The season for roach fishing in the Thames begins about the latter end of August and continues through the winter. To London Bridge and among the shipping below it, numbers of roach return in June and July, after having been up the river to spawn, and many of them are taken by means of a strong cord, to which is fastened a leaden weight, more or less, according to the strength of the current; a foot above this lead a twine twelve feet long is joined to the cord, and to this twine at convenient distances are tied a dozen hair links, with roach hooks at the ends; these are baited with white snails or periwinkles, the fisherman holds the cord in his hand, and easily feels the biting of the fish, which is a signal to pull up, and frequently five or six are taken at a haul.
ROACH AND DACE.
THE DACE.
Dace are gregarious—are great breeders—very lively—and during summer fond of playing near the surface. Their haunts are deep water, near the piles of bridges, where the stream is gentle, and has a sandy or clayey bottom. They like deep holes that are shaded by water-lily leaves, and under the foam caused by an eddy; in the warm months they are to be found in shoals on the shallows and gravels.
The baits for dace are red-worms, gentles, and small flies, natural or artificial, used as in fly-fishing for trout. In angling for dace with worms, maggots, &c. the tackle cannot be too fine, the float small, the hook No. 9, the shot a foot from it; by baiting the place with a few maggots before fishing, the diversion will be increased. If you angle in an eddy between two mill streams, and the water is only two or three feet deep, there will be a greater chance of success than where it is deeper; bait and strike as in roach fishing. The ground-bait may also be the same.
Fish for dace within three inches of the ground, especially where the ant fly is the bait under water. In fishing, take advantage if you can of a still, warm, gloomy day, or go in a summer’s evening to a gravelly or sandy shallow, or tail end of a mill-stream, and as long as the light continues the dace will yield diversion.
THE PERCH.
“Perch feed on perch,” is an old maxim; the perch being the only one of all fresh-water fish that feeds on its own kind. His excuse is a prodigious appetite, like that of Saturn, who ate his own offspring. Notwithstanding this wicked propensity, the perch is a beautiful fish, the back and part of the sides being a deep green, marked with broad black bars, pointing downwards; the spaces between are golden, the belly white, and the fins tinged with scarlet. They vary greatly in size. The largest perch we ever caught weighed three pounds twelve ounces, and was taken with a roach bait near Richmond. Their general length is about ten or twelve inches.
