l6 THE ROACH. 



strike and hooking the fish came natural to him, without any 

 movement of his float to indicate the presence of the fish ; 

 but whether this was so or not I must admit that he was 

 about the very cleverest roach fisherman I ever knew, and 

 I have known a few during my wanderings after sport. He 

 could tell as soon as he looked out of doors in the morning 

 if the day was likely to be favourable or otherwise for roach 

 fishing, and his judgment was rarely at fault. But I must 

 get back to my roach bites. The novice may have noticed 

 when fishing with gentles that when a roach is hooked and 

 landed, his previous bait is blown some four, or even six, 

 inches up the gut away from the hook, and wondered how- 

 ever on earth it managed to get up there. He may learn a 

 lesson from this circumstance ; this is one peculiar feature 

 of a roach bite. If he can blow a bait out of his mouth so 

 far up the gut, when that same bait is carefully and firmly 

 threaded on the shank of a hook, it sands to reason that he 

 can eject a loose bait with considerable force. We wUI 

 suppose the young angler is trying a pill of paste, and sees 

 what he supposes to be a tiny nibble, the float just gives a 

 momentary bob, scarcely perceptible to any but a practised 

 eye, so tiny and quick is this bob that our angler thinks (if 

 he notices it) that the fish is only just touching the bait with 

 his nose end, and waits a second or so, all intent for another 

 and more decided bob of his float before striking; perhaps 

 a fraction of time after the first little bob of the float there 

 does come a second and more decided one, and our novice 

 now thinks to himself: " Now, my lad, I have got yer!" and 

 strikes promptly, only to find to his great astonishment that 

 his bait has gone, and there is no fish on his hook, or if 

 there does happen to be a portion of bait left, he finds about 

 half of the original pill bitten fairly off. Now this sort of 

 thing, when repeated time after time, is apt to become a 

 trifle monotonous, and tries the temper of the angler sadly. 

 There may be scores of my young readers who can remem,- 

 ber not only one, but several experiences of a similar char- 

 acter when roach fishing in deep and quiet waters, and won- 

 dered why it was so. I will try to explain. I have called 

 attention to a gentle being blown by the roach up the gut 

 of the angler's tackle, and inferred that as the fish was cap- 



