Concerned Chubbing

Off for a spot of chubbing with the old man tomorrow on a local stretch of the Waveney. The river looks to be a classic chub river with all the right features, trees, creases etc but as of yet no chub. Bit puzzling really as the last three sessions we have fished here have produced no fish and only two bites. Anyone think I'm wasting my time on this stretch? Its about a mile in length and if we blank tomorrow that will be 36 hours in total we spent on this bit of the river in 3 sessions.

Surely a lot would depend on.....
The number of fish the stretch holds
The numbers of predators present
Feeding times (are you missing the boat)
The Cherwell near me can be very frustrating at times, indeed I've blanked day after day only to bag up on another occasion in the same swims. But the rewards for patients can be enormous. My pb Chub came from there at 7lb12oz, and from a swim I'd blanked on several times before.

Confidence is a wonderful thing!! If you know they are there, you can be happy and put up with the blanks. If conditions suit this method, long trotting bread flake is a stunning method of searching swims covering 20 to 30 meters at a time.Additionally, because not many people do it, the chub will often take a moving bait with a lot more confidence. No plucks or pulls, just a float tip submerging..............

If the features are there, it follows that on a Chub river such as the Waveney - the Chub are there.

Thinking about my river - there are stretches that reliably produce small or average fish. you expect intant action.....

Alternatively, there are stretches that hold a smaller head of above average size....... Long sequences of blanks are the norm, but on balance worth it.....

Read my article on Fishing without fishing (Chubbing in the close season) - you will soon suss out where those fish are hanging out.

Good luck!

This might sound odd but try fishing for something other than chub, maybe hair rigged pellets for barbel, I you catch could it could be that the barbel have pushed the chub out,

Or try maggots on small hooks and see if dace or roach are present. If you catch you know fish are there and it will give you confidence to keep after the chub, if you don't catch it could be that for what ever reason there are no or few fish of part of the river and it may not be worth fishing

Its all ok. I was worrying over nothing! Just ask Chav Professor............

Very happy now!

This is why we are now me and Dad are very happy -





This is our first fish from the Waveney between us from a deep (10ft+) very slow flowing stretch caught on flavoured meat.
It equals dads personal best of 5lb from the Nene years ago and is the first chub he has ever caught on meat. If the chub in our stretch of the river average this size then I think we will be in for a good winters fishing next winter.

Nice fish well done

Your Dad really is a Big Chub magnet!!!! well done boys..... :w:w

those big rubbery lip, big bulging eyes in the photo are scary - and the chub had the same!

Lol! My old man will be well chuffed with that comment. Well we have blagged another session for Monday (last day of the season) from "her indoors" so hopefully I will have a few more pictures to post up and possibly break my pb.