Chub Fishing on a Rising River

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Really enjoyed this article Sean. Rising river conditions are in my opinion the hardest of all conditions to catch chub - much preferring the fining down. I have never used blue cheese straight from the packet, this sounds a super tip and one I look forward to trying. I like the sound of how easily the hook strikes through.

I really enjoyed my trip on the Swale this year, it is a very special venue and holds a super head of chub and barbel - though the barbel did not quite go to plan on this occasion.........

Another informative article Sean. Managed to get out last Sunday and managed a couple of 4lbers on my cheesepaste, the trip was cut short by my sons hands getting too cold and the rain was getting a bit heavy. Things were slightly disturbed by another angler pike fishing on the opposite bank as we alternated between swims not to bother each other but just wondered if a bit of skylining had put the fish off as it was fairly clear where I was on the Swale.

Thanks for that Sean.
Obviously a great deal of thought goes into your (chub) fishing ideal for those who need to pick up a few hints and tips.

A great read as usual Mr. Miyagi... cheers

Thanks Sean for sharing that, another great article . . . . . .

Great read Sean. Oh how I wish I had access to a river like that down here.

Thanks chaps!

You have to be careful which brand of cheese you use Christian as some of them are a bit hard. The Castello brand which I get from my local Asda works fine for me. I'm not convinced by the soft paste argument as chub are quite happy to take hard baits like boilies and pelets, so as long as the cheese comes off the hook when I strike (gently) without a fish on I'm happy.

As I think I've mentioned before, when i've used stilton straight on the hook without blending, it's not failed in respect of missed bites.

I have to say though, I may be a bit tighter than Sean, I don't strike mine off!

Smashing read Sean, although I did have to have a lie down half way through! I was always a Kraft cheese slice man myself but the new individual wrapped stuff is too soft.

Andy

A very interesting read Sean.
Jerry

I always like Seans articles as its clear he writes from a great deal of experience rather than an instant expert. I also like the way he explains his rational behind things and why he does it ..its not just a random choice.

Yes bread & mash...I too am always tinkering with it looking for ways to improve it. I usually make up my mash pretty much exactly as Sean says, mashing mine up in a bucket by hand. However just recently I fished a small shallowish canal like river. My plan was to start at the upstream end and then work my way down trotting and following a trail of bread that I was constantly feeding so I would cover allot of water until I came across a fish or two.
As the water was freezeing and I was being a bit lazy, instead of my usual wet mash I decided to save my hands from frostbite and stared to roll dry bread in my free hand as I was trotting down to create a sort of ball of scrunched up bread and then throw that in each cast. I found as long as I rolled it around enough most of it sank nicely when I threw it in however a few bits always remained on the surface and floated down as well. I was not that bothered as I was trotting along the same line each time and as the river was pretty uniform & shallow the Chub did not have much depth to move up and down in...so basically if my hookbait past them they were going to see it regardless of the depth they were at.

After a while as I gradually made my slow descent downstream, feeding and trotting constantly I started to notice some splashing a long way down stream, these splashes gradually came closer and closer and it was apparent it was the chub taking bread off the surface (and I assumed below the surface as well..) and working their way upstream along the bread trail towards me. The advantage was that I had a clear visual indication of exactly were the Chub were and I stopped my clomping down stream, tucked my self behind a little bush and trotted down to them. I think I probably picked up a bonus fish or two like that as I am sure If I had been fishing straight wet mash I would not have had the visual indication from the fish taking bits off the surface and probably would have been on top of them before I knew it and spooked them.

Anyway its a little tip. Obviously its not going to be of use every were and might be counter productive on deeper bigger rivers but its a little thing I have tucked away for another time.

Brilliant read Sean, thanks very much.

It's been a very frustrating chub season for me on the thames, the few times when conditions have looked good I've not been able to go and then the rest of the time it keeps yoyoing between one thing and another. Despite the promise of some really cold stuff, this has got e thinking it might be time to don the thermals and get out there at the weekend as at least the conditions have been stable for a while.

