THE ROACH. 105 



especially in the wint"er. When the water is very much 

 discoloured any time during the year, worms are the best 

 bait for roach, and when the water is rising the angler can 

 fish on the grass slopes by the side. The fish are roving 

 about, and are looking for food ; also when the water is low, 

 keep your eyes open, and note where a nice grassy slope 

 comes gradually out of the river, that is free from obstructions. 

 This, when covered with a rising water, will be found a 

 capital place to take roach with the cockspur or the tail end 

 of lob ; but as soon as the water begins to go down again, 

 the fish retire with it into the main stream, and it is very 

 little good fishing in a falling water during flood time. I 

 have taken good roach during the winter, when snow has 

 lain on the ground, and the weather has been altogether 

 disagreeable, by a little judicious baiting, and using the tail 

 end of the hook bait ; anglers, therefore, need not despair, 

 and think they cannot get any roach fishing. If they 

 know the winter haunts of the fish, they can get some 

 sport, and the roach they do catch in the winter with 

 the tail end of lob are generally big fish and in splendid 

 condition. 



Although roach, as a general thing, are found in deep, 

 quiet water, yet in the early part of the season they are 

 sometimes found in the shallows of a mill tail, or in the 

 gravelly shallows that flow from a weir, and they may 

 then be caught by a cad bait, or with gentles, fishing with a 

 float and a short tackle. ]f the angler is so minded also, he 

 can whip for them with an artificial fly red and black 

 palmers will be the best and as an improvement he can 

 put a gentle on the point of the hook. Eoach can also 

 be taken by daping a live insect on the surface, in such 

 places as follows : Where a lot of weeds, &c., hinders 

 you from float fishing, or in any place that you know 

 contains roach, providing that there is something on the 

 bank that will allow you to keep out of sight. A blow 

 and the cowdung fly are the best for this purpose. There is 

 also a certain water-weed (conferva rivalis) that roach will 

 take as a hook bait, when they are vegetably minded. That 

 roach are sometimes vegetarians I know, because I have 



