42 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



would average four pounds each, though it must be con- 

 fessed I have seen nothing like that during the last few 

 years. The best I have seen were four fish taken out of one 

 hole, that weighed altogether eleven pounds. Now-a-days 

 here a four-pound chub is a rarity, while, as I said before, in 

 a day's chubbing, two pounds each lish would be a very good 

 average weight. 



What pleasant recollections I seem to see in my mind's 

 eye at the very mention of the word " chub," ay ! as vividly 

 as though they only happened yesterday, for some of the 

 pleasantest hours of my life have been spent by the river- 

 side in my search for chub. The roach has a book of his 

 own, and so has the pike ; but the chub has not. I don't 

 really see why he should not be thus honoured ; for I regard 

 him as one of the most interesting of our coarse fishes. In 

 spite of what has been written or said against the chub, in 

 spite of all his faults, I love him ; but when the cruel net 

 is put around the weed beds in the scouring time, and he is 

 dragged to bank, or when the night-line has done its work, 

 and he is hauled out without a chance of showing his 

 fighting power, my love is mingled with pity for his igno- 

 minious fate, for he is a foeman worthy of a sportsman's 

 steel ; although some writers speak with contempt of him, 

 and call him all sorts of names, some of which are libels on 

 him and his character. If I have a special weakness it is 

 for " chub fishing," for I have been told that it really is a 

 weakness ; and one or two have gone further, and called me a 

 " fool," after I have had an adventure something like this. 

 I am standing by the river, rod in hand ; the twilight of the 

 summer's day has deepened into that semi-darkness that is 

 so peculiar to our country districts, where the air is free from 

 smoke ; strangely quiet seems Nature in her peaceful repose, 

 a strange quiet that is only broken by the harsh grating 

 croak of that peculiar bird the corncrake, or the splash of a 



