84 BOTTOM riSHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



takes it ; " but I believe that in quiet or semi-quiet waters, 

 a roach does not snap at a bait and swallow it instantly ; in 

 paste fishing this is so especially I remember reading some 

 time ago of experiments tried with different fish in an 

 aquarium. Dace and trout snap at the bait ; but the roach 

 generally took it in a different way ; he would swim up near 

 the bait, open his mouth and draw in a current of water, to- 

 gether with the bait. Should it please the fish it is imme- 

 diately swallowed, and the water ejected through the gills, 

 but the moment he finds out that there is something amiss, 

 such as a line attached to it, or the taste does not suit him, 

 he instantly blows it out with great force, along with the 

 mouthful of water he has just taken in ; and the bigger the 

 fish the more cautious they are in this proceeding. In 

 fishing with gentles for roach it is a very common occurrence 

 to find the gentles blown up the tackle, sometimes a couple 

 of inches from the hook ; the roach had tried to blow the 

 bait from his mouth, but the angler had been too quick for 

 him, the hook had penetrated the mouth, and the bait had 

 been blown up the gut, instead of both hook and bait being 

 forcibly ejected, which would most certainly have been the 

 case had the angler waited another instant before he struck. 

 The would-be angler will now see at once the necessity of 

 having a float that will indicate a bite of this description, 

 and the smaller the quill, the better it will be. Some 

 anglers in roach fishing only have the extreme tip of the 

 float out of the water. Now I think this is scarcely enough ; 

 he should have half an inch at least out, on purpose to pro- 

 perly indicate a roach bite. When the roach draws in the 

 bait, in the manner described, the float perhaps does not bob 

 down, but merely tilts over a little sideways, and the 

 angler ought to respond on the instant. How many times 

 has an angler seen his float give a hardly perceptible bob, 

 and has waited until he has had another and more decided 



