48 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



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 

 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 fish 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- 



