January 21, 1893] 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
41 
would do. The immediate result was a roach of 
fib. Each time I put on a large bait I took a 
large fish, but could catch nothing but small ones 
on the small baits. Doubtless the small roach 
swarmed in such quantities that they never gave 
the larger and more cautious fish a chance of tak¬ 
ing the small bait, and it was not until I put on 
a bait too large for the small fish that I succeeded 
in catching tlieir elder relatives. The incident is 
instructive. It is a capital plan to ground-bait 
several pitches in a pond or lake about twenty- 
four hours before fishing, but not so much ground 
bait should be used as would be necessary in 
running water. Nottingham tackle is sometimes 
most useful where the fish lie out five or ten yards 
from the bank, and no boat is available—J. B.]. 
Freshes. —In navigable rivers, as the Thames, 
.which have their waters impounded to assist the 
navigation, there used to be regular days when 
fiushes of water were let out of the pounds and 
locks to increase the depth of water below for 
heavily-laden barges. These are now scarcely 
necessary, as the barge business has been nearly 
absorbed by the railways [and modern locks have 
taken the place of the old pounds—J. B.]. When 
these flushes, or heavy falls of rain in the up 
country occur, the fish lie in wait for what the 
disturbed state of the stream brings down. 
Should the current be very rapid, the best sport 
will be found close to the banks, and in quiet 
eddies. > 
Artificial Fly.— “ It was in October, at Wye, 
near Ashford, we observed on 
the shallows below the hole 
where we were fishing, several 
fish rise, and as we never make 
a fishing expedition without 
our dace rod and fly-book, we 
determined to see what the fly 
would do. We knelt down on 
the grass about ten feet from 
the bank, knowing the shyness 
of the roach, and for an hour 
and a-half had as pretty sport 
as a reasonable man could wish, 
landing twenty-three roach, all, 
with the exception of one, above 
the Thames limit of eight 
inches. We fished with the 
Black Gnat as stretcher, and 
Red Ant as bob, both tipped 
with wash leather, but all the 
fish were taken with the Red 
Ant. The time, twelve to half¬ 
past one; wind, south-east; sky 
rather cloudy, with a bright 
sun at intervals. We never . 
fished before for roach with 
the fly.”- 
To this the editor of the 
Field, in a,note, says: “As a 
rule, roach do not rise well to 
the fly, their food being chiefly 
at the bottom; but sometimes 
they do take the fly, and many are caught at 
times, even on the Thames, by the fly-fisher for 
dace. Our correspondent’s experience, however, 
curiously confirms our own, for the only time 
when we ever remember to have seen the roach 
rising greedily at the fly, was once when the 
surface of the water was thickly beset with the 
ant-fly, at Hampton, and on that afternoon the 
roach were feeding voraciously on it. Whether 
they have any special taste for formic acid or no, 
would be a speculative inquiry; but if so, all the 
old tales told by former writers of the power of 
essences may not be altogether fabulous.” 
Roach are taken in large quantities by whipping 
with the fly while on the shallows, to which 
they resort to scour themselves after spawning. 
In this way, a writer remarks, “ I have seen 
four fish on the line at once, a fish on each 
hook, as they rise with great avidity, but there is 
little play in them at this time, and they are 
drawn to bank as often on their backs as on their 
stomachs.” 
They should not be taken or fished for at 
this time, as they afford little sport and are 
quite worthless as food. We merely mention 
this to show that at times roach will take a fly 
greedily. 
[It is not generally known that in some rivers 
roach are commonly fished for with the artificial 
fly during the summer months. In the Bedford¬ 
shire Ouse, in particular, some capital bags of 
roach are often thus made, and I know one or two 
anglers who, when they visit that river in hot, 
summer weather, consider a fly rod, with reel, line, 
cast, and a few flies, sufficient tackle to take with 
them. The best sport is obtained on sunny days, 
when there are large white clouds about, which 
may now and again obscure the sun. It is while 
the sun is thus temporarily shut out that the 
roach take the fly most eagerly. I have referred 
to this method of fishing in the opening chapter. 
With regard to the rod, a single-handed and 
not too limber rod can liardly be improved on. 
The line should be of dressed silk, rather heavy, 
but tapered for the last five yards. The 
cast should be about two and a-half yards in 
length, and tapered to a fine point. Flies with 
red hackles I find usually kill best, but on some 
days the roach seem to prefer a black fly. I have 
been most successful with the Governor. A 
gentle or two on the point of the hook is an addi¬ 
tional attraction; but its great charm is that 
when a roach seizes the fly under water, as it 
usually does, it keeps hold of the fly longer than 
if no gentle was there. Not a bad plan is to tie a 
pair of wings on a small hook, and thread on a 
gentle to form the body. But in that case a 
bristle must be whipped on the hook shank to 
keep the gentle in its place. With regard to the 
size of flies, large ones are used on the Ouse. I 
did well on that river with small flies, and came 
to the conclusion that the size of fly was not im¬ 
portant if the fish were feeding and did not see 
THE PROPOSED NEW THAMES 
FISHERY BYE-LAWS. 
