Roach, rudd & bream fishing. Being a practical treatise on angling with float and ledger in still water and stream. Including a few remarks on surface fishing for rudd and roach

Front matter

Just Published. -i-i— Second Edition.

'AN ANGLER'S PARADISE.'

(illustrated).

Preface

I N the preface to the first volume of this little work, I pointed out that in scores of big towns and cities there are thousands of factory and other workers who dearly love a day's fishing, and when the workshop bell or steam buzzer at noon on Saturday's signalled a cessation of the week's toil, these workers were soon after wending their way, rod in hand and basket on back, to their favourite river, drain, canal, or reservoir, as the case might be.

The great majority of these men are, as I said then, bottom fishermen, pure and simple ; and I may say also without fear of contradiction, that by far the largest number make Roach and Bream the special objects of their quest. It was this consideration that made the Publisher of this little effort of my pen decide to issue it in two volumes — ist, dealing with Barbel and Chub ; and 2nd, Roach and Bream.

In the little volume now before you, I have most carefully noted the difference between stream fishing and still water fishing for Roach and Bream, giving full details of the outfits, the tackle and methods of shotting and using it, with the ground baits and hook baits ; each style separate and distinct from iv. Preface.

the other, so that the youngest and most inexperienced angler can hardly make a mistake.

If there is a special feature in this small volume, that feature will be found in Chapter V., where I treat a distinguished member of the Roach family at greater length, from a practical standpoint, than I think it has ever been treated before in a work on bottom-fishing.

I must also tender my best thanks to the two or three gentlemen, whose names I have mentioned in the following pages, for the great trouble they have taken in answering my queries, and giving my readers and myself the benefit of their valuable advice on certain vexed questions.

Roach fishing has been for many years a favourite pastime of mine, and I have also had the distinguished advantage of calling " friends " some of the most expert and observant roachers that are to be found in the kingdom, and I thankfully acknowledge the valuable experience I gamed from the companionship of these friends.

I should like to repeat what I said in the preface to the volume on " Barbel and Chub Fishing," that the principles I lay down are those of economy, based upon a practical knowledge and experience extending through many years, and under peculiar advantages. I know what it is to have a working-man's pocket, because, brother working-man angler, I

Preface. v.

am one of yourselves ; and have not the least hesitation in saying that a careful study of this part of my subject will be a saving to you of many shillings during a single season.

And now, Mr. Critic, I must again remind you, when picking out passages that are badly expressed, or sentences that are not exactly in accordance with the Queen's English, that I left school at the early age of ten, and most of my learning and experience have been picked up by the wayside, riverside, and hedges.

This little volume I also dedicate to my brother workingmen fishers, and await the result of their verdict with the greatest confidence.

JOHN WM. MARTIN

(''The Trent Otter" ).

December, iSg6.

PART I IL— ROACH, RUDD, AND BREAM. Chapter L— Roach and Roach Fishing

Roach fishermen — Ancient v. Modern Roach — Shyness of Roach — Fecundity of Roach — A Remarkable Incident — How did they get there ?— Description and peculiarities of Roach — Habits and haunts of Roach — Food of Roach — Weight of Roach — Good bags — Roach fishing — The Sheffield style — The Nottingham style — Still water Roaching — Striking with a wobbly rod ........

Chapter II.— The Roach (continued)

Roach Fishing in Still Waters. (On Roach Bites and the Outfit).

Choosing a Roach Rod — An Ouse pattern — The Author's Roach Rod — A bit of sound advice — Rod-rings — The Reel and Line — Gut Lines and Gut Hooks — Roach Floats — What is a Roach bite? — A born Roacher — Sucking in, and blowing out, the bait — Striking the fish — "Missed him " — The reason why — The Bleak nuisance — Slow v, quick sinking baits — Those small tormenters - - -

Chapter III.— The Roach (continued)

Roach Fishing in Still W^aters. (On Ground Baits and Hook Baits).

