THE CHUB. 41 



should suppose to be the largest ever taken out of the Trent 

 with rod and line. A few years ago a Newark angler, named 

 Frank Sims, was fishing below Newark, at what is called the 

 foot of the lawn at Winthorp, when he was lucky enough 

 to hook and safely land a monster that weighed eight 

 pounds. I believe this grand fish suffered the indignity of 

 being either baked, boiled, or stewed, when it ought to 

 have been made beautiful for ever, and not only it, but 

 Frank himself ought to be in a glass case. I should very 

 much like to handle such an one myself. 



I remember once fishing for roach with creed wheat, in a 

 good swim on the Trent ; a youth, a very devoted angler, 

 was with me. We had been having fair sport, when suddenly 

 the fish went off the feed. I was just beginning to puzzle 

 my brains as to the why and the wherefore, when the lad 

 suddenly had a bite. I saw by the bend of the rod that it 

 was something unusual, but the fish only gave a lazy roll or 

 two, when it was brought to the bank without much re- 

 sistance. As I slipped the landing net under it I saw that 

 it was a chub, but such a chub ! It was the longest, leanest, 

 and most hungry-looking wretch that I ever dropped across, 

 with a head and mouth that would not have disgraced a 

 twelve-pound cod-fish. It was twenty-eight inches in length, 

 and only weighed three and three-quarter pounds, though 

 had it been in good condition, it ought to have weighed 

 seven at the very least. Still, if an angler takes one of four, 

 or four and a half pounds, he may congratulate himself that 

 he has got hold of a very good specimen ; and if by a bit of 

 very good luck he should happen to take, in a day's chub 

 fishing, twenty fish that will weigh forty pounds altogether, 

 he will find that to be a very good average, for large chub 

 are not so plentiful now in the Trent as they used to be. I 

 have heard that thirty years ago anglers used to think 

 nothing of taking three or four fish out of one hole that 



