THE ROACH. 171 



Hampshire Avon have been obtained with stewed 

 wheat. 



In the early season, in hot weather, I have caught 

 roach with flies, both natural and artificial. 

 I have had several good fish by daping with 

 a bluebottle or a grasshopper ; the difficulty is to 

 keep out of sight, and landing one fish generally 

 scares the others for some time. A red or black fly, 

 trimmed without wings, will kill roach at times, 

 particularly if tipped with a gentle ; though, in this 

 case, I think it is more the gentle than the fly that 

 proves attractive. 



A whole lobworm, carefully threaded on the 



hook, the latter in the tail end of the worm, 



, , ' Worms 



sometimes kills the very largest roach. I 



have caught fine fish with this bait in Norfolk, by 

 both legering and tight-corking, allowing the roach 

 to suck the bait well in. This method requires 

 time before striking. Half an inch of the tail of a 

 well-scoured lobworm is also a deadly bait for large 

 roach. I have also had a few with the head of a 

 lobworm. Well-scoured red worms are excellent 

 in thick water ; but brandlings are not much good 

 for roach ; at least, I have not done much with 

 them. Very little of the worm must be left loose 

 on the hook, or the fish will bite the loose . 

 part and miss the hook. A peeled shrimp 

 is a good bait for large roach. 



I have taken very few roach, or indeed any fish, 

 when the water is full of the first great fall of 

 yellow willow leaves in the autumn, the leaves 

 flavour the water and sicken the fish. 



A clisgorger should always find a place in the 

 roach-fisher's outfit, as it saves much time in ex- 

 tracting the hook, and prevents friction on the gut 



