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detering chub

George Maltby

George Maltby

Senior Member
Guys, I have a swim where I can quite often get a couple of good sized barbel feeding in (during the summer, low doubles). The only problem is they are almost always surrounded by a guard of the greediest little chub you can imagine, I have hooked them on even the most coarse of barbel rigs. Next season all i can think of doing is using a much longer hair with a couple of bait bands glued to the bottom with two large pellets in and just wait for the rod to try and jetison itself from the rod rest :).

What ways do you guys try to overcome this problem as if that doesn't work i am going to be out of ideas.
 
Increase the lead size, shorten the hooklength, fish a bolt rig...............or feed a few yards upstream of the bait, the chub should follow the mass bait and the bigger barbel will hang back and pick off your hook bait, at least that is the theory...........sometimes you just have to be happy you didn't blank :)
 
The problem with feeding up stream is that it is fast and powerfull upstream, and then right under the far bank immediately downstream of the only area you can fish from, it suddenly deepens out into a 'hole' under some overhanging tree branches. The only way you can get a rig properly into position is with a cupping kit on the end of a pole (hate the damned things but they do have their uses). So basically any food introduced upstream gets swept straight down into the hole anyway, so i just use a baitdropper. The fish won't leave this area and go upstream as they know the food comes to them. It really is a crabtree-esque swim but so far has only produced one barbel, and it was the smallest (at around 9lbs it was still a cracker though). I know the fish go bigger as I can climb into the overhanging tree and watch them.

I am already using bolt rigs, back lead, and relatively short hooklinks (12''), maybe I shall just try some truly 'disgusting' rigs and hope this deters the chub. But as i say these are not normal chub, they must be the densest chub in the uk and i swear i caught the same one 3 times in three casts (maybe intentionally catch as many as poss in the morning, and stick em in a keepnet and then fish the late afternoon/evening)
 
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George are you using leads bigger than 2oz?

By short hooklinks I mean 3 to 6 inches, 12" is a fairly long hooklink!!
 
I gathered that when you meant short you meant very short, I tend to use links or 18 inches which i think is why i still catch chub even on bolt rigs.
I always try and use the lightest leads I can get away with so will try some leads in the 3oz league, I have used 2oz leads in the swim and for fishing directly downstream of myself (almost under the rod tip) even this seemed hideous to me! It is all just so against my instincts!! which is where the reluctance comes from I think.
Cheers though Ian, hearing it come from someone else gives me extra confidence in it, 6'' link and big lead it is then. Will also try some very big baits (2 or 3 big pellets rapped in a big blob of paste/ or some meat), those chub are so ravenous i think this may be the only approach, its whether the barbus will still go for it i am worried about as the water is crystal.
 
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Try a single 22mm Donkey choker pellet on a longish hair. Bigger chub will take them but smaller one should struggle.
 
the only way I found to deal with a similar problem was to cut back on loose feed , it didn't stop me catching chub altogether but my chub catches dropped drastically . On my particular river they just seemed turned on by the sound of the baitdropper or pellets hitting the surface .
 
I was having the same problem on the Wye a few seasons back, a local angler advised me to use a bait band with a 14 mm halli pellet, the pellet is scored with a knife to allow the band to sit in the groove. Set the baitrunner and wait for the 'churner' ......worked for me:)
 
Neil Smart said:
I was having the same problem on the Wye a few seasons back, a local angler advised me to use a bait band with a 14 mm halli pellet, the pellet is scored with a knife to allow the band to sit in the groove. Set the baitrunner and wait for the 'churner' ......worked for me:)
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Banded straight onto the hook? or a band on the end of a hair?
What a river the wye is though, absolutely loved my session there last summer lost count of the barbel! was predominantly rolling meat, I didn't mind the chub there as they were averaging 4lb:)
 
Bigger baits and/or sit on your hands and wait for the fish to run on a baitrunner. Ignore any tippy tappy nonesense or even the fast sharp tugs.
Shame that Swale chub don't seem to have read the manual and hit like a barbel much of the time. It gets quite disappointing when what you thought was a barbel gets turned just before reaching the far bank jungle only for it to give up and come in like a wet sack!;):D
 
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A 3 to 4lb chub will take anything "big" that a double-figure barbel will, make no mistake.

