340 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE F1SIL 



remark that as a boy, with the rudest of tackle, he scarcely 

 ever failed to do something, and occasionally something tre- 

 mendous. Those days are now gone, except in remote country 

 districts, never to return. All manner of things have happened 

 since then. Our entire water system has been altered by 

 drainage. The good places have been swept out by poachers, 

 or fished to death by hordes of anglers. The grand spirit of 

 improvement of which we hear so much has played mischief 

 with both land and water sport in many respects, while the 

 multiplication of anglers a thousandfold, simultaneously with 

 the increase of facilities for travelling, is of itself enough to 

 account for the difference between then and now. 



Truly there was little art in those early 'takes.' I can re- 

 call with vivid memory the primitive two-jointed rod made by 

 a rustic wheelwright, the line of fine whipcord never attached 

 to winch, the hooks coarsely whipped to two or three strands 

 of horsehair, the clumsy bit of lead employed for sinker, the 

 common floa*", half wood and half quill, and withal, the gallant 

 strings of roach by such primitive equipments taken. Yet there 

 must have been somewhat of skill necessary, for I have recol- 

 lection of studying the haunts of the fish, and being generally 

 certain where to find them. Very soon I knew that the first 

 clause in the agreement must be to keep out of sight and keep 

 quiet, doing everything by stealth, and never overdoing any- 

 thing. These precautions come as it were by instinct to the 

 sporting nature, and they never come at all toothers who are not 

 of the mould, let them be as full of book theory as they choose. 

 There were certain primary methods thus acquired which I after- 

 wards found in the angling books, and which must always hold 

 good in roach- fish ing, comprising in a fashion as they do the 

 superstructure upon which all must be raised. The best time 

 for roach-fishing, to wit, is early morning and late afternoon 

 and evening. White paste made with clean hands from yester- 

 day's bread, and worked up to a consistency that asks no 

 cotton-wool to keep it upon the hook, is a bait that will take a 

 quantity of beating. The angler must keep his shadow from 