GREAT DELEGATE MEETING OP THE 
ANGLERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
“ When on the shallows.” 
the angler. I have never seen roach rising freely 
to the natural fly, nor have I caught them, as I 
have dace, with the dry fly. The roach, when on 
the shallows, so far as my experience goes, 
always take the fly under water, perhaps look¬ 
ing upon it as a glorified freshwater shrimp, 
or something of the kind. The whole secret 
of catching roach with the fly consists in not 
striking until the fish has the fly in its mouth. 
! It is best to cast the fly straight to the spot 
where roach are seen, or supposed to be, and 
! then draw the flies slowly through the water. 
■ If the fish are feeding, they follow the flies 
> for a few yards, causing a wave to come over 
the shallow. But the wave does not indicate a 
rise or bite. The angler should be careful not to 
' strike until he sees his line begin to sti’aighten 
out. I do not ever remember a roach really 
rising to my flies. Rudd may be caught in much 
-the same manner, but one cannot strike too 
; quickly for dace; and, as I have said, these 
I bright, lively little fish will rise well to a dry fly 
: even when the wet fly is useless. I have never 
been successful when using the fly for roach in 
deep water, but have taken them when it was as 
much as 4ft. in depth. The better the day the 
I better the sport, as a rule. The difficulty is, when 
f fishing a shallow, to keep out of sight of the fish. 
Hence it is often desirable to cast a very long 
line.—J. B.] 
{To he continued.) 
In response to a circular, a large number of 
delegates, representing clubs enrolled on the 
Anglers’ Association, met on Monday night at 
the Foresters’ Hall, Clerkenwell-road, to consider 
the draft of the proposed new fishery bye-laws 
for the Thames. The clubs had, through the 
agency of the circular, been invited to send two 
delegates each to the meeting, and when the 
proceedings opened the room was densely 
crowded, a number of delegates only finding 
standing room. Altogether, as was ascertained 
when the roll was called, 81 clubs were repre¬ 
sented, and other anglers interested in the 
question were also present. Mr. W. H. Beckett, 
vice-president of the Angler.s’ Association, pre¬ 
sided, and the attendance included many well- 
known anglers. 
The Chj\.ir.man, in opening the proceedings, said 
they had met that evening to deal with the pro¬ 
posed new bye-laws for the regulation of the 
fishing on the Thames. He thought that most of 
them were agreed, both from the correspondence 
in the Press and their own personal remarks, that 
those bye-laws were unsatis¬ 
factory to them as anglers. 
(Hear, hear.) They disagreed 
with the size of fish, for they 
had hoped in certain directions 
the standard would have been 
increased, and he felt sure that 
they all disapproved of the 
lessening of the mesh in the 
nets—(hear, hear)—because, as 
they were well aware, the 
smaller the mesh was the more 
fish would be caught and the 
greater would be the destruc¬ 
tion of their sport. (Hear, 
hear.) There was also another 
important question for them to 
consider: they, as anglers, 
were naturally interested in 
the propagation of fish, and 
under the old bye-laws they 
would find that the Thames 
Conservancy gave written per¬ 
mission for fish to be taken 
away for artificial propagation 
or scientific purposes, in the 
new bye-laws there was such 
an alteration that the Board 
licensed only owners of private 
fisheries to take away the fish 
for scientific purposes ; but he 
took it that the public had a 
right equally as much as the riparian owners 
had, subject to the regulations of the Thames 
Conservancy. Of course it was possible that 
the Conservators did not intend to limit those 
powers to riparian owners; but, nevertheless, 
he thought some notice should be taken of 
the case. He did not know that the riparian 
owners were particularly interested in the 
culture of fish; instead, they were probably 
interested in keeping all the fish they could for 
themselves. (Hear, hear.)—The Chairman, pro¬ 
ceeding, read two letters from the Conservancy, 
in one of which Mr. Gough, the secretary, stated 
that he was unable to say when the bye-laws 
would be published in the papers, but it would not 
be until the Conservators had considered the 
representations of the angling societies and 
others. The second letter was to the effect that 
as the Conservators wished to proceed as caidy as 
possible with the draft, they would feel obliged 
if the Association would forward its views on the 
subject without delay. In conclusion, the chair¬ 
man said there were many present w'ho had come 
prepared for the discussion, and he should there¬ 
fore call upon Mr. Close to address the meeting. 
(Cheers.) 
Mr. J. B. Close (Gresham Angling Society), 
said it was well within the knowledge of those 
present that a meeting had already taken place 
there in regard to the bye-laws, and the views 
then expressed were views given forth by anglers 
