80 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



the weeds has worn off, their scales are smooth and bright, 

 and their fins nice and clear. They are in very good condi- 

 tion, and are very shy j and it is now that it requires an 

 artist in the business to take them. Roach prefer a sandy 

 bottom, do not like a muddy one ; in fact, a river roach I may 

 say is a very clean fish. His baits have to be clean and sweet. 

 If their be any suspicion of dirt or sourness about them, he 

 will have none of them. 



The roach fisher should he able to find out what sort of a 

 bottom the river has before he fishes it. I know a very 

 good roach fisher, who, when he is on the look-out for a new 

 swim, has a lump of lead with a flat bottom, on which he 

 sticks a piece of soap, and by letting this down to the bot- 

 tom generally manages to bring up enough of the sand or 

 whatever it is to judge by. Roach very seldom exceed three 

 pounds in weight ; and we have very few instances where 

 the fish reach this. A two-pound roach would be considered 

 a giant if taken from the Trent ! and I have only seen 

 one roach that reached this weight. This was caught 

 by a labourer with a large lob- worm for a bait : it weighed 

 2 lb. 5 oz., and it was literally quite greyheaded. The Avon, 

 I believe, has the biggest roach ; I have heard of them being 

 frequently taken from that river of the weight of from two 

 pounds to two and a half pounds. Two-pound roach are 

 sometimes taken in the Thames ; but in the Trent I only 

 know of the solitary one mentioned above. A half-pounder 

 is a sizeable fish, a pounder is a good one, while a pound and 

 a half fish would make the heart of a Trent angler rejoice ; 

 indeed, I have known the first prize for a specimen roach to 

 be taken with a pound fish. I once took fifteen roach that 

 weighed fourteen pounds ; and, again, seventeen fish that 

 weighed fifteen pounds ; and an old friend of mine once took 

 six grand fish close to Newark, weighing seven pounds, and 

 not an ounce difference was there in the weight of them. 



