70 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART i. 



by your silence you seem to consent to. And for your willingness 

 to part with it so charitably, I will also teach more concerning 

 Chub-fishing. You are to note that in March and April he is 

 usually taken with worms ; in May, June, and July, he will bite 

 at any fly, or at cherries, or at beetles with their legs and wings 

 cut off, or at any kind of snail, or at the black bee that breeds in 

 clay walls. And he never refuses a grasshopper, on the top of a 

 swift stream,* nor, at the bottom, the young humble bee that 

 breeds in long grass, and is ordinarily found by the mower of it. 

 In August, and in the cooler months, a yellow paste, made of the 

 Strongest cheese, and pounded in a mortar, with a little butter and 

 saffron, so much of it as, being beaten small, will turn it to a 

 lemon colour. And some make a paste for the winter months, at 

 which time the Chub is accounted best, for then it is observed 

 that the forked bones are lost, or turned into a kind of gristle, 

 especially if he be baked, of cheese and turpentine. 2 He will bite 

 also at a minnow, or penk,f as a Trout will : of which I shall tell 

 you more hereafter, and of divers other baits. But take this for a 

 rule, that, in hot weather, he is to be fished for towards the mid- 



VARIATIONS. 



makes him a choice dish of meat, as you yourself know; for thus was that dressed which 

 you did eat of to your dinner. 



Or you may (for variety) dress a Chub another way, and you will find him very good, 

 and his tongue and head almost as good as a Carp's : but then you must be sure that no 

 grass or weeds be left in his mouth or throat. 



Thus you must dress him : Slit him through the middle, then cut him into four pieces; 

 then put him into a pewter dish, and cover him with another, put into him as much 

 white wine as will cover him, or spring water and vinegar, and store of salt, with some 

 branches of thyme, and other sweet herbs ; let him then be boiled gently over a chafing 

 dish with wood coals, and when he is almost boiled enough, put half of the liquor from 

 him, not the top of it ; put then into him a convenient quantity of the best butter you 

 can get, with a little nutmeg grated into it, and sippets of white bread ; thus ordered, 

 you will find the Cheven and the sauce too a choice dish of meat : and I have been the 

 more careful to give you a perfect direction how to dress him, because he is a fish 

 undervalued by many, and I would gladly restore him to some of his credit which he has 

 lost by ill cookery. 



Viator. But, Master, have 3'ou no other way to catch a Cheven or Chub? 

 Piscator. Yes, that I have, but I must take time to tell it you hereafter ; or indeed, 

 you must learn it by observation and practice, though this way that I have taught you 

 was the easiest to catch a Chub, at this time, and at this place. And now we are come 

 again to the river, I will (as the soldier says) prepare for skirmish ; that is, draw out my 

 tackling, and try to catch a Trout for supper. 



Viator. Trust me, Master, I see now it is a harder matter to catch a Trout than a 

 Chub, &c. 



2 if he baked with a paste made of cheese and turpentine. 2</, -*,d, and ^th edit. 



* In the Thames above Richmond, the best way of using the grasshopper for Chub is 

 to fish with it as with an artificial fly ; the first joints of the legs must be pinched off, 

 and in this way, when the weed is rotten, which is seldom till September, the largest 

 Dace are taken. H. 



t In "Practical Observations on Angling in the River Trent," i2mo, Newark, 1801, 

 p. 42, it is said, "Chub will also take small Gudgeons in the way you troll for Pike ; 

 the hook ought not to be so heavy leaded upon the shank ; they gorge immediately on 

 taking the bait." E. 