Very interesting to read the different tactical decisions as the river changes it's mood. I'm not sure I'll ever see the thames go up three feet in a couple of hours! But the location lessons remain... I'm particularly interested in what you say here about the level of colour in the water i.e. clear - fish to cover, some colour - fish static and use a bait trail to draw them in, lots colour - search the swim out for the fish. I will definitely be logging that gem away.

thanks again
jim

Good read, Sean.

I have to say that my own experience (as previously documented) is that full-on flood "colour" particularly brings out the big fish and they will search out food (much like barbel), not just "sit and wait" for it. I agree that the pace of the water is key to location, just on the crease of the fast water I find best, but I think the heavy colour, like night darkness, gives them the feeling of added security and makes them similarly mobile, providing there's not too much in the way of heavy detritus being brought down with it.

An interesting comment Simon and it's something that's puzzled me over the years. I think that we're experiencing a difference in behaviour due to firstly a temperature difference and secondly a flow speed difference (maybe more correctly a gradient difference) between river like the Lea and the Thames and the spate rivers of the North. Certainly in Summer I'd agree with you and I've often caught big chub (over 5lb) in big floods whilst barbel fishing.

My rationalisation is that chub prefer slower water in cold conditions and that in winter floods up North we often experience quite low water temperatures (on the day in question the water temp was 4 C). In these temperature chub will occupy a lie that gives them their preferred water speed and they won't follow a flavour trail through a length of faster water because firstly the energy expenditure is too great and secondly that they are more vunerable to predator attack due to poor visiblity and slower response times.

I must admit that I did consider dropping you a pm a couple of weeks ago when I waited 6 hours for my first bite on the Nidd in a cold flood only to miss it - a case for the circle hook and a bolt rig I think!

One thing that I've also noticed over the past few years is that chub up here aren't shoaling up as much and seem to be spread thinly along the river. This makes a static approach less likely to work in Winter. I've put this down to increased otter predation breaking up the shoals. Certainly we are somewhere near the peak of otter density on the Yorkshire river and we can only hope that they stabilise a lower, sustainable level.

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I suppose that begs the question of whether my approach is a valid one on Midland and Southern rivers and I can only point to the fact that it has lead to me catching a lot of chub on the upper Great Ouse over the past few years. Maybe on rivers with a higher head of chub they are less inclined to rove over long distances in search of food as it's likely that other chub will have exploited a particular food source first.

I think there's probably something in what you say about the differences between the types of rivers and the temperatures. Certainly my experiences are with winter floods, but with the mild air and rain that they bring after cold snaps. Not just a rising river, but rising temperatures as well.

There's certainly no otter problem on the Lea!

Unfortunately we've not had ONE flood (or anything approaching it) this autumn or winter. I've never seen the river so low outside of previous summer "droughts". It's very disturbing. I've all but given up on one of my favourite venues since it relies on a flood to push the chub down from the "private" weir-sill into the fishing areas and.............they're all still sitting up there unmoved!

Great bit of advice, Sean. I, too, have never used blue cheese unadulterated but I'm encouraged to give it a go.

I also have a slightly different mash-making method to you, which may be of great help on swims where it's hard to reach the water. I just put half a dozen slices of supermarket bread into the landing net then force it under the water by trapping the 'bag' of the floating bread under the rim, like this.


Just plunge it under for two seconds, then lift it out and wring it out in the net, which is great for getting an even consistency.

I was also interested in your comments about Drennan feeder rods - I have a Red Range Carp Feeder 11ft. It's the right length and power for chub and will, like the Puddle Chucker, handle moderate barbel. I have also noticed that Drennan now sells a Night Sight 1-4oz quiver tips separately, and that ALL Drennan quiver tips fit ALL Drennan feeder rods - very handy to know.