THE ROACH. 29 



water. This is one instance of the efficacy of stale wheat, 

 but on the other hand I can call to mind several cases where 

 fresh-boiled wheat has succeeded in luring roach when an- 

 other angler, using stale, got nothing. The best bag of 

 roach I ever got in my life was taken one afternoon from, 

 the Ouse with wheat that was cooked the same morning. 

 This bag numbered 136 fish, and many of them were from 

 lib. to nearly 2 lb. each. I might multiply these cases con- 

 siderably, but I have said enough to illustrate my point. In 

 certain waters boiled malt is superior to wheat as a roach 

 bait ; but in deep and quiet waters wheat has the preference. 

 Malt seems to be more effective than wheat in shallower 

 streams where there is a gentle current, and more particularly 

 in the broken water at the foot of a weir, or the tail of a 

 mill, where the froth of the overfall curls round and round 

 in a shallow eddy, seems to be the places for the successful 

 use of malt, although it occasionally meets with success in 

 slow running streams. Malt is prepared for the hook by 

 boiling or stewing the same as recommended for wheat, only 

 it takes double the time to cook malt as it does wheat. Some 

 anglers stew it in a jar in the oven, and add a spoonful of 

 sugar to every handful of malt, but I prefer it cooked exactly 

 as recommended for wheat. 



As soon as October gets well in boiled wheat ceases to be 

 so attractive to the roach of these quiet waters. When the 

 first frosts of the late autum,n begin to whiten the grass in 

 the early morning, the dead leaves flutter from, the trees in a 

 shower, and the reeds and rushes on the river bank change 

 their colour from green to brown, then it is time for our 

 Fen roacher to turn his attention to something else in the 

 shape of a bait if he desires to make a bag of those fish, which 

 now will be less in number but very much larger in individual 

 size. Sometimes roach will take boiled wheat all through the 

 winter — at least while the weather remains open and the 

 waters are not ice-bound — but, speaking generally, I find that 

 as soon as the middle of October gets over it is not a safe 

 and certain bait. Gentles, paste, and worms are now the 

 principal lures according to the state of the water and 

 weather. 



Gentles are now an extremely useful bait for roach, more 



