^^ THE ROACH. 



The Ouse in Huntingdonshire has some splendid roach in 

 its waters, one angler that I know frequently getting indivi- 

 duals up to two and a half pounds in weight. I don't know 

 how it is, but out of the thousands of roach I have killed in 

 one river or another, I never got one of two pounds to my 

 own rod. Once I thought I had reached the goal of my 

 ambition, and landed a veritable two-pounder; but, alas! 

 a careful weighing-in only made him ilb. 15^^02. — very near 

 it, in all conscience, but still not the one. From, one and 

 a half to one and three-quarter pounds I have had in plenty. 

 I once picked a dozen fish out of a very large bag I made 

 in the Ouse that scaled eighteen pounds. My two best bags 

 of roach taken in the Trent contained among others fifteen 

 fish weighing fourteen pounds, and seventeen fish weighing 

 fifteen pounds. Taking things all round, I may say that a 

 half-pounder is a sizeable one, a pounder is a good one, 

 a pound-and-a.-half fish ought to make any honest angler's 

 heart rejoice, while if he did get a two-pounder, his mission 

 on earth is fulfilled. 



And now just a few words on the various styles of roach 

 fishing that I have seen during my piscatorial wanderings. 

 The rivers and waters are very varied in this character, even 

 in one particular district. Some of the rivers are slow and 

 sluggish in the extreme, others again are streamy and shal- 

 low, whilst others widen out into meres,, broads or lakes, 

 with sometimes a considerable depth of water ; yet, again, 

 the waters of others are nothing but artificial drains, rather 

 narrow, with no stream at all ; but one thing is certain about 

 these fen waters, it hardly matters which class of water it 

 is, they all contain vast quantities (more or less) of splendid 

 roach. There appears to me to be at least three different 

 schools of roach fishermen on the banks of these w^aters, 

 each one fishing in his own particular way, and each separate 

 style is adapted for the class of water operated upon. On 

 some of the narrower canals and drains, where the water is 

 not above six feet or so deep, and very still, the more suc- 

 cessful roachers follow what is sometimes called the Sheffield 

 style. The outfit used is of the very lightest possible build : 

 the rod is a little ten-foot weapon, weighing probably about 

 as many ounces, fairly stiff, and with a strike about it that 