Still water Roachers — Ground Baits — How to ground bait, and how not to do it — Mixing the ground bait — Roving for Roach — Creed wheat as a Roach bait — Ringing the changes — How to cree wheat — Plumbing the swim — Feeding in mid-water — Stale v. fresh wheat — The postman's knock — Malt — Gentles or maggots — How to breed, and how to prepare them — Gentles in the winter — Paste, plain and coloured — King's bait — The cockspur worm — The weather and its deception viii. Conte7its.

Chapter IV.— The Roach (continued)

Stream and Drain Fishing for Roach. (The Nottingham and Sheffield Styles).

Stream v. drain fishing — The stream fishing rod — The Outfit — Floating the line— Floats and Tackle— Ground baiting the streams— Baiting the hook — Fishing the swim — A strange ground bait — A flooded water —" Stret pegging" — The Nottingham style — Finding the depth — Casting out the bait — Ledgering for Roach — Undercurrents — A heavy stream — The Sheffield style— Shrimps as bait — A killing style — Experiences on the Avon and Frome, - - - 36

Chapter V.— The Rudd. RuDD and Rudd Fishing

Rudd and Rudd Fishing — A little known fish — Characteristics of the Rudd — Weight of Rudd — Habits and Haunts of the Rudd — Luring them out — Food of Rudd — Baits for Rudd fishing — "Fine and far off"" — The outfit— Floats — Gut lines and gut hooks — A slowly-sinking bait — Fishing the runs — Playing the fish — Dr. Norman's experiences — The Norfolk style— Fly fishing for Rudd - - - 55

Chapter VI.— The Bream. Bream and Bream Fishing

Bream fishing— White Bream — Carp Bream — Weight of Bream — Distribution of Bream — Peculiarities of Bream — "On the flit " — Antiquity of Bream— Bream in the frying-pan — The Trent style — The Ouse style — A rustic breamer — A picture drawn from life — Night fishing — The outfit — Ground-baiting for Bream — A Bream bite — The hook and crutch — The weather in connection with Bream fishing — Special precautions — Lake Bream — An extraordinary ground bait — Hook baits — Ledgering for Bream — ''Au revoir" 71

Chapter I. Roach And Roach Fishing

Roach Fishermen — Ancient v. Modern Roach — Shyness of Roach — Fecundity of Roach — A Remarkable Incident — How did they get them f — Description and peculiarities of Roach — Habits and haunts of Roach — Food of Roach — Weight of Roach — Good bags — Roach fishing — The Sheffield style — The Nottingham style — Still water Roaching — Striking with a wobbly rod.

" The Roach, whose common kind to every flood doth fall.'

Bottom fishermen, and their name nowadays can be called legion, dearly love a day's roach fishing. It hardly matters whether they make a speciality of chub, or barbel, oi' bream; they are nevertheless always ready for a bit of roaching. There is also a large class of anglers who' confine their attention exclusively to this branch of fishing; they are never tempted toi try any other, and I have fancied mone than once that they rather prided themselves oo the fact. But there is one thing certain ; a successful roach fisherman stands on the very highest rung of the angling ladder. He must be possessed of great skill, patience and ingenuity, and also of a thorough knowledge of the habits of the fish. He must also be able toi detect the places where ro^ach are likely to be fo'und, and know what places they avoid ; he must pay particular attention to a numiber of the most minute details, a good swim, must be selected, and then it must be fished at the exact depth ; a very fine tackle must be used, and in hooking a roach the angler must have the orthodoK roach trick, and do it

