CHAPTER III. 

 THE ROACH (continued). 



roach fishing in still waters, 

 (on ground baits and hook baits). 



Still water Roachers — Ground Baits — How to ground bait, and how 

 not to do it — Mixing the ground bait — Roving for Roach — Creed wheat 

 as a Roach bait — Ringing the changes — How to cree wheat — Plumbing 

 the swim— Feeding in mid-water — Stale v. fresh wheat — The postman's 

 knock — Malt — Gentles or maggots — How to breed, and how to prepare 

 them — Gentles in the winter — Paste, plain and coloured — King's bait — 

 the Cocksp7ir worm — The weather and its deceptions. 



There are two classes of roach fishermen who ply their 

 craft in the deep still waters of this country. One class we 

 may call fixed fishermen, that is, those who live close to the 

 banks and can always keep a few swims baited up ; the other 

 class is the wandering angler, who can only get down for an 

 occasional day. This latter class is by far the most numer- 

 ous ; they dearly love a day's roaching, and, after being 

 cooped up from Monday morning till Saturday noon in some 

 stuffy factory, or nearly red-hot forge, the change does them 

 a world of good. To meet the requirements of these two 

 classes of anglers two distinct methods of ground-baiting is 

 necessary. The roacher who lives on the banks can afford 

 to wait for his sport ; he selects his swims, ground-baits them, 

 and fishes at his leisure. ' He is not frightened at over-baiting 

 them. If he does not get the fish one day he probably will 

 the next, whereas the man who comes down for the day only 

 must ground-bait his swim so that he is likely to have imme- 

 diate sport, or, at least, within an hour or two of selecting it 

 and throwing in his ground bait. As just hinted, the latter 

 class of roacher is by far the most numerous, so I will com- 