To my mind, the best option would be to intoduce enough feed regularly over the course of several hours that the barbel will bully the chub out of the way. The problem in Winter's lower temperatures of course being that the chub will have a faster metabolism and feed more readily than the barbel unless warming conditions favour this approach.

Otherwise I think putting caught chub in a keepnet temporarily while you attempt to work your way through is probably the best idea. :)
 
I had the same problem very early season last year, i even resorted to dropping the bait dropper directly on top of the chub!!..The trouble was that the chub were out numbering the Barbel and were bullying the Barbel out of the swim, in the end i fished for the chub and had several with one at 7lb 4oz which of course i was happy with..I think it depends on the Barbel to Chub ratio, in my case 2 very big barbel were coming into the swim but were out numberd by six to seven big chub, these chub were even bullying pike out of the swim..I tried everything from trying to feed the chub off & putting less in but neither really worked..In the end i simply fed different swims with less Chub and eventually caught some nice Barbel..:)
 
George Maltby said:
Banded straight onto the hook? or a band on the end of a hair?
What a river the wye is though, absolutely loved my session there last summer lost count of the barbel! was predominantly rolling meat, I didn't mind the chub there as they were averaging 4lb:)
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On the hook George.:)

Yep the Wye is awesome, only fished it once last summer, which I have to somehow explain to myself as to why?
 
This is a situation I am well used to dealing with. There is no failproof solution but personally I would not use a bolt rig as this will also hook too many of the chub, whereas if you use less weight combined with a smallish back lead, even fairly savage pulls from the chub usually don't hook up. This rarely prevents a barbel from wrapping the rod around once it picks up the hookbait. A shorter hooklink combined with a longer hair might also be an advantage but I think that the best bet in this situation is to get the fish feeding under the rod tip where you can see them and to pull the hook away from any chub that are intent on picking it up. Obviously a larger and more visible bait that you can see will help here.

Such an approach is very 'cat and mouse' but it is exciting, proper fishing and it works. Just be careful not to plonk the bait back in while barbel are active in the baited area or you will spook them. Far too many anglers seem to think that you have to fish for barbel in their sanctuary areas, whereas in reality with a little careful feeding it is nearly always possible to get the barbel feeding where you want them. Establishing a good quality boilie works wonders in such circumstances as it will bring out a feeding response in the barbel that makes them loose their caution, whereas with pellets they learn to associate them with danger and can get very spooky and difficult to command.
 
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Why not just catch as many of the chub as you can, remove them further down stream, then bait up the swim again and then leave for a couple of hours then try again ;) surely it's got to be worth a try ?
 
Nic Costar said:
Why not just catch as many of the chub as you can, remove them further down stream, then bait up the swim again and then leave for a couple of hours then try again ;) surely it's got to be worth a try ?
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Personally I've not met many barbel that will tolerate hoards of chub being caught from amongst them without becoming very spooky themselves, sometime to the point that they will leave the swim or simply get ridiculously cagey and neurotic. It may be different on the rivers you fish but on mine it would be the kiss of death.
 
When fishing the Teme I have managed to get rid of the chub from a swim by feeding floating crust, the chub will occasionally chase it downstream allowing you to present a bait to the barbel.
If you can see the fish this is an effective method as you can monitor what's going on, it can take the chub a while to cotton on and start chasing the bait though. The trick is to start feeding well upstream to get them going and then gradually start feeding lower down the swim moving the 'taking' point downstream.
 
Adrian Williams said:
When fishing the Teme I have managed to get rid of the chub from a swim by feeding floating crust, the chub will occasionally chase it downstream allowing you to present a bait to the barbel.
If you can see the fish this is an effective method as you can monitor what's going on, it can take the chub a while to cotton on and start chasing the bait though. The trick is to start feeding well upstream to get them going and then gradually start feeding lower down the swim moving the 'taking' point downstream.
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Adrian, your post has reminded me of another trick that I remember from an article that I read a long time ago. Get a weight, some string and tether a crust or even a mesh bag full of crust etc. Drop this slightly away from the barbel. With a bit of luck the chub will become preoccupied with the bread leaving you to drop your rig amongst the barbel. No idea if it will work, but the theory sounds ok!
 
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