218 THE CHUB. 



cannot possibly excel honest Izaak's description, it will I trust 

 afford a sufficient pretext for expressing myself in the same 

 terms. 



After recommending his scholar to go to the same hole out of 

 which the latter had shortly before caught a fine chub, on which 

 they had just made a hearty meal, he continues, " In most hot 

 days you will find a dozen or twenty chubs floating near the top 

 of the water; get two or three grasshoppers as you get over 

 the meadow, and get secretly behind the tree, and stand as free 

 from motion as possible ; then put a grasshopper on your hook, 

 and k 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 a tree, but it 

 is likely the chubs will sink down towards the bottom on the 

 first shadow of your rod, for the chub is the fearfullest of fishes, 

 and will do so if but a bird fly 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 cheven you see, 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 

 of the leather mouthed fishes, of which a hook does scarcely ever 

 lose its hold ; and therefore give him play enough before you offer 

 to take him out of the water." 



The chub may also be taken with the same baits, and in the 

 same manner as before pointed out for taking roach and dace. He 

 will also bite at slugs, grubs of all kinds, and most kinds of beetles ; 

 preserved salmon roe is also an excellent bait for him. He also 

 rises at an artificial fly, and is often taken by that means by per- 

 sons whipping for trout. If angled for purposely, gaudily dressed 

 flies, like the red palmer, with the peacock herl body, and ribbed 

 with gold twist, are found the most attractive. In wide waters, 

 that are free of timber over-head, the long cane May fly rod is to 

 be preferred, particularly in those streams whose sides are fringed 

 with willows, as the extreme length of the rod will enable you to 

 reach over them in many parts, and the bushes will keep you con- 

 cealed from the view of the fish. Many streams however that 

 abound with chubs have a great deal of over-head timber, 



