CHAP. XVIL] THE FIFTH DAT. 283 



My basket, my baits both living and dead, 

 My net and my meat, for that is the chief : 



Then I must have thread, and hairs green and small, 

 With mine angling-purse, and so you have all. 



But you must have all these tackling, and twice so many 

 more, with which, if you mean to be a fisher, you must store 

 yourself ; 1 and to that purpose I will go with you either to 



ova, the grains of which, in a single fish, have been reckoned, and were 

 found to amount to fifty-four thousand, which must consequently require a 

 very copious supply of milt from the male to fecundate. The roach, 

 contrary to Walton's notion, requires considerable skill to deceive it, while 

 its game qualities are such, that it contests the matter with the angler to 

 the last, so as to yield no small triumph when landed. We have seen a 

 roach of a pound weight in a strong current in the Thames, raise the blood 

 to the face of an angler of fair fame. From the bottom of the water, every 

 inch of the way up to the surface, they may be fished for in various 

 manners ; and when they are sunning themselves at the top, they will take 

 a fly with the best. 



The professed London Roach-fishers use a very light tolerably stiff rod ; 

 of considerable length, to command a sufficient swim without exposing the 

 angler to the view of the fish. With regard to the line, expert artists 

 will seldom use any but single hair ; others the finest gut procurable, 

 especially for the lower portion. Some again prefer two hairs twisted for 

 the upper portion, and a single hair for two or three feet of the lower ; 

 by which, should a fish break away, the hook only is lost and not the 

 float. But the majority use fine gut only, from the uncertainty of retaining 

 with hair the fish which may be hooked ; it is, however, certain that he 

 who fishes finest for roach and dace will be most successful. 



The hook should be as fine as the line ; when of single hair it may be 

 No. 9 or 10 ; Salter even recommends No. 11 ; and in the depth of winter, 

 when the bitings amount to little more than a nibble, this will not be too 

 small. If a gut-line be used, the hook may be No. 8 or 9 ; but to take off 

 the glare of the gut, it would be well to stain it a very pale blue. The 

 float, of prepared quill, should yield to an almost imperceptible nibble : 

 and the shotting of the line should engage as much attention as the rest, 

 that the lead may not scare these timid gentry. 



The baits used in roach angling among the professed London roach 

 fishers, are principally clean small gentles and pastes ; but worms well- 

 scoured (the marsh, the brandling, the blood, and the red) are all taken 

 with eagerness when the fish are on the feed. Worms may be considered 

 as the early spring bait ; but as the season advances they may be alternated 

 with cadises, larvae, and pupae, or bobs and grubs of all sorts. Salmon-roe 

 is a favourite bait, particularly in the still deeps of rivers. Towards and 

 during the autumn gentles and pastes are among the most efficient. Roach 

 will also take artificial flies, both in summer and autumn ; little red, 

 brown, and black hackles, small duns, the black gnat, &c. H. Gr. B. 



1 I have heard that the tackling hath been priced at fifty pounds in the 

 inventory of an angler. WALTON. 