B in the twinkling of an eye. Dame Juliana Bemers, writing of this fish., says : " the roche is an. easy fysshe to take." Perhaps it might ha,ve been four hundred years ago when that good old lady wrote of fish and fishing. Even coming down a little later, we find Izaak Walton, speaking of the roach in these terms : " he is accounted the water sheep for his simplicity or foodishness." The;se two odd writers were perhaps justified in making those remarks, but nowadays the well-fed, good-conditioined, and aldermanic roach of any well-fished river are not toi be caught by any tyro', as soon as August gets in, at any rate. They are then amazingly shy of thei hook, and appear to bei pretty wider awake, perhaps taking stock of the angler and his proceedings. They seemi to be very highly educated during the autumn months, and cannot stand a reckless stamping by the angler up and down the bank, or splashing about with heavily-weighted tackle. To' be a successful roachi fisherman, the motto must be " Fine and far off." Keep out of sight as much as possible, use' suitable tackle, proper baits, and be in a, good swim, and if the; roach are not what you co'uld call well on the feed, you still stand a, chance of deceiving a few of themi ; even when, they are' " on," it is necessary tO' pay attentioo to- a number of minute details, or else they will very soon be driven " off." Roach., in ai pond wherei they are small and ill-fed, migjit perhaps allow themselves tO' be caught by any sort, of bait and tackle; even river roach during June are sometimes perfectly reckless, allowing themiselves to* be caught by dozens with the cad-bait when the milk has been running from them ; but these cases are exceptions.

The roach is onei of the most plentiful of all freshwater fishes. Hardly any stream, lake or pond (of any size) but what contains it; indeed, it not infrequently happens that there are quantities of themi in some: sheet of water where even their very existence! was not known, and if by any chance the fact was discovered, the: owner of the water was at a loss to account for their presence. In connection with this question I once read a very remarkable instance. A writer, in one of the sporting journals said : " I know of a small lake that was emptied of water and fish. The lake

THE ROACH. J

is about three acres in extent, and did not exceed six feet

in depth. The water was run off by means of a sluice.

the bottom of the lake was fairly level and pretty firm; a

cxop of rye grass was sown on it, which yielded an enor^

mous crop. For three successive seasons the same thing

was done. Under these circumstances it is certain that

no fish could have been by any possibility left, there being

no water except an occasional shower of rain or a fall of

snow for the whole of the three years referred to. After

cutting the grass for the final time, the water was let in

through a fine grating, and in the depth of winter. The

water, in addition, came from a spring supplied by a well

on the hillside, in which there were no fish. Ihus no

roach, or indeed fish of any kind, could have found their

way into the lake, and yet three years afterwards the place

literally swarmed with roach. Can anybody give me an

idea how this could have happened ? " This questions

seems to me to be a poser. I could hardly accept the

theory put forward by the writer of the letter just quoted ;

he thought that probably water-fowl might have carried the

spawn there sticking to their legs, or that the same fowl

might have swallowed the spawn and passed it out again

without being digested. If I might offer a theory, I should

say, perhaps the impregnated ova or spawn is capable of

lying on the ground or among the roots of the weeds for

years at a stretch without vivifying into life, the same as

the chrysalis of certain insects wiJl ; the advent of the fresh

water into the lake forming the starting point of the swarms

of roach that had created such surprise.

The roach is also a member of the carp family, his specific name being " Cyprinus Rutilus." When in good condition he' is a very handsome fish. Yarrell thus describes him,: "The colour of the upper part is dusky green with blue reflections, becoming lighter on the sides, and passing into silvery white on the belly; the irides yellow, cheeks and gill covers silvery white; dorsal and caudal fins pale brown tinged with red ; pectoral fins orange red ; ventral and anal fins bright red ; the scales are rather large^ marked with consecutive and radiating lines; large, eyes, the circles of which are of a gold colour and the iris red.

^ THE ROACH.

Their scales are very smooth except during and just after spawning time, when they feel to the toojch like a nutmeg grater." From- this it would appear that our roach is possessed of considerable personal beauty, which I, for one^ do not intend to deny. Indeed, an October roach, when in condition, is a lovely fish, and a dish of a dozen pounders is a splendid sight, and one that any angler, no matter how clever and experienced he is, will be mightily proud of, more especially if he himself happens to be the lucky capr tor. A roach has a small head and a hard mouth, with a peculiar top lip ; this lip, if you take hold of it, raise it, and bring it forward, shows to you that it has the power of elongation, and that it is shaped something like a hood. This power of the roach to alter the sha.pe of its mouth goes to prove that he can feed in a variety of ways, grope along the bottom like a barbel or gudgeon, take a bait in midwater, and even from the surface like a dace. Perhaps this telescopic mouth mav have something to^ do with the roach's power of so promptly blowing out a, suspicious bait, which act puzzles the novice more than a little; but more of this further on. These fish may very readily be confounded with others of an apparently similar character, but which, on closer observation side by side, are widely different. When I was secretary and weighing-in officer of an angling club, certain members W'Ould some o^dd times bring in to be booked as roach two and even three pounds chub, under the idea that they had got hold of an extrafine specimen of the " rutilus " family.

