CHAPTER XVII. Of Roach and DACE, and how to fish for them; and of CADIS. PISCATOR. Good morrow, brother Peter, and the like to you, honest Coridon: come, my Hostess says there is seven shillings to pay: let's each man drink a pot for his morning's draught, and lay down his two shillings; that so my Hostess may not have occasion to repent herself of being so diligent, and using us so kindly. PET. The motion is liked by every body; and so, Hostess, here's your money; we Anglers are all beholding to you: it will not be long ere I'll see you again. And now, brother Piscator, I wish you and my brother, your Scholar, a fair day and good fortune. Come, Coridon, this is our way. VEN. Good Master, as we go now towards London, be still so courteous as to give me more instructions; for I have several boxes in my memory, in which I will keep them all very safe,-there shall not one of them be lost. PISC. Well, Scholar, that I will; and I will hide nothing from you that I can remember, and can think may help you forward towards a perfection in this art and because we have so much time, and I have said so little of Roach and Dace, I will give you some directions concerning them. any Some say the Roach is so called, from rutilus, which, they say, signifies red fins: he is a fish of no great reputation for his dainty taste, and his spawn is accounted much better than other part of him. And you may take notice, that as the Carp is accounted the water-fox for his cunning, so the Roach is accounted the water-sheep, for his simplicity or foolishness. It is noted that the Roach and Dace recover strength, and grow in season, in a fortnight after spawning; the Barbel and Chub in a month; the Trout in four months; and the Salmon in the like time, if he gets into the sea, and after into fresh water. Roaches be accounted much better in the river than in a pond, though ponds usually breed the biggest. 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 their difference call them Ruds; they differ * The fish named so now with us, differ very much from this description: it is reckoned preferable to the Roach, and inferior to none of the first rank. He is of a golden colour, like the Carp, with scales as large; his tail a light, and his belly fins a dark red; and is from twelve to sixteen inches long; the largest weigh two pounds: he is broad, thick, strongly made; struggles hard; feeds usually near the top of the water, and is therefore taken with a fly or small red worm; and is always in season, excepting in April, spawning time. It has been said this fish is peculiar to the Yare, in Norfolk; but other streams have them, as the Rudder, in Essex, above Ilford bridge; and the Ouse, in Buckinghamshire, in plenty, from the true Roach as much as a Herring from a Pilchard: and these bastard breed of Roach are now scattered in many rivers, but I think not in the Thames, which I believe affords the largest and fattest in this nation, especially below London bridge: the Roach is a leather-mouthed fish, and has a kind of saw-like teeth in his throat. And lastly, let me tell you, the Roach makes an Angler excellent sport, especially the great Roaches about London, where I think there be the best Roach-Anglers: and I think the best Trout-Anglers be in Derbyshire, for the waters there are clear to an extremity. Next, let me tell you, you shall fish for this ROACH in winter with paste or gentles; in April with worms or cadis; in the very hot months with little white snails, or with flies under water, for he seldom takes where he is called a Shallow; Witham, in Buckinghamshire, and the Thames upward. In some places he is called a Finscale. The Red-Eye is another species of Roach, very like a Bream, but thicker, and measures about ten inches. The fins and eyes are all of a full red, whence the name; and the whole body has a reddish cast: they are found in all the before-mentioned rivers; they yield fine sport, and are angled for as the Roach, Rud, and Dace: their chief harbour is about the roots of trees; where they spawn in May.-Browne. them at the top, though the Dace will. In many of the hot months, Roaches may also be caught thus: Take a May-fly or ant-fly, sink him with a little lead to the bottom near to the piles or posts of a bridge, or near to any posts of a wear, I mean any deep place where Roaches lie quietly, and then pull your fly up very leisurely, and usually a Roach will follow your bait to the very top of the water and gaze on it there, and run at it and take it, lest the fly should fly away from him. I have seen this done at Windsor and Henley bridge, and great store of Roach taken; and sometimes a DACE * or Chub: and in August you may fish for them with a paste made only of the crumbs of bread, which should be of pure fine manchet; and that paste must be so tempered between your hands till it be both soft and tough too; a very little water, and time and labour, and clean hands, will make it a It should be of the whitest, and not too new. The finer you can angle for this fish,-if with a single hair,-it will requite you by having much more sport.-Browne. + Manchet, the finest white rolls.-Nares. Thus Drayton :No manchet can so well the courtly palate please, As that made from the meal fetch'd froin my fertile lease. -Polyolbion. most excellent paste: but when you fish with it, you must have a small hook, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, or the bait is lost and the fish too, if one may lose that which he never had: with this paste you may, as I said, take both the Roach and the Dace or Dare,† for they be much of a kind, in matter of + When yon angle for Dace in the deeps, with a float, it must be a very small one, that will require but one shot to poise it. Your hook and line must be fine. Bait either with house flies, cadews, small red worms, or grasshoppers with their legs off, and fish not deeper than two or three feet at most: conceal yourself as much as possible if you expect any sport, for the Dace is most like the Trout of any fish, in his shyness and fear. Strike nimbly as soon as he bites. On a shallow gravelly scour use the running line, with paste, worms, or gentles. If you angle in a river where two mill streams are going at the same time, let it be in the eddy between them. If the water prove deep, put within a foot of the bottom; but if shallow, which is best (not exceeding three feet), then bait with three large gentles; use a cork float, and place it a foot and a half at most from the hook: have a quick eye, and strike at the very first bite. If any large Dace are in the mill-pond, you will be sure to meet with them here. At top water use a flesh fly (none equal this), or the small house fly. Have a cane rod, seventeen feet in length, your line somewhat longer, to which fasten three or four hooks, with single hair links, not above four inches long. In a summer evening go to the smoothest part at the end of a mill stream, where they will rise freely, especially in that part where the sun does not shine. This sport will continue as long as you have light to see your flies; and you may take two or three at a time. The ant-fly is advised here in a morning, or on a scour, before the sun comes on the water. When the stream is high, and rises almost to the bank of the river, put on an artificial fly, called a caterpillar-fly, with the yellowest gentle you can get, drawn on your hook up to the tail of your fly; whip with it (as for Bleak,) on the surface; and if you are expert, you may satisfy yourself you will have good sport. These several methods of Dace fishing are reckoned valuable discoveries with modern Anglers. Whilom the Trout was wont to yield delight, Now all must to the shapely Dare give place.-Pisc. Ecl. A Dace fresh taken, scotched and broiled, eats sweeter, and is more palatable, (some say) than a fresh Herring. The Italians |