THE ROACH. 165 



brewers' grains (fresh and sweet, not sour), when 

 baiting with boiled wheat, will often prove effective, 

 particularly in pools below flour-mills, where 

 roach are naturally on the look-out for grain food. 

 In eddies and gentle swims, a handful of broken 

 worms thrown in loose without anything to sink 

 them will often bring the roach on the feed. Let it 

 be remembered that the worm is usually more of 

 a winter than a summer bait, and is more often 

 than not a successful bait in discoloured water. 



Gentles, pastes, bread crust and boiled wheat are 

 the chief roach-baits. To these may be 

 added worms, caddis, grubs from old cow- 

 dung, green weed, pearl barley, flies and insects 

 of different kinds, both natural and artificial, in- 

 cluding grasshoppers ; I have even taken roach 

 with the body and part of the wings of a butterfly, 

 daping the bait on the surface. (For gentles, see 

 p. 223.) Roach are very changeable in the 

 way they take gentles ; a single gentle is 

 sometimes enough, particularly in clear water or in 

 the summer, when they are exceptionally dainty. 

 It will, however, surprise many roach-fishers to 

 learn that I get my best roach in winter, or in thick 

 water, with five gentles on the hook, looping, not 

 threading them. No. 7 or 8 (or a large roach- 

 hook) is required for this ; a small hook would 

 be entirely smothered in the gentles, and fish 

 missed in consequence. The five gentles, all 

 writhing together, prove too tempting for roach to 

 resist, and I may here state that I have hardly ever 

 caught big roach with dead gentles. Gentles 

 require warmth in winter to keep them lively, but 

 they must be kept cool in summer or they soon 

 assume the chrysalis state. They must also be 



