56 The Complete Angler 



Well, scholar, you see what pains I have taken to 

 recover the lost credit of the poor despised Chub. 

 And now I will give you some rules how to catch 

 him : and I am glad to enter you into the art of 

 fishing by catching a Chub, for there is no fish better 

 to enter a young Angler, he is so easily caught, but 

 then it must be this particular way : 



Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, 

 where, in most hot days, you will find a dozen or 

 twenty Chevens floating near the top of the water. 

 Get two or three grasshoppers, as you go over the 

 meadow : and get secretly behind the tree, and stand 

 as free from motion as is possible. Then put a 

 grasshopper on your hook, and let your hook hang 

 a quarter of a yard short of the water, to which end 

 you must rest your rod on some bough of the tree. 

 But it is likely the Chubs will sink down towards 

 the bottom of the water, at the first shadow of your 

 rod (for Chub is the fearfullest of fishes), and will do 

 so if but a bird flies over him and makes the least 

 shadow on the water; but they will presently rise 

 up to the top again, and there lie soaring till some 

 shadow affrights them again. I say, when they lie 

 upon the top of the water, look out the best Chub, 

 which you, setting yourself in a fit place, may very 

 easily see, and move your rod, as softly as a snail 

 moves, to that Chub you intend to catch ; let your 

 bait fall gently upon the water three or four inches 

 before him, and he will infallibly take the bait. And 

 you will be as sure to catch him ; for he is one ot 

 the leather-mouthed fishes, of which a hook does 

 scarce ever lose its hold ; and therefore give him 

 play enough before you offer to take him out of the 

 water. Go your way presently ; take my rod, and 

 do as I bid you ; and I will sit down and mend my 

 tackling till you return back. 



VENATOR. Truly, my loving master, you have 



