OF FROST AND SNOW 149 



been the exception rather than the rule 

 to find fish feeding during the first day 

 or two of a frost. The sudden change 

 seems to make all fish, even pike, rather 

 torpid, but I have had some good sport 

 when the fish have accustomed them- 

 selves to the new conditions. One of 

 my best baskets of Thames roach was 

 made when the weather was so severe 

 that a robin perched on my rod for some 

 time, and my puntsman and I fed two 

 robins with bread-crust in the ' parlour ' 

 of the punt. Hard frosts drive all kinds 

 of fish to take shelter under the roots 

 and bushes. I once caught some roach 

 through a hole in the ice in the Suffolk 

 Stour. The river was open in the channel, 

 but at the spot where I fished in the 

 slack stream there was a deep pool, 

 with ice an inch thick." Mr. Matthews 

 has often had good chub fishing with 

 the rod - rings choked with ice, and 

 he has found that fish bite ravenously 

 in frosty weather, but he thinks that 

 roach and other kinds of fish feed 



