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THE ROD for Roach fishing should be eleven feet long, and 

 as light as possible. A two inch reel will be large enough. 

 The line may be any length you please, but I would recommend 

 it to be no less than one hundred yards, as larger and more 

 difficult fish to deal with might sometimes take your bait. It 

 should be made of all silk, one hundred yards to weigh about 

 two drams and a half. The smaller your quill float the better ; 

 one that will carry two or three small shot (the bottom one a 

 foot from the hook,) if you can work it will be very suitable. 

 Some Roach fishers are partial to the single hair, but as you 

 can get gut as fine as hair I don't see the advantage of it. 

 You can see a hair in the water better than you can gut, and 

 why it should be fished with I don't know, unless it be to give 

 the best fish a chance of getting away. At one time the single 

 hair was a great favourite with me, and I once killed a Barbel 

 four pounds weight with one, but it took me twenty minutes 

 to land him, and I felt him to be very unsafe until I got him on 

 the bank. I have lost many good fish by using the single hair, 

 more than I ever shall again, for experience has taught me that 

 fine gut is decidedly the best for any sort of water. The hooks 

 for Roach fishing should be No. 10 for gentles and white or 

 red paste, No. 12 for malt or wheat, and No. 8 for worms. 

 There are various opinions held as to the size of hooks, but I 

 think these are better than any other. You may ground bait 

 the place you intend to fish the day before. If you are going 

 to fish with gentles, bait the place with two quarts of small 

 gentles ; if with creed malt or wheat, bait with three quarts of 

 fresh grains ; if with white or red paste, bait with half a pound 

 of soft white bread, and half a pound of boiled rice, kneaded 

 well together ; and if with worms, bait the place with five or 

 six hundred red worms of all sorts cut in two. The only 

 period of the year to ground bait is from July till the end of 

 October. After this ground baiting is useless. 



THE ART OF ANGLING FOR ROACH. 



Under this head I will describe how to fish with gentles, with 



