January 11., 1893] 
THE EISIIINCr GAZETTI<] 
25 
((uite soft, then put it into a hof^ and scpiceze all 
the water from it, after which mix in the hag 
with it about a quart of brau, and work it to¬ 
gether till it becomes a stiff paste. Tliis you 
may do at homo if you please, and take it all 
ready with jou to the water. When baiting the 
ground wdth it throw a piece in now and then 
about the .size of a walnut. If the water be deep, 
j)ress each piece into the form of a cu|3, and ])ut 
into it a .small atone, closing it up, so that it may 
.sink cjuickly^ into the place where you wash it to 
fall, alw.ays bearing in mind that ground-bait, 
falling into an improper place, is very detrimental 
to your sjiort, seeing that it coaxes the fish away 
from you. Many anglers are not half particular 
enough in this respect. Your baited hook should 
always be exactly^ in the place where the ground- 
bait is. If the wafer is stilt and shallow, the 
.■•mailer your pieces are the better. If the fish are 
feeding well do not throw in any bait, but, as you 
would do in more im])ortant circumstances, 
“ leave well alone.” We have sometimes found 
that in still waters a little bread chewed very fine 
and throwm in, is a very enticing ground-bait. 
[When gentles a^e used as a hook-bait, a few 
gentles may be added to the bread and bran 
ground-bait with much advantage. A little boiled 
rice when no gentles are available is also a 
valuable addition.—J. B.] 
Striking. —“When you see the least movement 
of the float, either by its being pulled down or 
thrown a little up, strike (luiekly but lightly 
(the motion coming from your wrist, not from 
the arm), for if the jerk is too violent you 
will break the line, which need not be hazarded, 
as the least jerk hooks these tender-mouthed 
fish.”—I6ii. 
Playing. —“If you have hit or hooked a fish, 
raise the top of your rod, keeping him as much 
under the top as yon can, and the butt down¬ 
wards, nearly touching the ground, and by thus 
playing him under the point of your rod, he will 
soon be your own.”— Ihkl. 
Landing Net. —“ In this fine fishing it is best 
to take with 3 ou a landing net, particularly if you 
fish off a high bank, or wharfing, or punt, or you 
will hazard breaking the line or hook in weighing 
the fish out.”— Ibid. 
Posture of Angler.— Nearly all authors, 
referring to light line fishing, tell us in angling 
for roach, a sitting posture is to be preferred, as, 
by that means, you are more out of their sight; 
always keep the top of your rod up over the float, 
and so high that none of the line above the float 
lies on or touches the water. It is herein the 
Nottingham style possesses, in bright waters, one 
of its many advantages over the Lea fashion ; the 
rod is afar off, and does not continually serve to 
affright the fish with either its substance or its 
shadow. 
Shotting the Line. —Bailey says : “The 
method of angling for roach, as practised on the 
Thames and Lea, is cpiite the reverse of the 
Nottingham style, and the tackle used is al¬ 
together different, I mean when paste, gentles, or 
any other light bait is fished with. Some of the 
London roach fishers are very clever in this 
branch of the art. But during my rambles by 
both rivers I observed many of this class of 
anglers using tackle which I considei-ed not at all 
suitable for the delicate and pretty art of roach 
fishing. The angler who can apply the greatest 
amount of deception, and fish with the lightest 
tackle, is the most likely to meet with success, 
and 1 think the generality of my readers will 
.agree with me on this point. However, when I 
see a man fishing with a cork float, with perhaps 
a hundred small shots upon the gut bottom,* as 
close together as they could be placed, and 
fishing a still water, not more than 4ft. 
deep, with weight enough to fish a barbel 
swim, I think him a century behind in 
roach fishing; atid thatuidesshe uses lighter and 
finer tackle, he must ex[)ect often to return with 
an empty basket. IMost of the London anglers 
u.se a great number of shot on theii- gut bottoms, 
.and very close together. 1 know this would not' 
* Idiots we have always with us, but I doubt if Mr. 
Bailey, a Trent angler of great experienee, ever saw a 
roach line loaded with 100 sliots, used in -Ift, of water. 
