88 ( IIIB FARE. 



tasteless. The French are said to call him * un vilain,' from 

 the difficulty they experience in rendering him toothsome ; 

 and it seems reasonable that the fish, which even French 

 cookery rejects as worthless, should be held by others in 

 the very lowest estimation ; and yet he may be made eat- 

 able. One of the best recipes for this purpose is the well- 

 known one in Izaak Walton. Moreover, small chub of 

 some half-pound weight, if crimped and fried dry, are by 

 no means so bad as above represented, and will ' pleasure ' 

 others than ''poor bodies.* But I must reiterate that 

 which he states with respect to chub, viz. that they must 

 be cooked as soon as caught, for if kept even for the night 

 they are worthless. 



The chub spawns early in May, and not uncommonly 

 reaches the weight of six or seven pounds, though seldom 

 taken over that weight. Yarrell says he cannot find one 

 recorded over five pounds' weight, but I have seen them 

 of six pounds in the Thames, and have heard of them of 

 seven pounds. The chub is rather an omnivorous fish, 

 and may be taken in almost any way ; he will rise freely 

 at a fly, will run equally at a spinning-bait 1 or a live 

 minnow ; at cockchafers, slugs, worms, snails, frogs, 

 greaves, pastes, and particularly cheese, he is a perfect 

 glutton. 



About June chub go upon the shallows to clean them- 

 selves ; the tail of a pool, where there is a sharpish stream, 

 is a favourite place for them. Here they may be taken 

 in tome numbers with an artificial chafer, a good rough 

 palmer, or alder-fly, provided the angler gives them a rest 

 for every two or three fish which he takes, as they are a 



1 I have frequently, when spinning for trout, taken chub of four pounds 

 weight and upwards, to my considerable disgust and disappointment; and 

 how I hare anathematised them for taking the salmon fly, just when some 

 salmon has shown himself on the Wye, where they abound, I hardly like to 

 recall. 



