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Wintering chubbing

B

Brendon Mullins

Senior Member
Planning a few winter sessions on either the Swale or Wharfe this year

What do you prefer.... Trotting or quivering?

What are your go to set ups?

It's been a long time since I've float fished so interested to hear about people's set up, techniques etc

Thanks
 
Brendon, not my rivers but I often fish both types of tactics with a couple of 7lb plus fish and many 6's.

Clearish water. Bread. Mashed bread, and 3 loaves or more.

Trotting, Avon float, 4 to 8gr dependent on flow.

Olivette around 2/3 down from the float, bb one or two to balance float 6 inches from size 8 hook.
Decent piece of flake on hook.


Feed billiard ball size of dampish bread mash upstream so it disappears from sight level with you.

Cast slightly upstream same line and trot as far as you can manage. After 3 or 4 trots if no bites, another bit of mash walnut size.

If no bites after another 6 or so trots.

Move to next swim down, repeat from start...

Using a feeder, I tend to look for under tree swims. Same bait, casting upstream in line a mesh feeder with mash in. 12inch tail same hook size and you can change to a long shank hook if you can be bothered. It does allow you to squeeze the bread flake on the shank exposing the point, something not so important when you strike with trotting.

Pushing bread into feeder very. Very firmly you can hold it so it swings under a tree etc.

Let it settle. Give it 10 mins. If nothing. Cast again, 10 mins, no bites, move next swim down.

A typical bite will be a tap followed by wrap around.

Good Luck
 
bait, casting upstream in line a mesh feeder with mash in


This should have read

Casting upstream same line pull out mash bread from feeder to put some bait in swim
 
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As Graham, don't know those rivers but where I fish I usually take a float rod and a feeder rod. Nearly always fish bread on the feeder or occasionally straight legered worms, float rod usually go for maggots, which are ok from now onwards as the Dace and Chublets clear off.
 
Good advice there from Graham, and I would also emphasise move on if nothing doing in 20mins…..Chub will usually take a well presented bait very quickly. Walk the stretch and lob a good sized ball of mash in a few likely looking swims then fish them in rotation.
I mix my mash with hemp groundbait, not sure if it’s necessary but always done well for me so loath to change.
Get a good Chub fishing book …Tony Miles has done a couple that will give you some nice pointers.
Good luck, I love winter Chub fishing.
 
I don't have any experience with float fishing unfortunately, something I'd love to do though!

My experience mainly centres around feeder fishing. One of the best tricks I've done, is to cram a load of softish cheese in the winter, inside an open ended feeder and cheese paste hook bait, works really well.

Bread to has been good to me, using very simple feeder rigs, & large bit of bread on the hook.

You'll find as often the case, that if chub are close by you'll have a good chance at hooking them, so don't worry if your not catching & your in what looks like a good swim. Just move to the next peg down & retry, you'll soon bump into them.

Good old boilie paste, & touch legering has seen me land an absolute giant of a chub a few seasons back, and I love the roving approach to my fishing, which is more suited to small water tactics if I'm honest.
 
All good advice above.

If I'm trotting I tend to use mags. Catapult out three big pults full into the chosen swims (preferably a far bank tree line). Then continue to fire out a couple of dozen mags every 4mins or so. Keep doing this for half hr then cut back to half a dozen/dozen mags for the next ten mins. After 40 mins start fishing ideally 4grm chubber but may have to go heavier depending on distance and flow.

Continue to feed approx dozen mags per trot but every 20 mins put in two big pults of mags.

If fishing feeder, just smaller than golf ball lump of cheese paste. Move swim every 10/15 mins if no action. I find the bigger fish come to static paste.
 
Richard Bruton said:
All good advice above.

If I'm trotting I tend to use mags. Catapult out three big pults full into the chosen swims (preferably a far bank tree line). Then continue to fire out a couple of dozen mags every 4mins or so. Keep doing this for half hr then cut back to half a dozen/dozen mags for the next ten mins. After 40 mins start fishing ideally 4grm chubber but may have to go heavier depending on distance and flow.

Continue to feed approx dozen mags per trot but every 20 mins put in two big pults of mags.

If fishing feeder, just smaller than golf ball lump of cheese paste. Move swim every 10/15 mins if no action. I find the bigger fish come to static paste.
Click to expand...
I would do very similar on a known water like Throop, but certainly wouldn't move for a few hours probably.

On a river like those mentioned I would probably reduce the mags considerably.
 
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I know the swale well and fished it for chub all year round for many years.

Personally I prefer to float fish for them and on a river like the swale that holds a hell of a lot of chub the best tactic is to build up a swim with maggots. Get everything right and you can run through a gallon of maggots in no time on that river.

