I’d say it was the perfect thread for it Stuart. You certainly know how to catch some good ones looking at your recent pics so your thoughts on how you go about it would go highly recommended. From my part anyway. More ways to skin a cat n all that
Well firstly, I agree with the vast majority of what you’ve said, but there were just a couple of things that struck me as slightly over-simplified/ generalised (which makes sense in the context).
The idea that chub don’t go looking for food and just wait for it to come to them would be the first - would certainly make life tricky on rivers with little flow and still waters
I haven’t fished the rivers Danny mentioned, so can’t give any specific advice, but I certainly fish rivers where the chub are fairly mobile, so in this scenario, you have to go find them. Sometimes, as you say, a swim or stretch can be most effectively explored by trotting, but actually more commonly for me anyway, 30 mins of feeder fishing tends to be a better option (based on flow, swim types and other river characteristics). Assuming they are feeding (big assumption
) that will get a bite from anything in situ, but will also provide enough of a scent/ feed trail downstream to draw in nearby fish. Just a thought, but if the fish is moving to the static (maybe popped-up and wafting
) bait rather than attempting to move bait to mobile/ hypothesised (assuming not sight fishing) fish, perhaps it’s reducing the chances of the two missing each other?
The second thought, which sort of follows on from the first, is on the very cold conditions that you mentioned. While chub will absolutely carry on feeding at lower temps than barbel, for example, my experience is that it still affects their behaviour and therefore how we might fish for them. Just a theory (borne out of much observation), but in the really cold conditions they do seem to ‘slow down’, possibly to manage energy expenditure(?), meaning on many occasions i’ve been able to get a bite from fish that were apparently happy to
slowly move to bottom baits to feed but haven’t shown any desire at all to be darting in and out of the flow or up in the water column to pick off passing baits.
On the “how long in each swim?” question I completely agree that keeping mobile is best, although I’d tend to give a swim more than 3 or 4 casts. Goes back to that point of missing the fish I guess - wouldn’t take much to be slightly off the right line or to have distracted that 7lber with another loose offering that was just ahead of the hookbait!! No idea on exact number of casts - no doubt directly correlated to confidence in the swim holding something! If I’ve liked a swim enough to stop for some trotting though, probably little chance of me moving on again without having had at least 10 casts say
Happy to be challenged on any of the above - just my thoughts and observations, so could very well be wrong!
Danny, if you do target the chub on the quivertip at all, I’d recommend using as light a quivertip as the conditions allow and absolutely hitting the bites early - not always of course, but often the bigger chub are the more wary and gentle biters, so can’t always afford to wait for it to fly round like you can with the barbel. Good luck mate