FLY-FISHING FOR ROACH. 31 



sometimes perch, and occasionally a trout. You may also 

 take roach, and good ones, by fly-fishing. Indeed, in some 

 waters, particularly where bottom-fishing is difficult to 

 follow by reason of weeds, shallows, &c., excellent sport 

 may be had with the artificial fly. An imitation of a 

 bluebottle or a common red or black palmer, with a pair 

 of wings of starling feather added to it, is a good fly. 

 Dress it on a No. 8 hook. It will be all the more attractive 

 if the hook be pointed with a gentle or a little bit of 

 stringy bacon skin of the size of a gentle. In default of 

 this, a small piece of white kid or wash-leather does well. 

 As a rule, roach do not take fly well upon deep heavy 

 waters like the Thames, though I have seen them at 

 special times feeding voraciously on flies. One warm day, 

 in October 1860, the ant fly was swarming in the air, and 

 the water was thronged with it. I was fishing at Hampton, 

 and every roach in the river was feeding most greedily on 

 it, and on enquiry 1 found that the same thing had been 

 noticed at Twickenham and elsewhere. As the method 

 is exceptional, there are no rules for the choice of a fly, but 

 if the roach are rising freely it will be desirable to find 

 out what they are rising at, and to use that fly ; in default 

 of this, the angler may whip with a gentle if the fish are 

 inclined to rise well, and he will be pretty sure to get good 

 sport. 



The ground-baits for roach are as various as the hook- 

 baits, but in using ground-bait the angler should be care- 

 ful not to over-bait the swim. There is no plan so absurd, 

 so literally destructive of sport, as that pursued by the 

 majority of Thames fishermen, with their huge piles of 

 puddings of clay, bran, gentles, greaves, bread and what 

 not ; when once the place has been baited, an occasional 

 ball or two mixed up with clay, of about the size of an 

 apple, is useful to keep the ground baited ; but this is a 



