28 2 HE ROACH. 



THE ROACH. 



THE roach is a far-away cousin of the gud- 

 geon, another of the great family of Cyprinida, 

 which ought to be canonised as affording, at 

 their proper cost, the greatest amount of sport 

 to the greatest number of anglers. Laugh and 

 jeer as ye may, ye fishers for trout and salmon ! 

 we maintain that there is more delicacy of 

 touch, more pride of art, more artistic skill 

 in roach-fishing than in any other sort of angling 

 whatever. The roach is not naturally a shy 

 fish ; he is, as beseems his somewhat aldermanic 

 figure and the amplitude of his white waist- 

 coat, a free liver, and ready to take at any time 

 almost any bait that may be offered to him. In 

 lakes, and ponds, and unfished waters, the roach 

 may be taken in any number by the rudest 

 devices ; but in the Thames, where generations 

 of fishermen have continually exercised their craft 

 at the expense of successive shoals of roach, he 

 has become shy and wary to a degree ; and though 

 we read in " Land and Water " daily records, on 

 the respected authority of W. H. Brougham, of 

 twelve dozen and upwards killed in a day, we 

 well know that the numbers, like the " fifty 



