Winter chub fishing

[Keep]

Good luck, let us know if you catch one.

what an excellent comment thank you very much indeed
yes it's a chub producing water, with other club members catching chub in the same location this year

 

[ian g]

If you have the opportunity I would say a little walking and prebaiting will often work . As Grayson said look for creases and then try feeding a ball or two of mashed bread . I would select four or five likely looking spots to prebait and then fish them in turn . If there are chub there this will usually get them looking for food. I used to fish the upper Severn a lot for chub and this worked for me , you give the fish time to get confidence by fishing in rotation. I used to use a link ledger with a few swan shot on it so you could just put enough weight to hold bottom .You really want the bait to move a little before settling as that is where food is likely to settle and where fish will look for it

 

[no-one in particular]

what an excellent comment thank you very much indeed
yes it's a chub producing water, with other club members catching chub in the same location this year

Could just be bad luck then, sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to fishing. Could just blame in it on the stars, I know some that do, I never fish without consulting my astrologer or casting the runes first. Just keep trying and mixing it up a little bit, something will give.

 

[Keith M]

Some excellent advice from others

Also; Is the water colour a bit cloudy?. or is the water fairly clear? If the latter try dropping down in line strength a bit and checking your presentation to see if it can be improved at all, and try altering the length of your hooklength. Is your bait wafting up from the bottom in the current a little too much because it may be too long?; if so you could try shortening your hooklength to pin it closer to the bottom (especially in water with a bit of colour in it), or conversely you could try lengthening your hooklength a bit; or are the Chub feeding up off the bottom and not going down onto the bottom to pickup food?.

Presuming that the Chub are actually feeding in your swim; there are lots of different things that you can try until you find a presentation that works.

If you are getting no bites at all just try something different, don’t just sit there watching a stationary quiver tip.

Best of luck, and tight lines

Keith

 

[Keep]

If you have the opportunity I would say a little walking and prebaiting will often work .

Thanks for the suggestion, I could do this yes, but it's a long walk between swims and that takes out an hour of the day's fishing, but will try it. could you recommend a good recipe for bread mash? I assume it will work fine alongside cheesepaste as a hookbait

Just keep trying and mixing it up a little bit, something will give.

I agree but . . . All I can think is just to keep mixing up which bait I'll use, about a month ago I caught a pike on this cheesepaste so maybe I'm living in topsy turvy land and I should be using a deadbait for the chub

Is the water colour a bit cloudy?. or is the water fairly clear?

Presuming that the Chub are actually feeding in your swim; there are lots of different things that you can try until you find a presentation that works.

Water is very deep, very cloudy, the river is quite close to the sea and is highly tidal, twice a day it rises and drops by a meter

the hook link is 4lb, about 2 foot long, I could certainly shorten it yes

one idea I read is hair rigging the cheesepaste wrapping it around a small ball of cork to give it some buoyancy and pop it up slightly out of any possible heavy foliage, but it's hard to say could be the riverbed is just clean mud and this would do nothing

>Presuming that the Chub are actually feeding in your swim; there are lots of different things that you can try until you find a presentation that works.

I've never seen one, there are never any tells and the water is far too deep and clouded to see anything, last summer I was walking up this stretch of river and spotted the shoals of chub because water clarity was so much better in the summer, I thought 'hmm maybe I should take up fishing, those chub just lazing around, sure look like they'd be easy to catch'

 

[John Aston]

Don't overthink it. The approach I'd take to your water would be heavier gear - 6lb line, and a much shorter hook length of 6-10 inches. Deep water suggests a heavier lead , as the flow will be powerful so use bombs between 1/4 and 3/4 ounce as required . Breadmash - just chuck some stale bread in a bucket. add water , let it soak and you can then knead handful size - or smaller lumps together hard enough so they will sink . Forget hair rigs and pop ups - you don't need them for chub - get a size 4 or 6 hook, impale a pad of crust on the bend and build up a little mound of paste . It'll stay on just fine .

In my experience you really don't need to vary your presentation much , or at all for winter chub . It's about location and timing - as long as your bait is sitting on the bottom and your bait is something chub like to eat then you will catch .

I've caught literally hundreds of chub on cheese paste from many different rivers and this is what I use - get some good Danish Blue; add breadcrumbs , a little flour and some olive oil. Knead together and job done. I add Turmeric , not for flavour , but visibility in murky water and a splash of Fish sauce sometimes too - the chub seem to like it.

If I fished your river on 2 or 3 occasions with this set up , in reasonable conditions , but without catching a chub I'd look for somewhere else.