Nevertheless, he is quite right in the main, for anglers 
frequently use larger floats and more shot than they 
need. On the other hand, a line insufficiently shotted, 
and which will n_t krep the bottom, invites failure.— 
T D ' 
suit me, or my style of fishing. Suppose you are 
fishing for roach in a'gentle swim, with tlie gut 
bottom weighted as I have described, the shot 
being put close together to within six or seven 
inches of the hook, ^'ou throw in your line, the 
b.ait is at once sent down to the bottom, and kept 
there. From your float to the hook your line is 
as straight as .a stick, and your bait is so held 
down by the shot, that it cannot ju’esent any 
attraction to the fish. It cannot move about so 
as to imitate your ground bait swimming down 
the stream. Your bait has lost its freedom, and 
is not allowed to swim in that tempting form 
which w'ould at once induce a fish to take it. I 
do not like the system of leaving the fish to find 
the bait, but, on the contrary, I prefer sending 
the bait to find the fish, which is, in my opinion, 
the only proper way of angling in a stream. The 
bottom shot on my tackle is at least ten inches 
from the hook ; the next one three inches above 
it. Between this and the one above, 1 allow about 
two inches and a-half, and so on to the top of a 
yard tackle, tapering a shot up the gut, so that 
they shall be thickest at the top. It will now be 
observed that part of your gut bottom nearest the 
hook is considerably the lightest, consequently, 
when the float is swimming down the stream, 
by putting a little pressure on the float, the 
undercurrent near the bottom acts on the light 
part of the tackle, and at once brings the bait 
first. Let it swim gently in this form, and if 
the fish won’t bite, the bait will run against their 
noses.” 
Fishing in the Yare. —The following extract 
from the Field of Nov. 14, 1863, gives a good 
account of one of the Norfolk rivers :— 
“Three days’ roach fishing on the Yare (at 
Buckenham).—The following morning we rose at 
seven ; cloudy with a strong wind, rather too 
much of it, but from the right quarter. This was 
my first visit to this part of the country, and the 
first thing I missed was a boatni'in. The ferry- 
boy offered his services to move the boat, and 
whilst we were putting the rods together, he 
came alongside, and with a grave countenance, 
demanded, ‘ Do yo want ony doomps, sar f ’ My 
cockney simplicity asked a little further explana¬ 
tion, not thinking the lad alluded to ground-bait, 
of w’hich we told him to mix a dozen large balls. 
Another important thing to be remembered is 
bait, not a gentle or brandling to be bad here. 
Fortunately I had a scant supply in my basket 
from Loudon, quite an after-thought, for it was 
the quality of the bait caused me to bring it, 
little thinking there was none at all at Bucken¬ 
ham. Well, at ten o’clock we were fairly at work, 
about fifty yards from the ferry. The boat being 
sideways, or on a line with the bank, the rod at 
the bow had the longest swim. The i)lumb 
showed a fair level bottom, with all l‘2Et. of water. 
In with some ‘ doomps,’ and our d.ay’s sport 
began. The first swim was a roach each, and a 
rattling day’s take we had. At two the boy 
fetched us to dinner, and in an hour or so we were 
back again, winding up at six for tea. We had a 
bushel basket each to keep our fish in, and a 
trifling wager caused us to take stock on the 
lawn; result—Mr. Dodge. 112 roach; myself, 
136. Their weight we had no opportunity of 
ascertaining, but it must have been considerable; 
pound roach were not scarce, and half-pounders 
common; not a dace in either basket. One or two 
trifling drawbacks limited the day’s sport, good 
as it was. Our lines were not heavy enough for 
the swim. I wanted a much larger float, with 
twice the number of shot; a third of the swim 
was gone before the line fairly settled. Another 
thing to be mentioned is the fatigue of a 
day’s fishing in such deep water; we were 
fairly tired out with working something like 
l.hfc. of line all day. However, we had had a 
first-rale day’s roach-fishing, and after tea ave 
decided on trying to-morrow a shallower ])art of 
the rivei’. - 
“ Tlie following morning opened with blight 
sunshine and a cloudless .sky'; wind still very 
high. We moored about a hundred yards 
towards Varmoutli, found a nice level swim of 
8ft., threw' in some ‘doomps,’ .and began. The 
sun was a little too bright towards mid-day', and 
the sport hardly' up to yesterday', but still enough 
to make many' a Thames angler’s mouth water. 
