BY SEVERNSIDE IN SHROPSHIRE 73 
bout mid-December, 1919, when the river was 
ining down, a Birmingham angler, from whom 
the early bliss of handling rod and line seemed 
10t to have departed, secured, of roach, dace, and 
chub, a bag of forty-three, mostly of respectable 
weight, gentles being the lure. No mere “ bait- 
jrowner,” he was an old hand. With an eleven- 
‘oot rod, he used 3X gut, and a line hardly 
-hicker. He kept almost as far from the bank 
is the trout-fisher throwing a fly. When he 
dropped the line in, he let the bottom end of the 
cork-tipped porcupine quill enter the water per- 
pendicularly, and very gently. He was a model 
of quietness, as are all good roach fishermen. A 
friend of his, roach-fishing at Bewdley one frosty 
February day, saw a robin from the bough of an 
idjoining tree settle on the top of his rod. 
Severn pike cause numerous bereavements 
amongst the trout, and therefore when the clever 
spinner comes he has good wishes with him. 
Those who like live-baiting for pike in the season 
will generally do well all along the Severn with a 
lively dace or gudgeon on snap tackle. 
It is true that in Shropshire the river cannot 
ye acclaimed as a trout-full river, but the fish are 
to be picked up here and there, and for delightful 
Jays in the country the Severn valley ranks high. 
Looking from the heights whence can be seen on 
the one side the Wrekin and on the other side 
che Caradoc, well may the lover of this land say : 
‘ Peace lives again: that she may long live here, 
God say. Amen.” 
