THE CHUB. 217 



at paste baited on a very small hook, but they are very difficult 

 to catch, as they carry off the bait very quickly, merely nibbling at it 

 without taking the hook into their mouth ; yet in my younger days 

 I have taken some dozens of them on a mild summer's evening. 

 They were easily distinguishable from the common roach which 

 I have met with occasionally in the same ponds, by the body of 

 the former being much deeper ; the sides much more compressed ; 

 the anal and caudal fins larger, and the latter much more deeply 

 forked, and of a very deep red colour. 



The Chub or Cheven. 



The chub in appearance resembles an overgrown dace, but the 

 logger head of the former renders him easily distinguishable ; the 

 gape of the mouth is also much wider in proportion, and the anal 

 fin, which in the latter fish is small, in the chub is very large and 

 of a dusky cast. The head is also of a much darker colour in the 

 chub, being of a dingy brown ; that of the dace a very light brown : 

 the outer edges of the gill covers of the former, are also distin- 

 guished by a dusky streak that reaches down to the pectoral fin ; the 

 cheeks, instead of being pale like those of the dace, are of a golden 

 cast ; the upper part of the body is also of a bluish brown, growing 

 gradually paler, but retaining the blue tint to the lateral line, the 

 belly being silvery. The chub spawns in April. 



The best baits for the chub are the cock-chafer when those in- 

 sects are in season, and afterwards a grasshopper, both of which he 

 will take best at the surface. He will also take the green drake, 

 the caperer, and the common blue bottle. The mode of dapping 

 for a chub with a grasshopper, is admirably pointed out by Walton, 

 and the same plan may be equally resorted to when either of the 

 other baits above alluded to are employed for the purpose. As I 



BE 



