THE ROACH. 33 



white rag, and put carefully into a corner of the basket 

 where nothing else is likely to get mixed with it. This white 

 paste is rather attractive to the roach of these waters, es- 

 pecially during the late autumn and early winter weeks (the 

 bleak do not botTier you now so much as they did during 

 the summer, so paste can be used without much fear of 

 them' spoiling it before it reaches the roach at the bottom. 

 See Chapter II.). One or two of my best winter bags of 

 roach have been made by the agency of this paste. I have 

 also noticed a very curious thing when using paste as a bait, 

 and that is, if you forget to ^\ipe your hands after landing 

 a roach, and some of the slime sticks to your fingers and 

 finds its way pretty plentifully on your next pill of paste, 

 you are not long before you get another bite; indeed, I 

 make it a rule to just dab the bait on the last fish caught. 

 I have an idea it is effective; anyhow I know it is worth 

 trying. A very nice paste is made by adding a pinch of 

 Vermillion to the one just described ; this is a beautiful pink 

 colour when well worked together; a little chrome yellow 

 added also makes a capital yellow paste. These are all 

 good at times ; in fact, I believe in changing about, using 

 white for a few minutes, then pink, then yellow, and so on ; 

 it is not much more trouble and expense to make these three 

 difftrent coloured pastes, and I know by experience that 

 it pays. I have tried all sorts of things one time or 

 other that have been advertised in the sporting papers, 

 but I nev'jr found any o^ them to come up io their ac'v«M- 

 tised qualities; the three pastes, or rather the one paste 

 coloured and plain, will be found all that the angler re- 

 qinr^N T might ad 1 that it is best to use pa-;te wlirn i^e 

 water is clear. A very old friend of mine (the late Tom 

 Bentley), a paste fishennan for roach of more than ordinary 

 skill and experience, always used to chew up his bread a 

 little before kneading it together with his fingers. He 

 would have it that wetting it in the mouth made a far more 

 attractive bread paste than dipping it in the water, and cer- 

 tainly his opinion was worth something, as he was one of 

 the most expert paste fishers I ever knew. 



If the water during the winter comes down with a little 

 colour in it then a small red worm can be tried as a hook 



