually large, though I once remember taking thirteen that weighed seven pounds, my companion having previously taken his share from the basket (which was the product of our joint efforts), which consisted of a like number as fine. or finer; all these fish were taken with the tail of the lob worm when we had baited for barbel. Never before or since, through many long years' experience, have I seen such a take of dace on the Thames, nor one at all approaching it for average size. In the Colne, and the Hampshire Avon, and the Usk, however, I have often seen dace that would run