56 AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



We lunched together and resumed our fishing, but all 

 our efforts were of no avail. Getting back to the bridge 

 where the trap was to meet us, I decided to try the 

 mouth of the drain, where I had already baited in the 

 morning. I had taken the precaution to plumb the 

 depth carefully in the morning and had noticed by a 

 stick, rigged like a gauge on the bank, that the river had 

 fallen 2 inches. I then adjusted my float on the Notting- 

 ham rod to the required depth, just clear of the bottom, 

 threw in a little sprinkling of bread, bran, and gentles, 

 so that the mixture would slowly work into the eddy and 

 started fishing with a good bunch of gentles on a crystal 

 hook. As the float worked into the centre, it gently 

 depressed slightly ; a strike, and out into the current shot 

 a grand roach. Gently he was persuaded to come back 

 and then to take his exercise up the drain, where I 

 netted him out, first blood, lib. 13oz. Afresh bunch of 

 gentles and off goes the float on another voyage of dis- 

 covery ; this time, as it was passing slowly under the 

 bank, it was again gently checked ; once more a wild 

 rush into the river and the little Nottingham rod and 

 sewing cotton line are put to the test. At last he comes 

 to bank, another beauty, and so on it goes, fish after fish, 

 while the daylight fades so quickly that at last I am com- 

 pelled to give over, for I can no longer distinguish the 

 bites. Moreover the coachman is waiting and the old 

 horse will be none the better for standing in the evening 

 mist, which has begun to gather. So I pack up and 

 count my catch, eleven good fish taken in fifty minutes, 

 averaging over 1 Jibs., while the champion, when weighed 

 at the Bull Hotel on our return, went within ^ of an 

 ounce of the two pounds. I have often fished for roach, 

 but this was my nearest attempt to get the magic even 

 figure. He was the last fish taken and they seemed to 

 get larger as the light went. My friend, who stuck 

 to his old place, had twelve fish going eleven pounds odd 

 while my eleven fish went nineteen and three-quarter 

 pounds, or with the three fish taken in the morning 

 twenty-three and a half pounds, an average which would 

 make the expert Thames roach fisher stare. 



