NOTE 



139 



with the wooded banks, and casting a large fly under the boughs. 

 The chub, like the barbel, in the spring, and at odd times 

 thereafter, temporarily abandons its semi-vegetarian habits, and 

 may be taken by a live minnow or frog ; but this, again, is an 

 exception to the rule. The bream also runs larger than Blakey 

 imagines, for a specimen of nine pounds has been preserved and 

 shown at some of the modern fishery exhibitions. Still, a six- 

 pound bream may be always regarded as a deisirable sample of 

 the tribe. The roach has been truly called "the poor man's 

 fish," and there are tens of thousands of humble anglers whose 

 ambition is amply satisfied if they can escape from the grime 

 and moil and toil of town for an occasional quiet day, seated by 

 the sedges of the quiet waterside, and patiently watching their 

 reluctant float. Blakey apparently does not appreciate the 

 difference, which has been explained in a previous Note, between 

 hair and gut, and I may therefore repeat that roach-fishers who 

 use the horse-hair bottom line do so in the belief that thongh 

 gut may be finer, it makes a more objectionable show in the 

 water than an honest chestnut horse-hair. The roach must not 

 be reckoned amongst the fish which habitually take the fiy, must 

 not for example be placed, in this respect, in the same category 

 as the dace, which is the most sporting of the coarse fishes at an 

 artificial fly.— W. S. 



