46 THE ARTIFICIAL CHAFER. 



grey of the morning, and, indeed, thanks to the boats and 

 launches, that is pretty general on the Thames now. He 

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

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

 the river with the most intense caution, with muffled row- 

 locks 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 cer- 

 tainly does catch some very large chub where no one 

 would expect them. The worst of the artificial cockchafer 

 is that you miss so many rises with it The usual arming 

 of a single hook being very inefficient, I tried a plan of 

 arming it which answered well last summer. I got a bit 

 of wire twisted up with an eye at each end about the 

 length of the cockchafer ; this was lashed on lengthwise 

 under the belly, so that one eye was at the head and the 

 other at the tail. The gut cast attached to the head eye, 

 and on the tail eye hung a triangle also eyed and suited 

 to the size of the chafer, so that the hooks could not catch 

 over the casting gut. In a stream this caused the chafer 

 to spin, and increased its attractiveness. 



One of the most common and general ways of fishing for 

 chub its 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 goose! >erries. On the Upper Thames the 

 tail of a craw-fish is held to be a powerful incantation for 

 the biggest chub. This should be parboiled. 



