SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND 



little of the rudd, but lie does pay his respects to the roach, a 

 cousin, ia saying that ' the roach is accounted the water sheep 

 for his simplicity or foolishness,' and as for the rudd, he thus 

 flays him : — ' But there is a kind of bastard small roach, that 

 breeds in ponds, with a very forked tail, and of a very small size, 

 which some say is bred by the bream and right roach ; and some 

 ponds are stored with these beyond belief; and knowing men 

 that know the difference, call them ruds.' Cotton comes to the 

 rescue of the roach and says, ' The roach makes an angler excellent 

 sport, especially the roaches about London, where I think there 

 be the best roach anglers.' AH this leads up to the oft-repeated 

 angler's conclusion that an angler should refrain from criticising 

 the methods and game of a locality until he knows aU about it, 

 as the fish never thought of as game in one country may be the 

 very acme of the sport in another. 



John Bickerdyke caUs roach fishing a fine art ; and the little 

 fish, found almost anywhere in England, and represented by 

 the rudd in Ireland, is a most attractive little creature, a ' coarse 

 fish,' yet a gallant Eoman, one Leuciscus rutilus. It looks like 

 our ' golden minnow ' or dace, common as bass bait in the St. 

 Lawrence ; a cousin known as the chub is very evident in the 

 Yellowstone Park. There is an attractive one in Japan, but none 

 of them are so ponderous and aldermanic as the British roach 

 with its scintillations of silver, its eyes, tail and fins flashing red, 

 and its back a steely blue, often green, blending harmoniously 

 into the molten sflver of its sides. 



This little fish soars up to three pounds in weight in favoured 

 localities, and hooked on a two or three-ounce trout rod ought 

 to make the rudd welkin ring. Well scoured gentles are the bait 

 the roach is most enamoured with, and he is ' chummed ' up, to use 

 an Americanism, with ' stewed wheat.' This attracts the bands 

 of roaming roach and ensures a good catch. The art of roach 

 fishing might be made into a volume ; there is ' legering ' for 

 them, the ' Stewart tackle,' ' Punt fishing,' the ' leger float 

 tackle,' ' Nottingham fishing,' a ' Ground baitiag,' and many more. 



37 



