144

DIBBING FOR CHUB.

for chub. Underneath is a representation of an angler intent on dibbing for chub.

You see that he is hiding himself as much as he can; and thinking that there are fish peering from beneath the leaves on the surface of the water, he drops his bait first on one of those leaves, and then by a sliding motion causes it to slip off, and fall on the water. The fish, taking this fall for a natural one, is not scared, but seizes the bait boldly. Practise a similar ruse whenever you can—wherever there are branches hanging over the water, rocks, or other substances in it and above the surface. On them first drop your bait,

GRASSHOPPERS FOR BAITS.

145

and by a second motion cause it to descend on to the surface of the water. Do this, whether your baits be grasshoppers, flies, caterpillars, beetles, or any living thing liable to be blown or fall from banks, branches, leaves, rocks, roots, or piles into the water. I need not explain-it is apparentthe rationale of this practice. You must see that you are following nature. Mr. Daniel says,

66

The

Grasshoppers from June, until September, are to be met with in every pasture field or meadow, especially in a hot dry summer, but most plentifully in a kind of old, short, mossy grass. middle sized, and the greenest are the best, and may be carried in a box with a notch cut in the edge, wide at top, and narrow at bottom, which, by lifting up the box-lid gently, leaves space just enough for the grasshoppers to creep out, which they will do separately. Some anglers take off the legs in baiting with them, but they answer better whole, if properly placed to stand on the back of the hook, which should be entered under the head and lodged in the body. This is a fine and tender bait, and is generally taken by many kinds of fish, in clear streams, about mid-water, with a hook, No. 6, a fine gut link, and one small shot. Grasshoppers may be preserved in fresh grass mixed with moss. In fishing with the grasshopper, let your hook be whipped on with

L

146 WALTON AND COTTON ON DIPPING

green silk on a link of fine gut, stained a light green colour.

I shall conclude this chapter with several extracts drawn from as many competent authorities. Walton says to his scholar: "Go to the same hole in which I caught my chub, where in most hot days you will find a dozen or twenty chevins floating near the top of the water: get two or three grasshoppers as you go over the meadow, and get secretly behind the tree, and stand as free from motion as possible: then put a grasshopper on your hook, and let your hook hang a quarter of a yard short of the water, to which end you must rest your rod on some bough of the tree; but it is likely the chubs will sink down towards the bottom of the water at the first shadow of your rod, for a chub is the fearfullest of fishes, and will do so if but a bird flies over him, and makes the least shadow on the water; but they will presently rise up to the top again, and there lie soaring till some shadow affrights them again. I say, when they lie upon the top of the water, look out the best chub, which you, setting yourself in a fit place, may very easily see, and move your rod, as softly as a snail moves, to that chub you intend to catch; let your bait fall gently upon the water three or four inches before him, and he will infallibly take the bait, and you will be as sure to catch him, for he is one of the leathern-mouthed

FOR CHUB, TROUT, AND GRAYLING.

147

fishes, of which a hook scarce ever loses the hold; and, therefore, give him enough play before you offer to take him out of the water."

In dipping for trout and grayling with the May-fly or stone-fly, Cotton says, "To bait with either a stone fly, or a green, or grey drake, put two or three on the hook together, which should be carried through the thick part of the fly's body under the wings, with their heads standing different ways: pass your hook through them under the wings, about the middle of the insect's body, and take care that your fingers are always dry when baiting, or you soon kill or spoil your bait." The following bait, though I have mentioned it elsewhere, is so good a one, that I shall do it the honour of a double insertion to imprint it more steadfastly on the reader's memory. Make a pair of wings of the feather of a landrail, and on the bend of the hook put one or two caddies. The head of the caddis should go up close to the wings. Angle with a stiff rod about fourteen feet long, a foot-line eight feet, and a hook, No. 5. or 6. Let the bait float down the stream just below the surface, then gently draw it up again, a little irregularly, by shaking the rod, and if there be a fish in the place it will be sure to take it. If you use two caddies with the wings, put the hook in at the head and out at the neck of the first, and quite through the other from head to tail. Two bran l

148 CAUTIONS NECESSARY IN DIBBING.

lings, or small red worms, may be fished with in the same way. Walton, in recommending the above bait, adds, touching the packing of fish for presents, "Before you send trout on a journey, always have them cleaned and gutted, and let them be laid on their backs, and closely packed in a willow basket with dry straw. Packing in damp grass or rushes is apt to ferment, and therefore liable to spoil the fish."

Many are the precautions recommended to be adopted in dibbing. The chief are to keep beyond the sight of fish, and when you have hooked one to get it out of the water expeditiously with as little disturbance as possible. As dibbing is not always to be practised behind the friendly shade of bushes or trees, the angler is often forced to content himself with the resources of the bank he stands on, to which he should creep on his hands and knees. In some cases, it is true, he may procure the shelter of a hurdle interwoven with boughs, or he may adopt some similar artifice, but many cases must occur, where he can trust to concealment only by prostration, or stooping low. In such situations Mr. Salter directs, that, "as much line be drawn out as will just let the baited hook reach the surface of the water; then, with the top of the rod a little raised, keep the bait in motion just over and upon the surface, by gently raising and lowering the