68 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



any suitable place during the summer, and catch half-a-dozen 

 chub in less than an hour with a few worms that he had only 

 just dug out of the garden, without any scouring at all. But 

 still the angler must not be discouraged; good fish and good 

 bags are still occasionally to be got; and who knows, per- 

 haps one of the veriest novices, who is now only studying 

 the rudiments of the craft by the help of this little book, 

 may one day get the catch of chub that will be mentioned 

 in all future books on angling. Warm evenings during 

 July and August are the very best times in which to use 

 this bait, although years ago, when the chub were upon 

 the shallow spawning beds, during the latter end of May or 

 the beginning of June, an angler using this bait has drawn 

 out as many as a dozen chub without shifting a yard. These 

 have been in a gravid state, however, and ought not to have 

 been taken. The use of this bait properly is not generally 

 understood by anglers, so I have been particular in my 

 instructions. 



Another good plan of taking chub is with the artificial fly. 

 For this work some anglers use a single-handed fly rod, but 

 I prefer a double-handed one. The rod that I use is four- 

 teen feet long ; the butt is of hickory, and the other two 

 pieces are lancewood. It is of a medium gauge, neither too 

 stiff, nor too whippy. A fly reel and a waterproof fly-line is 

 necessary, and the cast should be about three yards' of 

 middling stout gut. Some use two or three flies on their 

 casts, but I have always found one quite sufficient. The 

 flies generally going under the name of " chub flies," are red, 

 black, and grey palmers, and a big coch-y-bondhu ; the best 

 fly perhaps being the black, with silver tinsel. Whatever 

 fly you use, they should be big, with plenty of hackle about 

 them, and ought to have a strip of white kid attached to the 

 bend of the hook by way of a tail. I have seen scores of 

 chub flies that are sold at the tackle shops, and they don't 

 seem to me to be dressed big enough ; a good big fly that 

 drops in the water with a flop so as to attract the attention 

 of the chub is the best. Fine tackle is not needed for this 

 work, indeed some use a cast of salmon gut, If you 

 are fly fishing in a boat under the boughs, where the water 



