38 



THE ROACH. 



and recommended for deep, still water fishing will not be 

 a success if used as a Nottingham; rod down a stream. What 

 I call a perfect rod for the work now under notice should 

 be built after the style fully described in the chapter on bar- 

 bel, only, of course, shorter and very much lighter. I like 

 mv roach rod to have plenty of material in the lower half 

 of it, and be tapered true and fine fromi the centre of it up 

 to the tip, so that when in conflict with a big roach it will 

 bend in a beautiful half circle from the point to about half- 

 way down its entire length, the bottom, end half remaining 

 nearly straight. I don't like to see a roach rod that will 

 bend right down tO' the winch fittings. This action may be 

 all right in a fly rod, but in a roach rod., especially for stream 

 fishing, it will be found a mistake. This rod can be from 

 ten to eleven feet long; anything over the latter spoils its 

 balance. I don't care for a rod of this class to weigh much 

 less than a pound,, and even a roach rod of this weight, if 

 properly made, will feel lighter in the hand than a ten-ounce 

 bamboo rod, for the simple reason that the latter is very 

 thin and light at the butt end, thus causing it tOi feel de- 

 cidedly top-heavy, while the pound rod has a good portion 

 of its weight in the hand, thus feeling ligjiter than it really 

 is. This rod can be built of the same material as recom- 

 mended for making a barbel rod. The size of the ferrules 

 need not, however, in this case exceed nine^sixteenths of an 

 inch in diameter on the butt, and five-sixteenths of an inch 

 on the centre joint; the rings can be of the same pattern 

 as then described ; " Bell's Life " rings on the 

 butt and centre ; snake rings on the top ; a plain steel 

 loop at the extreme tip end ; plain ferrules ; and the winch 

 or reel rings seven inches from the end of the butt. Armed 

 with a rod of this class our roach fisherman who plies his 

 craft in the waters now referred to is prepared for anything 

 that may happen to turn up, and can fish his swimi in either 

 the Nottingham or the Sheffield style, whichever suits that 

 particular swim the best ; and I might add the cost of this 

 rod should not exceed eight to ten shillings. 



If the angler operates on a stream, where he finds it neces- 

 sary to swim his float from ten to twenty yards from* where he 

 stands, he will find the three-and-a-half inch centre-pin reel 



