22 THE ROACH. 



when the fisherman had only one day to fish it. At any 

 rate, I always got the best and most immediate results from 

 a judicious use of it. I must now give one bit of advice, and 

 that is : never mix your ground bait up on the day previous 

 to using it. If the weather is very hot this rule must be 

 more particularly observed, as it has a tendency to quickly 

 turn sour; also bear in mind that the bread used is not 

 very mouldy. Some people have an idea that anything will 

 do for ground bait — bread that is mouldy and bran that is 

 fusty, but a greater mistake cannot be made; it must be 

 sweet and fresh, or instead of attracting the roach into the 

 swim it will drive themi further from. it. Instead of mixing 

 his ground bait the previous night, it will pay the angler 

 to get up half an hour earlier on the same morning to do 

 this job. There are two things, however, that he must do 

 on the night before, and they are : put his bread in soak and 

 boil his rice. The exact quantities of each article required 

 will be : — Put a pound, or not more than a pound and a 

 quarter^ of baker's bread that is not less than three or four 

 days' old, into a pail or tin the night previous to the outing, 

 and cover it with clean cold water and let it stand till the 

 morning, so that the bread shall be thoroughly soaked. 

 While this operation is in progress the angler can have half 

 a pound of comimon rice — costing a penny — tied up loosely 

 in a linen rag, and boiling in a saucepan over the fire ; care 

 should be taken that this rice is well and thoroughly cooked. 

 When quite done, it should be taken out and laid on one 

 side to cool ; in fact, let it stop in the bag, or linen rag, till 

 you are ready to mix it next morning ; then drain most of 

 the water away" from the bread, put the rice in the tin with 

 it, and squeeze both up together till it is a pulp, with no lumps 

 bigger than a pea anywhere in it. Now take not more than 

 three parts of a peck of dry sweet bran and mix the whole 

 well together, adding a little water if it is likely to be too dry. 

 It should, however, be mixed as stiff as possible, and don't 

 be afraid of kneading it well together ; work it well in with 

 your hands, for the more you knead it and the more you turn 

 it about and niix it, the stiffer and better it is, and it will 

 sink in the swim much more quickly than if it is mixed up 

 loosely and too damp. This ground bait is improved by the 



