46 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



not confined exclusively to such places as those. He will be 

 found in strong rushing streams, and contending with the 

 most rapid waters ; and during very hot weather they may 

 be seen basking on the surface of the water, over some deep 

 hole, sometimes in considerable numbers. The moment they 

 become sensible that some one is looking at them, down they 

 sink to the bottom in an instant, being perhaps, with scarcely 

 any exception, the shyest of all fish. They spawn about the 

 first or second week in May, and deposit their eggs on the 

 gravel in very shallow water, and the operation is supposed 

 to occupy them about ten days. The chub is a gross feeder, 

 and will take kindly to almost anything in the shape of a 

 bait, if it is only delicately offered him. He will swallow 

 worms by the hundred, devour any amount of scratchings, 

 gobble up all your ground bait, and still wish for more, even 

 if that same bait happens to be rotten cheese ; and I have 

 read that the French fish for them with a ripe cherry. He 

 will take almost anything, from a fly to a small frog, or from 

 a grain of creed wheat^to a bunch of lob-worms ; and I have 

 known him even to dash at a spoon bait when pike fishing ; 

 but whether this is done in sheer greediness or not I cannot 

 say. His bill of fare is a very lengthy one ; nothing seems 

 to come amiss if he is only in a biting humour. He will 

 take the artificial fly or natural insect on the surface; a 

 bunch of lob-worms from the bottom, or gentles and grubs 

 from mid water ; while the black slug, a small frog, cheese, 

 pith, paste, or scratchings, all come to swell the list of at- 

 tractions for our leather-mouthed friend the chub. At 

 nearly all seasons he will bite ; hot weather or cold makes no 

 difference to him ; he can be taken by anglers knowing his 

 habits and haunts in the winter months as well as in the 

 summer, spring, or autumn ; only he seems to me to be a bit 

 of an epicure, for the bait that he will take one month he 

 utterly ignores during the next. I don't mean this in regard 

 to all baits, but in some particular instances. For example, 

 he will revel in the luxury of a nice bunch of gentles, 

 and then perhaps one may go a few days after, and the fish 

 will have none of them, but just drop a wasp grub over 

 Master Chub's nose, and your float will disappear with a rush. 