Our stock of gentles, too, was nearly exhausted. 
Mr. Dodge made up some paste, which exhausted 
his stock of patience; not being thoroughly 
manipulated, and without lint to toughen it, 
every strike, of course, cleared the hook. We diil 
not count out to-day, and one basket held the fish — 
as fine a lot of roach as I ever saw. Some angler.s 
from Norwich were working at our old pitch, but 
did very indifferently. I fancy their tackle, from 
the little I saw of it, was hardly' fine enough ; 
their hooks full large. For .about an Imur in the 
day, whilst the tide is nearly stationary, the fish 
suddenly leave off feeding. It matters little 
which way the tide works, u[> or down, they bite 
equally W'ell. Friday dawneil with every' chance 
of another fine day. After lireakfast we fixed 
our poles, got into a capital level swim again, and 
began. The last of the gentles had vanished 
yesterday, but the brandlings were nice and 
lively, and not begun on. Poor Dodgs, amateur 
like, had a horror of impaling worms, added to 
which the yellow matter exuding on the hook 
passing through, thoroughly disgusted his olfac¬ 
tory organ, so ho worked up some more jiaste, 
grumliled, and caught roach as fast as ever. My' 
brandlings brought another kind of sport—the 
bream came on; not large, seldom over a pound, 
or under half of one, but about six doz3n of them 
wei’e in my basket before dinner. Our third 
day’s sport w.as, perhaps, as far as weight went, 
the best of the three; bream and roach bit every' 
swim, bar the hour of tide turning, and dusk 
came on much sooner than we thought it due. 
Reluctantly we packed up and pulled back to the 
inn.”—IF. H. F. 
(To be continued.) 
THE PEOPO.SED NEW THAMES 
FISHERY BYE-LAWS. 
SUGGESTED PU15LIC MEETING IN 
LONDON. 
In view of the very strong feeling of opposition 
to many of the proposed new bye-laws w'hich has 
been expressed by the associations and societies 
interested in the matter, we suggest that a repre¬ 
sentative public meeting, composed of delegates 
from all the associations, ct:., and delegates from 
the professional fishermen, should be held in 
London, in order that we may join force.s 
and convince the conservators that the altera¬ 
tions proposed are in many cases likely to prove 
most disastrous to the Thames fisheries as at 
present enjoyed by the public. 
We feel assured that the Lord Mayor and the 
Corporation of the City of London, who were 
most tenacious of public rights and interests 
when tliey were the guardians of the river, will 
lend us their powerful support, also the London 
County Council and the Fishmongers’ Company'. 
We shall be happy to call such a meeting if 
the necessity for it arises.—En. F. G. 
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE RICHMOND 
PISCATORIAL SOCIETY. 
This wed-known and influential society, whose 
meetings are invariably of the most interesting 
nature when any question relating to their 
favourite river is on the tapis, held a special and 
more than usually e.arnest meeting on Tuesday 
evening, at the Greyhound Hotel, Richmond, the 
object of which was to examine and discuss the 
Draft of the Proposed New Bye-laws. IMost of 
the members of the R.P.S. are old and experi¬ 
enced anglers, whose one great object during 
many years past has been to watch over and 
jealously' guard the rights of anglers in the River 
Thames. 
In the Fishing Gazette of February 27, 1892, 
there appears a report of a meeting of this 
society, specially convened to draw up certain 
recommendations to the Thames Conservators, 
which, in their opinion, would be beneficial to the 
interest of Thames anglers in any' new bye-laws 
that might be made. 
(Several of these recommendations it is pro]ioscd 
by the Conservators to embody in new bye-laws 
now under consideration. The two most im¬ 
portant, jierhu])S, Ireing—1. The total abolition of 
trailing; and 11. 'The I’etention of the existing 
fence months. With regard to the former, it will 
doubtless be generally'approved; the latter, being 
clause 23 in the proposed new bye-laws, will 
probably' meet with opposition in some quarters ; 
but, as was pointed out at the meeting referred 
