362 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



so caught for the purposes of food among the poorer classes, the 

 waste fish being thrown on the fields for manure or sold to the 

 crab-fishers on the coast for bait. With the abolition of drag- 

 netting the fish ceased to be a marketable commodity. The 

 great majority of anglers do not know what to do with the fish 

 they catch when the sport of catching them is over. Too 

 often they are thrown away and left to rot on the banks. 

 More scrupulous anglers give them to the poor in their parish, 

 but I cannot honestly say that the poor relish the gift. I con- 

 fess to having taken somewhat of a prejudice against roach and 

 bream fishing because of the inutility of the catch. No doubt, 

 however, it has the same excuse for existence as fox-hunting — 

 that is, it is a healthy exercise which afibrds a relief from seden- 

 tary occupations. 



Both bream and roach inhabit Norfolk rivers in extra- 

 ordinary numbers. Notwithstanding that every reach has its 

 boatload of fishermen, and that as you sail by every one seems 

 to be pulling in a fish, there does not appear to be any diminu- 

 tion in the quantity, nor does there appear to be any increased 

 shyness on the part of the fish. Every season more anglers 

 have been out, yet the average of the takes has been higher 

 than formerly. Some idea of the abundance of the fish 

 may be gathered by a visit to one of the shallower Broads at 

 'rouding' time — that is, when the fish are spawning in the 

 spring. At that time the bream crowd into the Broads from 

 the rivers in immense numbers. Siirlingham and Rockland 

 Broads, for example, are for a few days literally seething with 

 the fish, which are so busily engaged that they take no notice of 

 your boat as you force your way among them. Huge fellows 

 of five or six pounds in weight root about in water which is 

 hardly deep enough to keep them upright. As soon as they 

 have spawned they quickly return to the river or to the deeper 

 water, and their place is then taken by the roach ; the latter, 

 however, affect the dykes and are found along the grassy margins. 

 In Rockland dyke I have taken them out with my hands, and 

 with a landing net one might, if so inclined, speedily fill the boat. 



