The chub and dace have one great attraction for the fly fisher, they both delight in feeding on flies and other insects which float down on the surface. In shape the fish are very much alike, but are easily distinguished; the anal fin of the chub is convex at its outer margin, that of the dace is concave. The chub is rounder than the dace, and if small chub are swimming about with dace in a stream the white lips and black tail of the chub enable one to pick out the chub at once. The throat teeth of the chub are smooth, conical, and with hook-like points; it is a voracious fish and does much damage in a trout stream, being a great destroyer of trout eggs and fry. A young frog is an irresistible bait, as is also cray fish tail. Fly-fishing for chub is capital sport where the fish are numerous, and run to a good size, as they love to roam about the sides of deep holes over hung with bushes. If it can be managed, the best way to fish for them is from a canoe or boat, which can be dropped gently down with the stream, and anchored with a weight at the end of a bit of rope. The fly fisher can then fish all along the sides of the stream. The best fly for chub is a large Red Palmer, with three or four gentles or a bit of wash leather on the hook. I have often had great sport with the chub fishing in this way on a hot summer's day. If it is a winding river running between high banks, as you drop down noiselessly in the canoe, you can fish places which are of no use to an angler on the bank, either because he cannot get at' them, or, if he does, the fish see him at once and are off. No fish are more timid than the chub. Using a short line the fly is pitched as close to the side as possible, and then drawn along just under the surface in a series of gentle draws, stopping between each. If the chub are looking out for surface food, the angler is pretty sure to see the little ripple made by his fly followed by a wave; when the wave is close to the fly stop drawing it, wait a second, and then strike and look out for squalls. The first rush of a good chub is a desperate one, and if the line is checked a smash is almost inevitable. The safest and best plan in all fly-fishing is to strike from the winch, not to grasp the line in the hand; the winch should have a silent check action just sufficient to prevent its running off too easily-a narrow winch of large diameter is best as it winds in so quickly. If you can see the chub, and you can often do so, pick out the best and drop the fly close behind him; he knows by instinct from the vibration that something has fallen into the water, and as it begins to move comes at your fly with a fine rush. If no boat or canoe is to be had, fly-fishing will be limited to such open places as permit casting. It is a good plan in such places to oil the fly with paraffin (use a light mayfly hook), put some deer's fat on the reel line, which must be fine, and let the fly with the gentles, or a grasshopper, or a small minnow, or a lively red worm, float down under the boughs. A small frog fished in this way, or the tail of a small crayfish, is most deadly. It is not always necessary, but a bit of cork, the size of an ounce weight, with a slit made in it to slip the gut into two feet or more above the bait will be useful in some cases. In very frosty weather chub will feed boldly. Ordinary Nottingham float tackle is best, as you fish deeper. Tube macaroni, cooked so as not to be too tender, and cut into inch lengths, is an excellent bait. Use a small triangle on a foot of fine but not drawn gut, have a loop at the end and a small swivel with spring catch (like that which secures the watch chain to the watch) to put the bait on; the gut is slipped off the spring catch, is pushed through the tube of macaroni until the bait rests on the triangle, which must be large enough for the hook points to be just outside the bait. Wasp grubs are a first-rate bait for chub, and if boiled and preserved in golden syrup can be used in the winter. But chub will take almost any bait- cheese paste is much used by some anglers. A tough, well-scoured red worm on a Stewart tackle cast among a shoal of chub is often as good as anything. I have taken them up to 5 lbs. when spinning a natural minnow slowly for trout, and I have taken them as big on a small black gnat. Chub spawn in May and June, depositing about 100,000 eggs on shallow, sandy, and gravelly parts of the river. At this period the males show a small wart-like growth on the scales of the upper part of the body, giving them a rough feeling; this eruption on the scales is common to most of the males of summer spawning fish, which are then said to be "as rough as a file." The largest chub rarely exceed 7 lbs. in weight.

Last August (1903) I had capital sport with chub up to nearly 6 lbs. in the Stour, near Christchurch, using large baits of bread paste on roach tackle.