^20 



PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



Perhaps we are over-fastidious, but we cannot hfelp thinking that, 

 even at the expense of a slight reduction in the weight of our bag, 

 we should prefer some other bait. We fancy we know something 

 about chub fishing, having made some tremendous bags of them 

 in our time ; and if chub are in the least inclined to feed, we do not 

 believe that the superiority of brains over greaves or cheese, &c. 

 would be so great as to make it worth our while to undergo such a 

 process. We might like to eat ox-brains cooked ; we cannot say, 

 however, for certain, as we never tried them. We do like sweet- 

 breads; for example, but we might have a well-founded objection 

 to chew them3.T\^ spit them in the water all day. It is perhaps a 

 matter of taste after all, and ' Nottingham George ' and the renowned 

 ' Bendy,' though no doubt capital fishermen, are hardly the Mentors 

 whom we should select to instruct us on a matter of that kind. As 

 regards the question of cooked or raw, we certainly have seen it 

 recommended that they should be masticated raw, and we well 

 remember that precisely the same objection was raised to them as 

 we have made. We believe that a short correspondence embracing 

 these points took place in the Field some years ago ; and we well 

 recollect, that the answer of the advocate for chewing the brains raw 

 was that ' they were very sweet.' As we have said, we never used 

 them, having an objection to them, as already expressed ; and per- 

 haps it would have been better to have simply chronicled our want 

 of experience, instead of adding thereto the reasons for it. We 

 fear that even now, when we do know they are to be cooked, that 

 want of experience is likely to continue, unless, indeed, our friend 

 ' Greville F.' has any sympathy with the puntsman whom he quotes, 

 and would really like to do the masticating and blowing part of the 

 process for us ; in which case we will test the infallibility of the bait 

 with the greatest pleasure. — Ed. Field.'\ 



Table of Comparative Weights and lengths of Chub, 



