IIS THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



night is superfluous. A little ground-bait thrown in now and then 

 while fishing will be sufficient to keep the fish together. The chub 

 is a very shy and timid fish, and great quiet is advisable when 

 angling for it. 



In bottom-fishing for the chub you will require a stiffish rod, a 

 few feet of strong though fine gut, a moderate-sized hook, and a 

 buoyant float : the line should be shotted well, so as to sink at once 

 to its proper depth, which is just to clear the bottom. Your line 

 had best be the undressed silk line, with the wooden reel used in 

 the Nottingham style ot fishing. Your bait may be worms, wasp 

 grubs, cheese, slugs, snails, greaves anything, in fact, so that there 

 is plenty of it, for the chub likes a rich mouthful. Pith is a very 

 killing bait, in winter-time especially. It is the spinal marrow of a 

 bullock or cow, and is prepared for use by boiling for three or four 

 minutes. Its accompanying ground-bait is the brains of any animal 

 which the butcher kills, well washed, and boiled for about a quarter 

 of an hour. Whatever the bait is, let it travel with the current, 

 easing the line off the reel until it has travelled as far as you can 

 see the float well, or to the end of the hole. If you see it dip, 

 strike, and strike at the end of a swim whether it dips or no. 



The ledger-bait, as described in the Appendix relating to the 

 barbel, may sometimes be used with advantage. Chub will often 

 take a minnow, spinning or alive, but it is not a generally success- 

 ful bait for them. 



In the hot summer months, when the chub are lying under the 

 bushes, fly-fishing for them is excellent sport. You must have a 

 boat and an attendant to pull it, keep as far from the side where 

 the chub are as you can throw your line, and drop quietly down 

 stream, casting your fly, which should be a large, dark, and rough- 

 bodied one, right to the edge of the boughs if you can manage 

 so that it touches the leaves, and falls on to the water from them, 

 like a caterpillar, so much the better and if the chub are there 

 and on the feed, you should catch great numbers of them. I have 

 seen this mode of fishing practised on the Severn from a coracle, 

 and I commend this conveyance to the luxurious Thames fishermen. 



