82 ANGLING FOR COARSE FISH. 



his eyes not being red, as are the eyes of roacli and rudd, and by 

 his ventral and anal fins being red, as are not the ventral and 

 anal fins of dace. The young of roach and dace may be thus 

 distinguished from the young of chub : In the former, the anal 

 fin is concave ; in the latter, slightly convex. 



Chub are often caught weighing 41b., sometimes 51b., and very 

 rarely 61b. and 71b. Stuff (with the stuffing peculiar to taxider- 

 mists) any chevin of 51b. or over — that is, if you collect specimen 

 fish. Chub spawn in May, and afterwards — in June — stay for 

 a week or two in the swift-running shallows to scour themselves. 

 Later on* they retire to their regular haunts, which are, for the 

 most part, holes overhung by trees, where the stream is suffi- 

 cient to keep the bottom from being muddy. Here let me 

 observe that few fish (tench and bream excepted) are found in 

 summer swimming over a muddy bottom — not so much because 

 they dislike the mud as because they love the stream, and 

 where the stream is, the mud is not. Under an upright, clay 

 bank chub are always to be found, and also where withies or 

 other bushes grow out in the water. I would as soon fish by 

 the side of a steep clay bank as any place in a river. Under 

 and near bridges are also very likely spots. 



Chub are sociable fish, and, for the most part, make up little 

 family parties, and reside together in holes ; but stray, good-for- 

 nothing fish, the outcasts of scaly society, are to be found 

 scattered about the river, either on shallows, among the weeds, 

 or along banks, in water varying from 1ft. to 15ft. in depth. 

 These pariahs fall a prey to the fly-fisher in particular. 



Fly-fishing and Bait-casting for Chub is capital sport 

 where it can be pursued with any chance of success — i.e., in 

 rivers but little disturbed by traffic, or in disturbed streams, 

 early in the morning, before the disturbances commence. The 

 best tackle is a stiff, lift, or 12ft., greenheart or split-cane fly-rod, 

 a heavy, dressed, tapered silk line, and 3yds. of moderately fine, 

 undrawn gut. As to the fly, I hardly know what to recommend, 

 there are so many good ones. Mr. W. Senior (" Red Spinner "), 



* In much-disturbed rivers, such as the Thames, chub only remain on the 

 shallows a few weeks ; but in quieter waters, such as the Bedfordshire Ouse, they 

 are found in quite shallow water as long as the weather is warm, and in such places 

 they afford great sport to the fly-fisher. 



