350- PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH.. 



genus Leuciscus, but of the family Cyprinidce. I always class 

 him with the fly-taking fishes, though he is more strictly speaking" 

 a bottom feeder. Many an hour's delightful relaxation do I owe 

 that merry little fish, with dry fly and wet fly, up stream and ' 

 down stream. In bottom fishing he may be proceeded for as , 

 with roach, though gentles and worms suit his palate better than 

 paste. He is good enough to roam about so that he ma^ be 

 found in svift water, shallow water, deep water and slow water' 

 alike. He herds amongst the barbel, as every barbel fisher 

 discovers ; he rises amongst the trout. I have taken him with . 

 a lob- worm and with a May fly, and when, as has frequently . 

 happened, he attained the dimensions of half a pound, he has ' 

 rejoiced my heart, as the so-called coarse fishes seldorn do. 

 In the year 1883 I had a great take in a private water on the ' 

 Lea to which a friend kindly invited me. On a graveUy shallow 

 at the tail of a mill- pool both dace and roach lay in numbers, 

 'a:nd the roach on that occasion took the fly — it was the Thames 

 dace fly called I believe the Petersfield fancy, a polyglot hackle ■ 

 shod with a shred of white leather — as readily as the dace. - 1 1 

 have lived for many years in hope of catching a pound dace. ■ 

 Once I thought I had him, but as it required a penny piece 

 (a very dilapidated specimen) to plump down the scale, I.per- 

 petrated the error of not having him stufied. It is not likely 

 I shall ever get nearer the mark. The largest roach I have 

 taken was a shade under 2 lbs., but I may here put on record,, 

 as the weight of roach is a subject of frequent dispute) that 

 in the summer of 1884 a specimen was brought to the Field 

 office, guaranteed by a well-known London taxidermist to" 

 be 3^ lbs. And from its size it was in all probability quite as 

 muck 



Finally and to conclude. Many dodges, only learned by; 

 observation and experience, are essential to roach-fishingof the: 

 most artistic kind. You may take roach by tight line or running 

 tackle ; in clear water and in thick ; by float or fly, gut or hair; 

 legering on a clear bottom with the tails of lob-worms, or. 

 loving and sinking with a maggot: or house fly, but — let. me 



