STEWART TACKLE FOR ROACH-FISHING. 53 



Koach-fishing in High and Coloured Water. — One or 



other of tlie methods which I have described will always 



take roach in summer, if the fish are to be caught at all ; and 



the instructions I have given should suffice upon all occasions 



from June to October, unless the water is very high, or coloured. 



With regard to these last-mentioned conditions, I would ask 



the reader to refer to Chapter I., pages 7 and 8, where he 



will find related the peculiar effect colour in the water has 



on the movements of most fish. Immediately the water 



thickens, the fish go into shallower swims; and when the 



water of a river has been so heavily charged with mud as to be 



all but opaque, I have known roach taken in swims only a foot 



deep. When the water is merely stained, I think the best bait is 



a gentle or redworm; but directly it gets into a pea-soupy 



condition, the best bait is the tail of a well-scoured lobworm, 



worked, either on ordinary float tackle or on leger with or 



without a float, close into the bank, in from 1ft. to 3ft. of 



water. It is best to let the worm lie on the bottom. Drinking- 



places for cattle will be sometimes found to yield 



good roach when the water is muddy — and perch too, 



for the matter of that. One advantage of the leger 



is that no plumbing the depth is required. When 



the swim one has to fish is only 24in. deep, and 



perhaps not a yard square, the act of plumbing the 



depth will as likely as not drive all the fish out 



into the stream. 



The hook commonly used for a lobworm is a KTo. 2 



long-shanked, Round Bend; and if it is one of the 



Marston sliced hooks (see page 21), so much the 



better. My favourite hook, or rather arrangement 



of hooks, for the tail of a lobworm, is known 



as Stewart tackle (see Fig. 24). I find it hooks 



the roach with more certainty than any other 



arrangement. The hooks should be tied on with red 



silk, and the binding varnished. This gives a ^*^ 



. Fig 24 



brownish red, which approaches the colour of the Stewart 



worm, and is better than red paint. Some years Tackle. 

 ago I thought I had invented a great improvement on this 



