^ THE ROACH. 



Their scales are very smooth except during and just after 

 spawning time, when they feel to the toojch like a nutmeg 

 grater." From- this it would appear that our roach is 

 possessed of considerable personal beauty, which I, for one^ 

 do not intend to deny. Indeed, an October roach, when 

 in condition, is a lovely fish, and a dish of a dozen pounders 

 is a splendid sight, and one that any angler, no matter how 

 clever and experienced he is, will be mightily proud of, 

 more especially if he himself happens to be the lucky capr 

 tor. A roach has a small head and a hard mouth, with 

 a peculiar top lip ; this lip, if you take hold of it, raise it, 

 and bring it forward, shows to you that it has the power 

 of elongation, and that it is shaped something like a hood. 

 This power of the roach to alter the sha.pe of its mouth 

 goes to prove that he can feed in a variety of ways, grope 

 along the bottom like a barbel or gudgeon, take a bait in 

 midwater, and even from the surface like a dace. Perhaps 

 this telescopic mouth mav have something to^ do with the 

 roach's power of so promptly blowing out a, suspicious bait, 

 which act puzzles the novice more than a little; but more 

 of this further on. These fish may very readily be con- 

 founded with others of an apparently similar character, but 

 which, on closer observation side by side, are widely dif- 

 ferent. When I was secretary and weighing-in officer of 

 an angling club, certain members W'Ould some o^dd times 

 bring in to be booked as roach two and even three pounds 

 chub, under the idea that they had got hold of an extra- 

 fine specimen of the " rutilus " family. 



Roach spawn about the latter end of May, and are won- 

 derfully prolific^ as many as 125,000 eggs being counted in 

 the ovum of a pound fish. For some little time after this 

 ooeration they are very dirty and slimy, and have a lot of 

 rough white pimples on their scales. About this time 

 f ey retire among the weeds, and feed a good deal on those 

 weeds and the insects found among them. As soon as 

 July gets well in they leave the fastnesses of the weed beds 

 and take more to the open water and the gravelly swims, 

 and are then found in large numbers in such places, and the 

 clear luns by the side of rushes and flags. In ano'^her 

 week or two, say by the latter end of July or the beginning 



