VARIOUS BAITS 31 



being over the spot you want to fish, release the line, and the 

 weight of the bullet will draw it out directly. As the frog 

 glides down towards the surface, ease the line slowly, as it 

 is not desirous to plump him or the bullet into the water, 

 but to keep him on the surface, so that not an inch of the line 

 should touch the water, but the frog should just rest, as it 

 were, upon the surface, the bullet being a foot above him and 

 quite out of the water, of course. The moment the frog touches 

 the water, he will begin to strike out, and in his ineffective 

 attempts to swim away he will kick up such an attractive bob- 

 bery on the top of the water that all the chubs within reasonable 

 range will come to see what the disturbance is, and to a cer- 

 tainty they will think it necessary to take the disturber of 

 the peace into custody. 



Tastes differ. Some like frogs, and some cockchafers and 

 some humblebees. I have another friend who is a very success- 

 ful angler for large chub on the Thames, and who vows that 

 no respectable chub is seen out after the grey of the morning. 

 He then goes out, and rows very gently up-stream as far away 

 from the spots he intends to fish as possible, and drops down 

 the river with the most intense caution, with muffled rowlocks 

 and carpet slippers, like a housebreaker, grasping his jemmy 

 or fishing-rod, and with hardly a breath or motion. He knows 

 the exact spots, calculates his distance nicely, and casts an 

 artificial cockchafer into the holes, the hook being attractively 

 garnished with two or three gentles, which give the cockchafer 

 the savoury appearance of having had his intestines squeezed 

 out, a state of things which he declares that no chub can resist ; 

 and he certainly does catch some very large chub where no 

 one would expect them. He says, however, that so timid are 

 the larger chub that at the slightest disturbance they return to 

 their holes ; the slightest noise or motion is fatal, and that, 

 if he finds a boat even has gone blundering up the river before 

 him, he does not think it worth while to go out. 



One of the most common and general ways of fishing for 

 chub is with float and ground-bait ; the best baits to use thus 

 for chub are greaves and cheese. There is a coarse common 

 kind of cheese made in the north and in Wales for about 2d. 

 per pound, which is suitable for this purpose.* The greaves 

 should be broken up and scalded ; the cheese cut to the size 

 of gooseberries. 



As chub are rather shy, the angler, particularly if he is in a 



* It is long since cheese of any kind could be had at that figure ! ED. 



