CHUB-BAITS. 8y 



polish, SO that if some of the cheese tumbles off, the shank is 

 not conspicuous by its colour. I have mentioned cheese because 

 I believe it to be the best summer bait. That which is old 

 and rotten is most attractive; but it hardens in the water, and 

 should be mixed up into paste with a little butter. As a matter 

 of fact, any cheese will do, and I rarely bother to get any special 

 kind. A good red, soapy American, cannot be put to a better 

 use than as a bait for chub; it requires little or no making 

 into paste. Bread-and-cheese paste is often used with success. 

 Another good summer bait is three or four wasp grubs, which 

 should be baked for a few minutes before being used, or 

 scalded, and then thoroughly dried in bran; and ripe plums, 

 skinned, blackberries, strawberries, and cherries (the latter 

 particularly under cherry trees overhanging the water) are at 

 times veiy killing. For the first few weeks of the season chub 

 will take a minnow greedily. 



The foregoing are clear-water baits. If the water is dis- 

 coloured, either in winter or in summer, nothing is so good 

 as a well-scoured lobworm. In autumn, greaves, or " scratch- 

 ings," is a good bait, and in winter nothing is better than pith 

 and brains, particularly in very cold weather. But the water must 

 be clear for this bait. Greave have to be boiled. The white 

 portions are used for the hook. Pith (the spinal cord of a 

 bullock) has also to be prepared ; the skin surrounding it should 

 be taken off, and the interior washed in several waters until it is 

 quite white. It does not require boiling or scaKling. A piece 

 about the size of a cob-nut should be placed on a No. 4 hook. 

 The brains are used to throw in as ground-bait. Trent 

 anglers chew them, and blow them into the water. But is this 

 really necessary ? 



To use our float-tackle and baits we, if in a small stream, 

 take up a position on the bank 20yds. or more above a well- 

 known haunt of chub, get the depth in front of us 

 (see pages 37 and 43), and, if the water is clear, put the 

 float so that, to the best of our belief, the bait will be 

 about 6in. to 9in. from the bottom when it reaches the chub- 

 If the water is coloured, we fish close to the bottom. We 

 ought to know something of the swims, the depths, position 