Roach spawn about the latter end of May, and are wonderfully prolific^ as many as 125,000 eggs being counted in the ovum of a pound fish. For some little time after this ooeration they are very dirty and slimy, and have a lot of rough white pimples on their scales. About this time f ey retire among the weeds, and feed a good deal on those weeds and the insects found among them. As soon as July gets well in they leave the fastnesses of the weed beds and take more to the open water and the gravelly swims, and are then found in large numbers in such places, and the clear luns by the side of rushes and flags. In ano'^her week or two, say by the latter end of July or the beginning of August, the weed gets out of them, and the very sUmy coat they wore quite wears off ; their scales are smooth and bright, and their fins nice and clear. Now they begin to get very shy indeed, and it requires an artist in the business to take them. These fish prefer a clean, sandy bottom, and don^t like a muddy one, being in my opinion a very clean fish. The baits have to be sweet, and no suspicion of tobacco juice or dirt about them, or he will have none of them. Roach are very fond of a lazy eddy by the side of a swift stream, but being a bulky fish are not found much in very strong and rapid waters ; they like the slow, lazy curls under bushes, the quiet lay-byes or corners away from the main stream; swims that flow at the rate of not more than two miles an hour, or in the curls, eddies and dimples in the vicinity of a weir, or in the immediate neighbourhood of an old wooden bridge, and sometimes in the shallows of a mill tail. These are the principal places to look for roach in a swiftly flowing river. In slow rivers, broads, and lakes, that abound with these fish, they can be found nearly anywhere, provided the bottom is all right and the locality suitable ; but I shall divide the subject into two parts, one part treating of still water reaching, and the other stream, fishing, in the following chapters. The food of roach consists of weeds, cad-baits, grubs, flies, worms, fresh-water shrimps, insects, spawn of other fish, etc. ; while as baits he will take gentles, paste, bread, malt, wheat, pearl barley, et hoc genus homme. As a fish for the table, he is several degrees better than either the barbel or the chub ; nicely fried in plenty of lard, and browned, he is not at all bad faring ; in fact, I am very fond of a good-conditioned autumn roach out of a gravelly river. I should think the top weight of our English roach can be put down at 31b., and even this would only be reached on very rare occasions. I can only remember seeing two caught of that weight, and they were got in the salmon net as mentioned in the chapter on barbel. A 2 lb. roach is considered a very good one indeed, and thought worthy of a glass case. The Hampshire Avon, I am told, contains the largest roach, specimens fromi two to two and a half pounds, or even a little over, being frequently taken.

^^ THE ROACH.

The Ouse in Huntingdonshire has some splendid roach in its waters, one angler that I know frequently getting individuals up to two and a half pounds in weight. I don't know how it is, but out of the thousands of roach I have killed in one river or another, I never got one of two pounds to my own rod. Once I thought I had reached the goal of my ambition, and landed a veritable two-pounder; but, alas! a careful weighing-in only made him ilb. 15^^02. — very near it, in all conscience, but still not the one. From, one and a half to one and three-quarter pounds I have had in plenty. I once picked a dozen fish out of a very large bag I made in the Ouse that scaled eighteen pounds. My two best bags of roach taken in the Trent contained among others fifteen fish weighing fourteen pounds, and seventeen fish weighing fifteen pounds. Taking things all round, I may say that a half-pounder is a sizeable one, a pounder is a good one, a pound-and-a.-half fish ought to make any honest angler's heart rejoice, while if he did get a two-pounder, his mission on earth is fulfilled.