 

[no-one in particular]

close to the sea and is highly tidal, twice a day it rises and drops by a meter

That puts a whole new slant on it Keep. Are you sure they are there! Winter tidal surges pushing salt water further upstream, could be pushing the chub up with it. The muddier water. Stronger flood water pushing downstream and not enough cover for them to hide so they vacate in the winter. Tidal feeding times! Usually somewhere around 1 hour before and after the top of the tide or the slack water at the top of the tide but, not always so!
I have caught chub near the sea but only in controlled tidal stretches where the tide is controlled by sluice gates and I cannot remember if I have caught in a full tidal stretch but there will be limits. You have seen the chub there in the summer though but the winter might be a different ball game. I think you have said it is a club stretch and other anglers catch chub there but it might be worth asking how and when and/or trying tide times or fishing further upstream if you can. Food for thought....
I think I would ditch the finesse roving etc., this is not summer chub fishing on a nice twee Mr. Crabtree river. and swim feed a load of maggots' bread, smelly cheese cubes, just dice up a bit of cheap supermarket cheddar, anything, and sit on it and see what turns up, you might even get a flounder this time of year or a bit later. Let any chub in the vicinity come and find you.

PS-you might have to avoid eels on a tidal stretch if you don't like them; bread only or sweetcorn on the hook. You might still hook one or two though.

 

[ian g]

I'd make the bread mash pretty much as Grayson describes , I'm not really the one to advise on tidal rivers but if the chub are there feeding a few swims and fishing in rotation should find them . I find chub are cautious but greedy if they have time to settle on the mashed bread they will feed more confidently . Depending on the size of the fish/shoal you might just catch one a swim , that was my experience on the upper Severn though they were decent fish.

 

[Clodhopper]

I have caught chub in the tidal reaches of the rivers of my part of Sussex but I would not, generally, target them there. The stretches beyond the reach of brackish water would be more promising, imho.
I have every sympathy with anyone who is struggling to get their first chub.............

 

[Keep]

close to the sea and is highly tidal, twice a day it rises and drops by a meter

That puts a whole new slant on it Keep. Are you sure they are there! Winter tidal surges pushing salt water further upstream, could be pushing the chub up with it. The muddier water. Stronger flood water pushing downstream and not enough cover for them to hide so they vacate in the winter. Tidal feeding times! Usually somewhere around 1 hour before and after the top of the tide or the slack water at the top of the tide but, not always so!
I have caught chub near the sea but only in controlled tidal stretches where the tide is controlled by sluice gates and I cannot remember if I have caught in a full tidal stretch but there will be limits. You have seen the chub there in the summer though but the winter might be a different ball game. I think you have said it is a club stretch and other anglers catch chub there but it might be worth asking how and when and/or trying tide times or fishing further upstream if you can. Food for thought....
I think I would ditch the finesse roving etc., this is not summer chub fishing on a nice twee Mr. Crabtree river. and swim feed a load of maggots' bread, smelly cheese cubes, just dice up a bit of cheap supermarket cheddar, anything, and sit on it and see what turns up, you might even get a flounder this time of year or a bit later. Let any chub in the vicinity come and find you.

PS-you might have to avoid eels on a tidal stretch if you don't like them; bread only or sweetcorn on the hook. You might still hook one or two though.

I followed your advice very well but still no luck, particularly your comment on fishing high tide in the river I was excited to try but no joy. I even had a couple of sessions right down by the sluice gate that enters the harbour just for a laugh. I think this is the season closed for me - I want to try and catch some dab apparently they have arrived on my beach in large numbers

next year I'll give it another crack using your static suggestions as well as trying a completely different river if nothing works

 

[peter crabtree]

Are you sure they’re chub in your tidal stretch, could they be grey mullet?

 

[no-one in particular]

Are you sure they’re chub in your tidal stretch, could they be grey mullet?

That's a distinct possibility, they look very much like chub in the water and they would be there in the summer and not the winter. If they are that puts a completely different spin on it.

 

[no-one in particular]

I followed your advice very well but still no luck, particularly your comment on fishing high tide in the river I was excited to try but no joy. I even had a couple of sessions right down by the sluice gate that enters the harbour just for a laugh. I think this is the season closed for me - I want to try and catch some dab apparently they have arrived on my beach in large numbers

next year I'll give it another crack using your static suggestions as well as trying a completely different river if nothing works

Thats a shame, you mention a sluice gate, is this open or closed. Usually they are only opened when flood conditions abound. If it is open it could be driving the coarse species up the river as the salinity rises. Also. some of those dabs might come in, they like red maggots. And then there is the question of Mullet as previous post that PeterC mentioned. It might also fish differently in the summer as well if the sluice gate is kept closed. These stretches tidal, semi tidal etc. take a bit of learning but worth learning if it is convenient to you. But some dabs off the beach would lure me as well, tasty meal a few fresh dabs.
I fish a stretch that is near a sea creek that is sluice gate controlled and it is more like a still water in the summer but with a lot of surface tow in the wind. It varies to the fish but I have caught all from it, roach, chub, bream, mullet, one tiny carp even but in the winter if the sluices are open the river drops right down and runs very fast. So its two different beasts really. I would usually try two or three swims depending on how it goes, lots of mashed bread and sweetcorn mainly just to avoid the eels that can be a pest in these types of waters. I mainly float fish in about 6ft of water however close to the edge that is. I find the deep middle channel not very good as a rule which can be 15ft. I would do keep trying if I were you, it may come good at some time in the year. One thing, I always find it interesting as you can never be sure what might turn up.