APPENDIX III. 



PRACTICAL ESSAY. 



THE CHUB. 



Walton was a good chub fisher, and his directions are still valu- 

 able. 



The chub is a fish well worth the catching (though not the eating), 

 for he affords good sport. It is common in most rivers, and grows 

 to a good weight, four and six pounds being not an uncommon 

 weight, and I have seen a chub caught in the Severn, with a net, 

 which was said to weigh nine pounds, and looked fully that weight. 

 lit spawns in April and May, and afterwards selects the sharp streams 

 to cleanse itself and recruit, where it may be easily caught by fly- 

 fishing with largish flies, of the black and red palmer type, having 

 [plenty of bushy hackle upon them, but almost any fair-sized stout 

 ny will do. As the summer advances the chub takes to the quietei 

 tvaters, and a very favourite place is the deepest water by a bank, 

 ilong which grows a fringe of bushes or trees. Here the chub 

 )asks on hot days in great numbers, and may be readily caught 

 lather by daping, fly-fishing, or bait-fishing, as mentioned afterwards. 

 in the late autumn it retires for the winter into still deeper and 

 nuieter pools, under campsheeting, near piles, lock-gates, sunken 

 pots, and similar harbours. In open weather, through the winter, 

 It may be readily caught by bottom-fishing. 



Once a chub-hole always a chub-hole is a true saying, and as the 

 taunts of the fish are well known in each river, ground-baiting over- 



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