And now just a few words on the various styles of roach fishing that I have seen during my piscatorial wanderings. The rivers and waters are very varied in this character, even in one particular district. Some of the rivers are slow and sluggish in the extreme, others again are streamy and shallow, whilst others widen out into meres,, broads or lakes, with sometimes a considerable depth of water ; yet, again, the waters of others are nothing but artificial drains, rather narrow, with no stream at all ; but one thing is certain about these fen waters, it hardly matters which class of water it is, they all contain vast quantities (more or less) of splendid roach. There appears to me to be at least three different schools of roach fishermen on the banks of these w^aters, each one fishing in his own particular way, and each separate style is adapted for the class of water operated upon. On some of the narrower canals and drains, where the water is not above six feet or so deep, and very still, the more successful roachers follow what is sometimes called the Sheffield style. The outfit used is of the very lightest possible build : the rod is a little ten-foot weapon, weighing probably about as many ounces, fairly stiff, and with a strike about it that is sharp and at once direct from the point, so that if a cunning old roach, who is endeavouring to quietly suck a bait from the hook without moving the float, makes the very smallest of errors and betrays his presence by only a tiny quiver of the said float, he is himself sucked in in consequence of the strike of the rod top being so prompt and accurate.

The wooden reel also used by these men is a very light three-inch one, fairly easy running; the plaited silk line is nearly as fine as can be procured, the float in many cases is only a little porcupine quill, carrying not more than three very small split shots. Sometimes this float is only a tiny crow quill, with one shot, while the bottom, tackle itself is a yard of the very finest drawn gut, hardly visible to the naked eye when held a few yards away, and yet the ease and certainty that pound roach and upwards are played and landed on even that frail tackle is something marvellous to the uninitiated. Another class of roachers operate on the more streamy, shallower rivers by what is known as the Nottingham style. This style requires a heavier set of tackle than the one just noted, and is in my opinion the very style par excellence for killing roach in the heavier streams, where the water runs somewhat faster than it does in the generality of fenland rivers. The tackle used by these men is nearly as fine as can be ; when I said just now that it was a little heavier, I meant the float was a little bigger one, say a small swan quill carrying some half a dozen mediunvsized shots on the tackle. This style of fishing also requires a light and stiff rod, about eleven feet in length will be the best, and it must also be smart and prompt in its actions, so that it would respond promptly at the will of the user, and hook a roach in an instant, even if the angler's float happened to be twenty yards away down stream. The roach that inhabit these streamy places, where the water runs with a rather swifter current, take a bait somewhat different to their brethren in the very quiet waters. As just hinted, these latter are sly and cunning to a very remarkable degree, robbing the hook of the novice time after time without so much as giving him the slightest hint as to their presence. Stream roach, on the other hand, must of necessity betray their bite ; the baited hook is gliding down the stream, the fish must attack the bait somewhat quickly, and if the float is a correct one and properly weighted some idea of this bite is communicated to the angler.

