THE " FEARFULLEST OF FISH." 91 



Many anglers may slirug tlieir shoulders on reading tlie state- 

 ment made at the beginning of the chapter, that chub are not 

 particularly difficult to catch. But I know I am right. Izaak 

 Walton truly wrote that the chub is the " fearf uUest of fish ;" 

 but he is also the most greedy, and one of the most stupid. 

 The sight of a man in motion, an unnatural movement in a 

 bait, a footfall on the bank, or a stir in the water, will send 

 chub to the bottom at once, and stop their feeding ; lut if you 

 do not frighten them, and can place the bait before them in a 

 fairly natural manner — as, for instance, a fly which seems to drop 

 from the trees above, or a fragment of cheese drifting down 

 stream — then chub will take the bait almost as certainly as 

 many persons who read this chapter will not attend to half the 

 directions I have been at some pains to give. Thus it is that, 

 when the water is low and bright, the careful chub-fisher makes 

 the best bags, for his bait is seen far and near by many fish, 

 while he himself can, by using suitable tackle, keep so far ofE 

 as not to be noticed. I have known a 41b. chub, whose age 

 should have given him wisdom, to be caught in 2ft. of water, when 

 half-a-dozen split shot, a good-sized quill, tipped with red, and 

 a part of the running line, were all visible to him. But he saw 

 no harm in those things, and took the bait. Had he known a 

 human being was about, I could no more have hoped to catch 

 that chub than I can hope to make a careless person a good 

 fisherman. 



