PRACTICAL ESSAY. 1 19 



I hate having an attendant with me, and always like to " paddle 

 my own canoe," and the coracle is perfection for this kind of work. 



You can dape or dib for chub with a cockchafer, bee, grasshop- 

 per, or any large fly, and with a small frog. Stick your hook side- 

 ways through the bee, or if you are afraid of his sting, try a cock- 

 roach ; roll the line round the front of your rod, poke the latter 

 through the bushes over where the chub are lying, and unroll the 

 line by twisting the rod round until the fly touches the water, when 

 the biggest chub will probably suck it in with his fat white lips, and 

 then mind that he doesn't get you fast in the roots. In this way 

 you may proceed down the river, picking out the biggest fish. A 

 very good plan is to bait with a tiny frog who has not long before 

 cast off his tail and ceased to be a tadpole ; hook him gently (as 

 if you loved him) through the skin of the back, have a small bullet 

 on your line, about a foot above the hook, reel up your line until 

 the bullet touches the top ring, push the rod through the branches 

 as before, and let the bullet draw your line through the rings until 

 the frog touches the water, where his efforts to swim away will pro- 

 bably bring the biggest chub up to see what is the matter. For fly- 

 fishing or daping for chub, select the calmest and hottest weather. 



Blow-line fishing, as described in the Appendix on trout fishing, 

 is also very killing. 



Chub make rapid headway in a river when once introduced, and 

 many of our best trout streams are being spoiled by their presence, 

 for they take the place and the food from the nobler fish. 



