350 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



genus LeuciscuS) but of the family Cyprinida. I always class 

 him with the fly-taking fishes, though he is more strictly speaking 

 a bottom feeder. Many an hour's delightful relaxation do I owe 

 that merry little fish, with dry fly and wet fly, up stream and 

 down stream. In bottom fishing he may be proceeded for as 

 with roach, though gentles and worms suit his palate better than 

 paste. He is good enough to roam about so that he may be 

 found in swift water, shallow water, deep water and slow water 

 alike. He herds amongst the barbel, as every barbel fisher 

 discovers ; he rises amongst the trout I have taken him with 

 a lob-worm and with a May fly, and when, as has frequently 

 happened, he attained the dimensions of half a pound, he has 

 rejoiced my heart, as the so-called coarse fishes seldom do. 

 In the year 1883 I h a d a great take in a private water on the 

 Lea to which a friend kindly invited me. On a gravelly shallow 

 at the tail of a mill pool both dace and roach lay in numbers, 

 and the roach on that occasion took the fly it was the Thames 

 dace fly called I believe the Petersfield fancy, a polyglot hackle 

 shod with a shred of white leather as readily as the dace. I 

 have lived for many years in hope of catching a pound dace. 

 Once I thought I had him, but as it required a penny piece 

 (a very dilapidated specimen) to plump down the scale, I per- 

 petrated the error of not having him stuffed. It is not likely 

 I shall ever get nearer the mark. The largest roach I have 

 taken was a shade under 2 Ibs., but I may here put on record, 

 as the weight of roach is a subject of frequent dispute, that 

 in the summer of 1884 a specimen was brought to the Field 

 office, guaranteed by a well-known London taxidermist to 

 be 3^ Ibs. And from its size it was in all probability quite as 

 much. 



Finally and to conclude. Many dodges, only learned by 

 observation and experience, are essential to roach fishing of the 

 most artistic kind. You may take roach by tight line or running 

 tackle ; in clear water and in thick ; by float or fly, gut or hair; 

 legering on a clear bottom with the tails of lob-worms, or 

 loving and sinking with a maggot or house fly, but let me 



