Winter Chub Fishing Advice

[clutch]

Hello,

I fancy having a bash trying to target Chub on the Severn at Bridgnorth.

I have picked up a few decent chub this season, but they have generally been when targeting barbel.

I will be ledgering, I can't justify buying another rod/set up atm, so I am hoping what I already have will do the job. I have barbel rods, 12ft, 1.75 tc or a lighter 10ft commercial carp feeder rod. Which would you suggest?

I know that bread and cheese paste are two favourites, does anyone have a favourite cheese paste recipe?

Any opinion on rigs, both for fishing cheese paste and bread?

Finally, what sort of swims should I be looking for?

Any other suggestions or ideas would be great.

Thanks guys.

 

[Keith M]

I’ve had some really good Chub during the winter on some ‘bread & cheese’ paste with some raw onion juice added to it.

It used to be my job to sit and mould a large ball of ‘bread & cheese’ paste around a large scored onion while my mate drove us all the way down to the river Kennet, and we had some brilliant winter Chub on this.
And if we had any left we would freeze it and just add extra to it the next time we went.

Keith

 

[ian g]

Bread and cheesepaste work , I fish a bit further upstream around Shrewsbury and have had some decent chub over the years. Maggots are good in clear conditions . Maybe adopt a roving approach for a few sessions feed a few swims with bread mash and rotate between them , you'll find holding areas that way . On the upper Severn you find you catch a couple of decent chub in one swim then have to move to find the next ones.

 

[xenon]

cheese paste is briliant for chub. My recipe is half and half danish blue and the pre-made shortcrust pastry you can get in supermarkets. Definitely worth fishing swims in rotation -if anyone is home and hungry you should know within half an hour. Feature swims are worth a try-snags, underneath overhanging branches. Oddly enough I have had a surprising degree of success fishing totally blank featureless swims-in the middle on long straight stretches which look like nothing at all.

 

[bullet]

With regard to rods, I'd favour the carp feeder over the barbel rod, as I'd assume it has a softer tip.
Rig wise, I find a simple link ledger very effective.
Swim selection is a bit harder, as already suggested, the best bet is to try anywhere you like the look of, you'll soon find out if Chub are present.
Some swims look ideal, and very seldom produce, others that look nothing special can be bankers, and it will vary according to the height of the river as well.
This is what I find works around here, so it maybe useless info for where you are!

 

[103841]

Sainsbury’s Mild cheddar cheese straight from the packet works a treat.

We must credit Binka for that tip.

 

[The bad one]

My strategy is and always has been on the Severn a big bucket of bread mash, a big bag of cut crust into 15 mm squires. 6 slices of thick Warburtons Toasty white bread, as fresh as possible for flake. Wander down the river, with no rod and feed a few balls of mash in every chubby looking swim.

The slower the better for me, deep bends... perfect! Behind a tree stump that's got stuck in the river... yippee! A big bush on your bank with a deep run under it and lots of trailing branches.. fantastic!

Back to the gear and fish every swim you've baited for 1/2 hour max. When you reach the last swim, back up river feeding the same swims again, so you can start the process all over again. And don't pack up as the light starts to go, fish the first couple of hours into dark as well.

A 1.75lb rod is fine for the Severn and will handle any rouge barbel that might take a fancy to a piece of crust and or flake and they do :jaw:

 

[108831]

Caught loads of chub on many different baits,lots on cheese paste,but would rather fish flake than any other bait,my favourite approach is a smallish cage feeder with a tied up rig,short lead link(around 2-3in to the swivel of the feeder)and 8-12in from the knot to the hook,my preference is a 6 or 4 wide gape,the feed being liquidised bread,on the Severn I would be looking for voices above near side trees,or slacks behind one...

 

[Keith M]

Locations in really cold weather:

In really cold weather when the Chub are keeping out of the main flow to conserve some of their energy, and not so willing to chase their food downstream; I find the following places are often more successful:

1. Tight up to the far bank:
I fish several places where the Chub hug up tight along the edge especially if there are overhanging branches or rafts of floating vegetation and if you come out more than a foot or two from the far bank the bites invariably seem to cease.

2. Long straights that run in front of larger reedbeds especially where the Chub can drift in and out of the reeds picking off food as it drifts past.

3. Anywhere the current changes and forms eddies which collects food.

Keith

 

[ian g]

I'd agree re long straights, 2 of my favourite areas on the Severn are like that , changes in depth , fishing some where that is a bit deeper also helps . I'd say concentrate on one stretch and get to know it , chub will normally be in the same part of the river so finding them is the key. Flake is also my first choice and barbel like it too , plus pike and even salmon caught them all chub fishing

 

[tigger]

Just fish for barbel and you'll catch chub, same goes vice'a versa.

 

[108831]

Funny that Ian,that doesn't really apply on my rivers in winter,unless you fish at night,or fish maggot/caster,I've never had a barbel on the Ouse or Ivel on bread or cheese,not one and I've fished them a lot,you can catch a few chu b at times,especially on the wander.

 

[tigger]

Funny that Ian,that doesn't really apply on my rivers in winter,unless you fish at night,or fish maggot/caster,I've never had a barbel on the Ouse or Ivel on bread or cheese,not one and I've fished them a lot,you can catch a few chu b at times,especially on the wander.

Yeah, I suppose things will be different in various rivers around the country. Pretty much all the rivers I fish day or night can produce barbel or chub using the exact same methods. I never use cheese past, and thinking about it you are more likely to get chub than barbel if you use bread.
Corn, maggots and pellets etc are just as likely to produce either chub or barbel.
Float fishing during the winter is more likely to produce chub....where I fish of course .

 

[flightliner]

If you could scroll back to last year on the hdygo thread and read some of my contributions I was deliberately fishing for chub with mashed bread and flake .
Overall my catches just about levelled out with chub and Barbel.