But by far the larger number of these roach fishermen ply their craft in very deep and sluggish water, ranging fromi ten to fifteen feet in depth, with a streami so quiet that the float scarcely travels down it at all. For successfully fishing this class of water it is necessary to have a rod somewhat different to those already mentioned. Bank anglers will find that the majority of these slow running and deep rivers are fringed with reeds, and generally have a weed bed all alon^ the margin stretching some four or five feet into the stream. A judicious application of the plummet will in many cases tell our roach fishermen that just over these weeds the bottom is level and clear with an uniform depth of say ten feet. Id order to fish these places properly the rod should be fourteen feet in length, stifle and light ; this length of rod is required in order to reach comfortably over the weeds, and more especially is it required if the water should chance to be, as I have found in scores of good swims, nearer fourteen or fifteen feet deep than ten. This rod should also be one that is prompt and sharp in its action, because in this class of swim the roach are as sly as can be, and the bigger the fish the slyer they are. In biting, the float only moves the very slightest, and as quick as can be ; the strike must be on the very instant or it will be too late. I have seen rods in the hands of certain fen anglers that would not hook two roach out of every dozen bites ; they wobbled down to the very hand, and in striking, instead of switching the point upwards, the point would even, if held a yard above the surface, duck downwards and strike the water before the stroke could take effect and the fish be hooked. This action on the part of your rod would be fatal to your success as a roacher in these very deep and quiet waters. Any angler who feels a httle doubt as to the truth of this statement should try a little experiment at home. If he has a fourteen foot roach rod which might be described as moderately stiff" and not very wobbly, let him put it together and take hold of the butt as if he were fishing ; hold the point eighteen inches above a table and strike gently, as though responding to a roach bite, and the chances are that in nine cases out of ten the point of the rod will first duck downwards and touch the table before it strikes upwards to hook the imaginary fish; and if this would even happen in using a fairly good and stiff rod, what must it be in a very limber one? I shall have occasion to refer to this subject again, so will leave it for the present. Briefly, the foregoing remarks give a few hints and some idea of the various styles of roach fishing in vogue in different waters. 1 will try to explain them all in detail as I proceed.

CHAPTER IT.

THE ROACH (continued).

ROACH FISHING IN STILL WATER. (on roach BITES AND THE OUTFIT).

Choosing a Roach Rod— An Ouse pattern — Th^ Author's Roach Rod — A bit of sound advice — Rod-rings — The Reel and Line — Gut Lines and Gut Hooks— Roach Floats— What is a Roach bite ?—A born Roacher — Sucking in, and blowing out, the Bait — Striking the fish — "Missed him" — The reason why — The Bleak nuisance — Slow v. quick sinking baits — Those small tormenters.

When the young tyro, or even the would-be roach fisherman of mature years, walks into a tackle dealer's shop for the purpose of choosing his rod, in nine cases out of ten he selects one that is made up of a number of short joints, say from two to three feet long each, because his first consideration is that it is nice and handy to carry about, and also he perhaps considers that it can be carried out of sight under his coat, as if he were ashamed of his occupation. Now this portability is the only good feature these shortjointed rods possess ; when the angler has to travel by train to his sport, his rod can be packed up in a small compass, without being a nuisance to any of his fellow-passengers, and he will not be in danger when boarding a railway carriage of poking one end of it into the eye of somebody sitting inside, or doubling up another who happens to be standing on the platform behind himi by a blow in the stomach with the butt end, as he would be if each joint \vas six or seven feet long. But here the practical usefulness of these many-jointed rods cease ; they are not a success when operating against the shy old roach of these deep still waters,

[ THE ROACH. II

the wobbly action, as noticed in the last chapter, is very much pronounced ; besides, the extra joints and ferrules represent so much extra weight that ought if possible, to be dispensed with. A roach rod from eleven to twelve feet long should not have, under any circumstances, more than three lengths, while one of fifteen feet should have no more than four, and this will allow the necessary stiffness for the sharp and prompt strike that is absolutely indispensable in a good roach rod. The rod should be built with plenty of timber or cane in the lower half of it, and should have an accurate taper up to the fine point in the top end half; indeed, if the angler can manage it anyhow, his rod for still water roaching, even if fourteen feet long, will be all the better for strike, balance, and weight, if it has no more than three lengths to it. One of the nicest roach rods, as far as practical work went, that I ev^er saw was not a \^ry handsomely got-up affair. It belonged to an angler who lived close to the river Ouse, and had no ferrules or joints in it at all. It was a single stick of beautifully tapered East Indian cane, with about a yard of lancewood, spliced, glued, and whipped firmly on the top end. It was fairly thick at the butt end, was a trifle over fourteen feet long, and was a perfect treat to handle; it would respond on the very instant, and hook a roach in a twink. The owner assured me that it had killed some thousands of roach and bream during the six years he had had it. Unless the angler lives on the banks of these deep still waters it is not advisable to have a rod in a single length like the one jiust described ; its extreme awkwardness in travelling or carrying about precludes its imiversal adoption.