THE ROACH. 49 



Trent is rather treacherous ; sometimes a strong undercur- 

 rent that cannot well be perceived by the casual visitor 

 sweeps down and round. This place happened to be some- 

 what similar. To look at the surface of the water one would 

 think a very small float was all that would be required. 

 In fact, one man was fishing with only a one-shot float, and 

 every now and again he got a bite, and when he struck and 

 hooked his fish, I could see that the bait was taken by 

 bleak, and the undercurrent had swept it to within a foot 

 of the surface. On my suggestion, a fair-sized pelican 

 quill was substituted for the tiny porcupine, and ten shots 

 put on the tackle. This weight enabled the bait to reach 

 the quiet waters at the bottom, where it curled round in 

 the eddy, and under a shelf that projected from a corner in 

 the bank. The first swim down resulted in a half-pound 

 roach, the second in a fair-sized dace, and the third or 

 fourth in a two-pound chub ; while ten minutes later a 

 good roach, at least a pounder, came to bank. Those 

 anglers were literally astonished, and said they never 

 dreamed of fishing for roach with a heavily-shotted tackle 

 like that ; but the swim, needed it. The one shot used be- 

 fore could not by any means carry the bait through the 

 heavy curl of water down to where the roach lay in the 

 quiet water at the bottom under the shelf. A little ob- 

 servation will soon tell the stream fishermen what plan to 

 adopt under almost any circumstances. 



What some anglers call the Sheffield style of roach fish- 

 ing in the narrow drains and cuts, is performed with a rod, 

 reel and line something similar to those used in stream 

 fishing; but in this case the water is very quiet, so the 

 tackle used must be of the very finest 4X drawn gut, and 

 at most only a couple of split shot on it; and for float, a 

 small porcupine from four to six inches long will be quite 

 big enough, for ground baits and hook baits, those already 

 described in the chapters on " Roach fishing in still water," 

 will be about all that is required, so a repetition is not ne- 

 cessary. It is in the method of casting out this very light 

 tackle that constitutes its difference. These anglers gener- 

 ally sit on a stool or basket with the rod in one hand, and 

 draw down a little line in the other hand from between the 



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