ROACH-FISHING AS A FINE ART. 345 



by the maker. You sometimes see a rod that seems to be 

 faultless ; but at the strike, which is everything in roach-fishing, 

 the top, without being actually whippy, vibrates so that the line 

 is for an instant beaten down, instead of tightened with a pretty 

 sound like that of a harpstring. That instant is fatal. B. has 

 a shorter rod, but it is of cane, with the ordinary top of 

 approved action. Cross-question these men, and they will tell 

 you that they had much trouble in procuring rods with the 

 particular action they required. Though the joints may to the 

 eye be precisely the same, there are variations of temper per- 

 ceptible only to the artist. Once obtained, the correct thing 

 should therefore be treasured. B. however uses running tackle, 

 a fine Nottingham line on a plain ebonite winch. He does 

 this because there is always the chance of a large chub, and 

 he would adopt the tight line, which A. regards as an article of 

 faith never to be departed from, if there was wind to bag out 

 the slack through the rings. Then, though the two floats are 

 shotted down to a third of an inch, the floats are not alike. A. 

 has a porcupine, and B. one of those quill combinations which 

 admit of the insertion of shots for the purposes of cocking. 

 He has three shots only therefore on the footline below the 

 float, placed at intervals of six inches. A., who believes in 

 hugging the ground, has six or eight shots evenly distributed 

 at two-inch intervals. He has reason on his side, I think, in 

 explaining that the whole arrangement is kept straighter and 

 closer to its work by this method. Most anglers pay too little 

 attention to shotting, massing their shots together, and leaving 

 a glistening dint or conspicuous gash after the application of 

 pliers or teeth. Then as to hooks, A. affects a stoutish wire 

 and moderately short shank, insisting that every part of the 

 hook should be covered ; B. a thin wire with long shank. But 

 the hooks were small (No. 12 Pennell pattern and No. 13 

 Carlisle) respectively. A. fishes on without increasing his 

 ground bait, and uses paste. B. throws in a nut-sized morsel 

 occasionally ahead of his float before renewing the swim, and 

 baits with two gentles, getting, as a matter of fact, dace, 



