158 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



mistake — I have taken them twenty-two inches long and 

 weighing three pounds ; common in the Schuylkill, eighteen 

 inches." 



Dr. Bethune is unnecessarily disparaging in his remarks 

 on this fish. In many sections of the country it furnishes 

 excellent sport, especially in those streams where Trout have 

 been fished out, or have disappeared from other causes; it 

 takes a grasshopper at midwater or on the surface, and on a 

 warm day rises freely at the fly, and shows much pluck when 

 hooked. But when fly-fishing for Trout, in some streams 

 they are so numerous as to be deservedly considered a nui- 

 sance ; for it is a severe trial of the angler's patience, when 

 he hooks a good Trout in a rift, and as he gets him into still 

 water and has almost drowned him, to have a big Chub with 

 his fresh vigor seize the other fly, and be held tight by his 

 leathery mouth, while the chances for the escape of the Trout 

 are augmented. Then again they will be jumping at your 

 flies, frequently getting the start of a shy Trout, or, after 

 being hooked, swim deep and strong, and encourage the vain 

 hope that it is a stout, steady-pulling Trout ; but one glance 

 at the back fin or his forked tail as he gives in, dispels the 

 illusion. They prefer a fly with a big red body, and in such 

 streams those who fish for Trout should avoid a dubbing of 

 that color. 



Some years back I was one of a party on the Beaverkill, 

 when an incipient fly-firher hooked a large Chub, and played 

 it some minutes, supposing it to be a Trout ; on landing it, 

 he looked at a veteran native angler, as if to solicit his 

 approval, but " Uncle Peter," turning over the Chub with 

 the toe of his boot, remarked in his quiet way, " why, he's as 

 big as a lamb." There was a laugh, and of course the angler 

 was chagrined, when he was told the Chub was never 

 basketed there. 



