!-' LOB-CASTING. 



* Tom, how will Culham Banks be ? ' ' Water most too high 

 for them, sir: but Clifton Sharps '11 be Justin tune. They 

 wants a little water, they does, and Toflflcin's Garden should 

 give a good fish or two. Try the bush, sir ; there's always 

 a good 'un there.' Flop ! * Ah, there he is I and a good 

 'UN too ; that makes up the score ; ' and so on. 



In this kind of fishing the further you can keep from 

 tlu* boughs or bank the better ; throw boldly in under them 

 to the bit of open dimpling water where the lazy eddy curls 

 over the old stump, with a straight line and a good flop 

 of the fly, and a big boil or splash in the water will haply 

 reward you ; lose no time, when your fish is hooked, in 

 getting him out into the open, away from the old stumps 

 and roots, but bag him as speedily as may. A good boat- 

 man, who knows the water well, and can manage the boat 

 to a nicety, is a jewel for this work, and worth any amount 

 of the best backy and beer you can provide him. A bung- 

 ler and know-nothing is an abomination, and worse than 

 useless. 



Chub begin to get under the boughs in August, and 

 before that it is of little use to go for them with the fly ; 

 but whether they get there earlier or later, it is most desir- 

 able to have the first turn at them before they have been 

 much scared, so that a tip from a good man on the spot 

 is most useful. Another plan is to use a stiff double- 

 handed fly-rod and a single perch-hook ; on this stick the 

 head of a lob-worm, or a lump of greaves, or a bunch of 

 gentles, and cast it like a fly towards the boughs, bank, 

 or campshot, and let it sink to mid-water, working it 

 towards you, and at the slightest symptom of a touch 

 strike smartly ; indeed, the bait should never be drawn 

 out of the water to repeat the throw without a strike ; by 

 this means both perch and trout may often be taken. It 

 is a good plan for taking good chub, combined with 

 exercise and motion, and is pleasanter than the practice of 



