THE CHUB AND CHUB FISHING 

 hook — say a crystal roach hook; on this tackle chub, in a strong stream, 

 if over two pounds, will give you capital sport. 



Some of the best chub fishing I have had was with this tackle, fishing 

 in the River Stour, near its junction with the Avon, at Christchurch, 

 when my friend, that keen angler, the late Mr Henry Newlyn, had the 

 water. I used plain paste, made as follows: Some of the inside of a new 

 '♦ Household " loaf of white bread put into a clean cloth, dipped in water, 

 then the cloth gathered round the wet bread and screwed round till the 

 moisture is pressed out, then the lump in the cloth is well kneaded and 

 thumped with the right hand while held tightly screwed up in the cloth in 

 the left — then the cloth is opened and the lump of stiff bread paste is 

 broken in two — if the inside shows it is still dry and crumbly, a little 

 water is sprinkled on it and the kneading process resumed until you have 

 a nice even paste, not pappy, to this a little honey or castor sugar can be 

 added. The inside of a half quartern loaf made into paste in this way will 

 be enough for some hours' fishing both for hook bait and ground bait. It 

 soon goes sour in hot weather, and it is therefore better to make it fresh 

 each day. On arriving at the chub hole or swim, throw in carefully a 

 dozen pieces, each the size of a walnut, at the top of the water you are to 

 fish, so that the stream will carry them down to about where you expect 

 to get the fish. 



On August 12, 1903, I caught on the above described rod, tackle and 

 paste in the Stour, near Tuckton Bridge, a fine chub that weighed just 

 six pounds when weighed at Christchurch Station some hours later, 

 and has been grandly set up by Messrs John Cooper and Sons, of Radnor 

 Street, St Luke's, E.C. Painted casts of fish are all right, but I do not think 

 they are half so interesting as the actual fish itself, with all its important 

 exterior parts. 



Some years ago my friend, Mr W. C. F. Gillam, for many years hon. 

 sec. of the Sussex Piscatorial Society, and a first-rate angler, wrote to me 

 that he had tried every paste and other bait he could think of, in vain 

 attempts to lure some four or five big chub in the Sussex Ouse, near 

 Barcombe Mills. 



I told him to get some medium-size boiled prawns, to let them have a 

 few for a day or two now and then, and then to try floating one down to 

 them. A few days later I got a post card to say that he had caught the lot. 

 Another very good bait is the tail of a boiled crayfish, or an uncooked tail, 

 or a small live crayfish whole — of course such baits are better in waters 



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