The Complete Angler, 5th edition/Chapter III
The third day, continued
How to fish for, and to dress, the Chavender of Chub
Piscator and Venator
Piscator. The Chub, though he eat well, thus dressed, yet as he is
usually dressed, he does not. He is objected against, not only for being
full of small forked bones, dispersed through all his body, but that he
eats waterish, and that the flesh of him is not firm, but short and
tasteless. The French esteem him so mean, as to call him Un Villain;
nevertheless he may be so dressed as to make him very good meat; as,
namely, if he be a large Chub, then dress him thus:
First, scale him, and then wash him clean, and then take out his guts;
and to that end make the hole as little, and near to his gills, as you may
conveniently, and especially make clean his throat from the grass and
weeds that are usually in it; for if that be not very clean, it will make
him to taste very sour. Having so done, put some sweet herbs into his
belly; and then tie him with two or three splinters to a spit, and roast
him, basted often with vinegar, or rather verjuice and butter, with good
store of salt mixed with it.
Being thus dressed, you will find him a much better dish of meat than
you, or most folk, even than anglers themselves, do imagine: for this
dries up the fluid watery humour with which all Chubs do abound. But
take this rule with you, That a Chub newly taken and newly dressed, is
so much better than a Chub of a day's keeping after he is dead, that L
can compare him to nothing so fitly as to cherries newly gathered from
a tree, and others that have been bruised and lain a day or two in water.
But the Chub being thus used, and dressed presently; and not washed
after he is gutted, for note, that lying long in water, and washing the
blood out of any fish after they be gutted, abates much of their
sweetness; you will find the Chub, being dressed in the blood, and
quickly, to be such meat as will recompense your labour, and disabuse
your opinion.
Or you may dress the Chavender or Chub thus:
When you have scaled him, and cut off his tail and fins, and washed
him very clean, then chine or slit him through the middle, as a salt-fish
is usually cut; then give him three or four cuts or scotches on the back
with your knife, and broil him on charcoal, or wood coal, that are free
from smoke; and all the time he is a-broiling, baste him with the best
sweet butter, and good store of salt mixed with it. And, to this, add a
little thyme cut exceedingly small, or bruised into the butter. The
Cheven thus dressed hath the watery taste taken away, for which so
many except against him. Thus was the Cheven dressed that you now
liked so well, and commended so much But note again, that if this
Chub that you eat of had been kept till to-morrow, he had not been
worth a rush. And remember, that his throat be washed very clean, I say
very clean, and his body not washed after he is gutted, as indeed no fish
should be.
Well, scholar, you see what pains I have taken to recover the lost credit
of the poor despised Chub. And now I will give you some rules how to
catch him: and I am glad to enter you into the art of fishing by catching
a Chub, for there is no fish better to enter a young Angler, he is so
easily caught, but then it must be this particular way:
Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, where, in most hot
days, you will find a dozen or twenty Chevens 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 is
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
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 leather-mouthed fishes, of
which a hook does scarce ever lose its hold; and therefore give him play
enough before you offer to take him out of the water. Go your way
presently; take my rod, and do as I bid you; and I will sit down and
mend my tackling till you return back.
Venator. Truly, my loving master, you have offered me as fair as I
could wish. I'll go and observe your directions.
Look you, master, what I have done, that which joys my heart, caught
just such another Chub as yours was.
Piscator. Marry, and I am glad of it: I am like to have a towardly
scholar of you. I now see, that with advice and practice, you will make
an Angler in a short time. Have but a love to it; and I'll warrant you.
Venator. But, master! what if I could not have found a grasshopper?
Piscator. Then I may tell you, That a black snail, with his belly slit, to
show his white, or a piece of soft cheese, will usually do as well. Nay,
sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly, as the ant-fly, the flesh-fly, or
wall-fly; or the dor or beetle which you may find under cow-dung; or a
bob which you will find in the same place, and in time will be a beetle;
it is a short white worm, like to and bigger than a gentle; or a cod-
worm; or a case-worm; any of these will do very well to fish in such a
manner.
And after this manner you may catch a Trout in a hot evening: when, as
you walk by a brook, and shall see or hear him leap at flies, then, if you
get a grasshopper, put it on your hook, with your line about two yards
long; standing behind a bush or tree where his hole is: and make your
bait stir up and down on the top of the water. You may, if you stand
close, be sure of a bite, but not sure to catch him, for he is not a leather-
mouthed fish. And after this manner you may fish for him with almost
any kind of live fly, but especially with a grasshopper.
Venator. But before you go further, I pray, good master, what mean you
by a leather-mouthed fish ?
Piscator. By a leather-mouthed fish, I mean such as have their teeth in
their throat, as the Chub or Cheven: and so the Barbel, the Gudgeon,
and Carp, and divers others have. And the hook being stuck into the
leather, or skin, of the mouth of such fish, does very seldom or never
lose its hold: but on the contrary, a Pike, a Perch, or Trout, and so some
other fish, which have not their teeth in their throats, but in their
mouths, which you shall observe to be very full of bones, and the skin
very thin, and little of it. I say, of these fish the hook never takes so sure
hold but you often lose your fish, unless he have gorged it.
Venator. I thank you, good master, for this observation. But now what
shall be done with my Chub or Cheven that I have caught ?
Piscator. Marry, Sir, it shall be given away to some poor body; for I'll
warrant you I'll give you a Trout for your supper: and it is a good
beginning of your art to offer your first-fruits to the poor, who will both
thank you and God for it, which I see by your silence you seem to
consent to. And for your willingness to part with it so charitably, I will
also teach more concerning Chub-fishing. You are to note, that in
March and April he is usually taken with worms; in May, June, and
July, he will bite at any fly, or at cherries, or at beetles with their legs
and wings cut off, or at any kind of snail, or at the black bee that breeds
in clay walls. And he never refuses a grasshopper, on the top of a swift
stream, nor, at the bottom, the young humble bee that breeds in long
grass, and is ordinarily found by the mower of it. In August, and in the
cooler months, a yellow paste, made of the strongest cheese, and
pounded in a mortar, with a little butter and saffron, so much of it as,
being beaten small, will turn it to a lemon colour. And some make a
paste for the winter months, at which time the Chub is accounted best,
for then it is observed, that the forked bones are lost, or turned into a
kind of gristle, especially if he be baked, of cheese and turpentine. He
will bite also at a minnow, or peek, as a Trout will: of which I shall tell
you more hereafter, and of divers other baits. But take this for a rule,
that, in hot weather, he is to be fished for towards the mid-water, or
near the top; and in colder weather, nearer the bottom; and if you fish
for him on the top, with a beetle, or any fly, then be sure to let your line
be very long, and to keep out of sight. And having told you, that his
spawn is excellent meat, and that the head of a large Cheven, the throat
being well washed, is the best part of him, I will say no more of this
fish at the present, but wish you may catch the next you fish for.
But, lest you may judge me too nice in urging to have the Chub dressed
so presently after he is taken, I will commend to your consideration
how curious former times have been in the like kind.
You shall read in Seneca, his Natural Questions, that the ancients were
so curious in the newness of their fish, that that semed not new enough
that was not put alive into the guest's hand; and he says, that to that end
they did usually keep them living in glass bottles in their dining-rooms,
and they did glory much in their entertaining of friends, to have that
fish taken from under their table alive that was instantly to be fed upon;
and he says, they took great pleasure to see their Mullets change to
several colours when they were dying. But enough of this; for I doubt I
have staid too long from giving you some Observations of the Trout,
and how to fish for him, which shall take up the next of my spare time.