48 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



but this does not last long, and by far the best 

 bait are gentles (especially those of the blue- 

 bottle), or paste mixed with cotton-wool. 



In' our mind's eye there is at this moment a 

 favourite "dub," where, in bygone years, we 

 used to capture .fish of great size and numbers, 

 which were supposed to be roach. They turned 

 out, however, to be Rudd, "red-eyes" as the 

 old poachers called them. Walton was not 

 at all sure of the rudd, and thought it was. 

 a kind of bastard roach ; and he remarks that 

 the Thames, below London Bridge, affords the 

 "largest and fattest" in this "nation." According 

 to the knowledge of his times, these red fish 

 were produced by bream and roach mixing their 

 eggs and milt together, and although they be- 

 came numerous, they never grew to any great 

 size. This is quite erroneous. At this moment 

 a brace of magnificent monsters are lying before 

 me, and of all coarse fish, surely they must be 

 the handsomest. They have only been out of 

 the water a couple of hours, are in the pink of 

 condition, and just turn the scale at four pounds. 

 And this is how they came by their death. We 

 were searching for coot's eggs among the reeds 

 of a mountain tarn, when two or three big fish 

 began to rise from the warm, shallow bank. A 

 single hair-line was quickly tied, and the end fly 



