Chub bites when fishing for barbel

Folks, I?ve read a lot about people catching Chub when legering for Barbel, and as I?ve only caught Chub when float fishing I don?t know what sort of bite indication they give. Are they a wrap round the same as Barbel give?

Adrian

Adrian

More often than not they do give a similar bite idication as barbel. Bites often vary according to light,temp and of course the venue itself. They can be finicky often giving small taps which are eventually followed by the good old wrap round! I personally like to free line for them using slugs,lobs,prawns or meat flavoured with spices. Breadflake can be killer in cold water conditions. One thing though is they easily spook.

Ivan

Bites from chub when legering can vary enormously. Fast bites or whip arounds often tell of temerity on the chub's part. A steady slow pull often tells of a chub that means business.

There are however no hard or fast rules.

Often when fishing for barbel with hair rigs you can get a variety of knocks and pulls which you miss, or they never develop into anything positive. Hair rigs and chub tend not to go together. Barbel and chub have totally different types of mouths. I have watched chub pick up a bait in their lips and pull at it, and them leave it alone.

However I have caught many chub on the Trent, good fish too, over 5lbs, that have taken a hair rigged chunk of luncheon meat or pellet with gusto.

Adrian,

On small rivers like the Teme and Dorset Stour I am increasingly abandoning the hair rig if chub are present in numbers.

They do not seem to have the same hoovering qualities of your average beard and I have found my strike rate has improved by straight-hooking and reacting to any unnatural quiver of the tip.

On big rivers (Severn/ Trent) I'd go for hair-rig every time, as the chub seem to hit the bait hard in the powerful current. In this case you can expect a wrap-around.

Not sure if you call the Ribble a big river or a medium one, it's certainly big in its lower reaches. The Barbel lads certainly pick up some good chub, however, they tend to ignore the bangs and taps and wait for a wrap round and a steady pull. I'm only talking pellet and large baits, I'm not sure if there's too much difference if you're fishing maggot or caster?
If you intend to target chub then in general don't use hair rigged baits. It's not that you won't catch them it's just that your hit rate will be well down. Like Ron has said they can pick up your bait in their lips and bang your rod around and you'll lift into nothing. I've had this even with bread flake and they've not taken the entire flake off the hook, after leaving for a few minutes the rods banging away again. One of the little mind games I play when fishing with bread is, if I get a good knock, I'll count to 120 then and if I've not had another knock wind in and re-bait and you'd be surprised sometimes just how many 120 I've counted before I've wound in to re-bait. When it get really hard its touch ledgering and I don't hit the first few plucks but wait for the chub to give a smooth pull of the line through my index finger and thumb, release then strike. Letting go of about a foot or so of slack line before contact is made just gives the chub that little bit of extra confidence to take a proper hold of the bait.
To generalise if the rod tip is knocks then it's generally chub especially around or after dusk. Lots of little knocks and vibrations are generally eels chewing at your pellet.

My first post lads. Like John Conway, I have found a wee bit of slack can convert a finicky tug into a full blooded rod bender.
I used to use a balanced bobbin to get the same effect as John does, but I've been away from chubbing (apologies,I flyfish for wild broon troot too) for some time. No doubt methods have changed.

I used to watch the chub from a bridge on the River Leam from a place I couln't fish.

One morning I took a slice of bread with me to the bridge and deposited a few pieces of bread flake in the water. The smaller chub took these no problem at all.

Then a big old chub arrived on the scene.

The smaller chub seemed to part to let the old guy get to the bait. This big chub, which I put down at 5 1/2lb at least, picked up a piece of flake in its lips and swam downstream for at least 15 yards with the flake hanging on the outside of his mouth, The water was crystal clear, I had my polarised specs on and I could see everything. He then proceeded to shake the lump of flake about until several small pieces came off. He then dropped the large lump, mouthed a few of the tiny bits and then set off downstream as though terrified, making a bow wave in the water.

I am sure that old chub was making sure there was no hook attached to the bait, and even then there was something that scared him.

My word, anyone who thinks fish are stupid, haven't either been fishing or have never taken the trouble to watch them.