Consistent feeding works best starting off on a little and often basis then adjusting to the response you get (bite frequency)

I will not put a line out with this sort of fishing until after at least a good half hour of Little and often feeding. There’s no point catching 1 when you’ve only pulled 3 in to the swim

Top n bottom float 6-8g, bulk about 12-18 inches from a size 14 and fish it over depth if your able to hold back.

Look for some deep water with a smooth steady pace and I particularly like inner bank creases when trotting for chub particularly if I’m bank bound. Run your bait and float down the main flow just off the crease line.

Feed first then cast. Never the other way around.
 
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Thanks for all your replies

What sort of line / hook length would you be using?

Also any tips on the perfect mashed bread and cheese paste?

Would you fish for chun in high / flood water or revert back to barbel?
 
All fantastic advice. Big Chub are very different to their smaller species and are very wary which makes them a great adversary. They are survivors and will spend a lot of time in undercuts and structure, very often they can be at your feet and gone in a second ...so stealth is paramount.
Link ledgering can be deadly with flake by letting the flake go to places no other method can by using the flake as a small raft and sinking the rig in position.
The upper and middle Bristol Avon is Chub heaven and with plenty of bends and undercuts to explore..
One session on the BA I had was a shallow run deepening into an area about 30yds downstream, the bait was lobworm under an Avon float.
I hooked about six large chub and saw their big white lips surface .and then shake the 6 hook every time against the strong flow.
What I didn't realise back then that chub find it difficult to throw smaller hooks and a 14 or even 16 will often provide a better hook hold and in the "scissors" too.
 
Graham Elliott said:
Brendon, not my rivers but I often fish both types of tactics with a couple of 7lb plus fish and many 6's.

Clearish water. Bread. Mashed bread, and 3 loaves or more.

Trotting, Avon float, 4 to 8gr dependent on flow.

Olivette around 2/3 down from the float, bb one or two to balance float 6 inches from size 8 hook.
Decent piece of flake on hook.


Feed billiard ball size of dampish bread mash upstream so it disappears from sight level with you.

Cast slightly upstream same line and trot as far as you can manage. After 3 or 4 trots if no bites, another bit of mash walnut size.

If no bites after another 6 or so trots.

Move to next swim down, repeat from start...

Using a feeder, I tend to look for under tree swims. Same bait, casting upstream in line a mesh feeder with mash in. 12inch tail same hook size and you can change to a long shank hook if you can be bothered. It does allow you to squeeze the bread flake on the shank exposing the point, something not so important when you strike with trotting.

Pushing bread into feeder very. Very firmly you can hold it so it swings under a tree etc.

Let it settle. Give it 10 mins. If nothing. Cast again, 10 mins, no bites, move next swim down.

A typical bite will be a tap followed by wrap around.

Good Luck
Click to expand...
Would you use bread in coloured water?
 
Certainly a long way from my local chub waters, never seen the Swale or the Wharfe. The lower reaches of the Dorset Stour and Hants Avon are my local winter patch.

More than a decade ago I decided I just had to have one of the bigger specimens (7lbs+) on the float and have typically concentrated on trotting ever since. It took me until 2012 to finally get one on the float from the Stour and several more have followed over the years. Still haven't quite had one from the Avon.

Trotting a single red maggot on a #20 under a big bit of balsa is my "go to" starting point.

From the previous comments the Swale has an excellent head of chub, and chub are chub!

Apart from location, one major factor is getting the chub to lose some of their natural caution and start feeding freely. If there are numbers of chub in the area, it can sometimes be a great advantage as I think they often react to each other, once one gets its head down, others follow.

Loose feeding accurately, regularly and consistently by hand, catapult &/or dropper is one of the keys. If I can, I will feed to an area quite a way downstream, leaving plenty of room to play the fish between that spot and the net. If that means introducing the feed downstream from me then so be it (particularly if they start coming up to intercept the feed). I usually start to feed as soon as I arrive and while I'm setting up. That may take 20min/30min or more and I often don't start trotting, but keep feeding, for some time after I'm ready to fish.

They can be there straight away, sometimes it takes a while. On my local rivers I know I'm in the right general areas so happy to work a swim with the knowledge the chub can turn on at any time. It's important to feed consistently whether you're catching or not, increasing/decreasing that feeding as you think fit. Some days when I feel the chub are there, I will feed what I call "top & bottom" - at the start and end of the trot - sometimes every trot.

I play around with depth and shotting a lot. Sometimes a simple olivette bulk and a single dropper will work well. I typically use split shot as I can move that around to my hearts content. It also pays to occasionally vary the line of trot. Inside, beyond and further down the line your feeding often produces the better fish. Single red maggot on a #20 beyond the line I'm trying to feed has produced a high proportion of bigger chub.

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