THE ROACH. 117 



metal they soon wear out. In addition, they are difficult things to 

 calculate on as to the tension on the line when unwinding, and so ofttimes 

 one is led to over or under estimate the treatment of the struggling fish. 

 As to line, I always use a fine plait silk, it being less liable to get out of 

 order than a twisted line. 



Now comes the question of gut versus hair, and although I am sensible 

 of the differences of opinion existing on the subject, and the prepon- 

 derance in favour of gut, yet I must record my dissent to this. 



I am fully aware that gut is the stronger, may be got as fine, and is as 

 apparently transparent ; but hair is elastic and gut is not, hair is perfectly 

 round and receives the water more readily than gut, and is consequently 

 more transparent in the white kind. The brown hair (which is the 

 strongest) assimilates more with the colour of the ground and seems to 

 me to be less visible than gut of the same colour. The polish on the gut 

 refracts the light considerably more than does horsehair. The principal 

 thing in the favour of hair appears, however, to me to be its elasticity. 



When fishing the bait should always lie either on the bottom or just off 

 just off when the fish are feeding boldly, and on when they are less 

 forward. The float should be very light. I make my own of deal, highly 

 polished, and usually so light that two shots, or, at the most, four, are 

 sufficient to cock it ; both ends are brought to a very fine point. By using 

 such fine tackle roach may not be unfrequently caught when they bite so 

 shyly as to scarcely move the float at all. What I have said as to using 

 one set of tackle, in the chapter on bream, of course applies to roach. 



The baits for roach who shall name them ? artificial and natural, 

 reasonable and absurd, they are legion. Each roach fisherman has his 

 own particular compound in the way of paste, and his own fancy 

 amongst the labrous annelidan family. Perhaps, indeed, there has never 

 been such a variety of mixtures for any special disease as have been 

 compounded by the roach angler for the benefit of his favourite fish. 

 And, like nearly all nostrums for the cure of disease, each paste or 

 unguent has been more or less successful according to the amount of 

 faith by which its use has been accompanied. Some of these are to entice 

 the fish by their odour, others to lure them on to their destruction by the 

 sense of taste. Of the former a whole pharmacopoeia of " fetids " has 

 been brought into requisition. Myrrh in wine lees, aristolochias, assa- 

 fcetida, and a hundred strong-smelling herbs, turpentine, and aniseed 

 were all pressed into the service, as in a former chapter I showed. In 

 pastes, also, every strong flavouring was used. 



The best paste, however, is that which is formed of white bread, well 

 and cleanly kneaded, as an old author remarks, " that being made of 

 white bread and milk needeth clean hands." Gentles are, of course, the 



