BY SEVERNSIDE IN SHROPSHIRE 73 



about mid-December, 1919, when the river was 

 fining down, a Birmingham angler, from whom 

 the early bliss of handling rod and line seemed 

 not to have departed, secured, of roach, dace, and 

 chub, a bag of forty-three, mostly of respectable 

 weight, gentles being the lure. No mere " bait- 

 drowner," he was an old hand. With an eleven- 

 foot rod, he used 3X gut, and a line hardly 

 thicker. He kept almost as far from the bank 

 as the trout-fisher throwing a fly. When he 

 dropped the line in, he let the bottom end of the 

 cork-tipped porcupine quill enter the water per- 

 pendicularly, and very gently. He was a model 

 of quietness, as are all good roach fishermen. A 

 friend of his, roach-fishing at Bewdley one frosty 

 February day, saw a robin from the bough of an 

 adjoining tree settle on the top of his rod. 



Severn pike cause numerous bereavements 

 amongst the trout, and therefore when the clever 

 spinner comes he has good wishes with him. 

 Those who like live-baiting for pike in the season 

 will generally do well all along the Severn with a 

 lively dace or gudgeon on snap tackle. 



It is true that in Shropshire the river cannot 

 be acclaimed as a trout-full river, but the fish are 

 to be picked up here and there, and for delightful 

 days in the country the Severn valley ranks high. 

 Looking from the heights whence can be seen on 

 the one side the Wrekin and on the other side 

 the Caradoc, well may the lover of this land say ; 



" Peace lives again : that she may lon^ live heiv, 

 God sny Amen " 



