FLY-FISHING THE BOUGHS. 39 



very shy fish, and easily alarmed. Later on, as the season 

 gets warmer, they retire to deep holes, or under banks, 

 large stumps, roots, old campshots, or beneath overhanging 

 boughs ; these last are usually a sure find, for there they 

 lie on the watch for any insect that may drop from the 

 branches above into their ever-ready jaws ; and nothing 

 living that is small enough comes amiss to them, for 

 chub will take cockchafers, bumblebees, wasps, palmers, 

 and caterpillars of all kinds beetles, slugs, and snails 

 most ravenously. Fly-fishing under the boughs for chub 

 is one of the most delightful occupations to be had on the 

 Thames ; with a good stiff boat and one person to row it, 

 the angler drops down from reach to reach, often cover- 

 ing eight or ten miles of the river in a day if he knows 

 the boughs for this is a considerable desideratum, since, 

 unless he does, he may waste time over a place where no 

 chub would think of lying, and he may, on the other hand, 

 pass valuable casts. The place which chub like is a bank 

 where there are old roots and overhanging boughs, with a 

 gravelly (not a muddy) bottom, with a fair stream just 

 outside, and about five or six feet of water. The over- 

 hanging boughs are not always an indispensable necessity, 

 for an upright clay bank with an eddy at the foot of it is 

 almost always a sure find, though the big fellows like an 

 umbrella too, as it serves to collect food as well ; but the 

 chub does not care for a muddy bottom nor still water, 

 for still water brings him no food. A range of old pol- 

 lards, with five or six feet of water under them, and a 

 gravelly bottom, with a good stream outside, is a chub 

 paradise, and should never be missed by the angler if he 

 knows the spot. Many a row of pollards will have deep 

 water and a muddy bottom and no stream, and these will 

 be found useless; and the angler may waste time over 

 them, though it is quite possible that there may be a bit 

 or two, even amongst them, where the circumstances are 



