LEARN TO FISH WITH
ANGLERS’ NET
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Dragon Carp Direct
1 Chub love bread. And nothing works better than a big piece of flake on the hook and feeder full of liquidised bread. The tiny particles will cause an enticing cloud in the water without filling the fish up.
2 If you’re stalking chub in summer, never leave home without hemp. Lay a small carpet in each swim you intend to fish and by the time you return to the first one, the fish will be waiting. Hopefully!
3 Chub are a predatory species and can often be seen chasing fry. Capitalise on this by trying a deadbait. Lamprey have been known to work well.
4 Steak is a very underrated bait for chub. Try mincing some up with a little bran to use as loosefeed and then fish a sliver on the hook.
5 If you want to catch river chub off the top, try feeding a few small pieces of crust before introducing your hookbait. You want to build confidence before trying to catch one.
6 Boilies are a proven winner where chub are concerned, but if you are going to use them why not try adding something extra by wrapping your hookbait in paste? As it dissolves, it will leak added flavour into your swim.
7 Chub will eat almost anything and one bait that has fallen out of favour is a slug. These can be found near the water’s edge and because of their weight, are great when freelined on a size 2 hook.
8 Fishing up-in-the water style with maggots for chub on stillwaters is a great summer tactic. One way of making your hookbait even more attractive is to make it float. You can do this by soaking maggots in a fizzy drink – with the additional benefit of adding flavour!
9 Lobworms are eaten by almost all coarse fish – and chub are no exception. They are very active in the water – something that will spark interest in an inquisitive fish like chub.
10 Coloured water doesn’t provide ideal conditions for chub but they will still feed. Alter your hookbait choice accordingly, though, and go for something big and smelly. Cheesepaste is a great option.
11 Cheesepaste is one of the all-time great chub baits. And the great thing is, there are no hard and fast rules. Experiment with different types of cheeses until you find a blend that works best. Remember, the smellier the better!
12 Find cover and you’ll find chub. Overhanging trees, undercut banks, depressions in the river bed and far bank reed beds are all areas to target.
13 Be mobile. Rivers are great places to explore, so setting up camp in one spot is a definite no-no.
14 At the start of a session, feed a number of different swims on your stretch of river. Then, once complete, you can drop into the first one – and the chub will be waiting. Well, that’s the plan!
15 Weirpools are fish magnets, but chucking in loosefeed is often a waste of time. Use a block-end feeder instead – it’ll ensure you have some freebies next to your hookbait.
16 Another way to overcome finicky bites is to touch leger. Hold the mainline near the reel and ‘feel’ for tiny plucks.
17 Chub can be voracious feeders and will attack your feeder when they’re really in the mood. If this happens, shorten your hooklength to a couple of inches, so that your bait is right next to the feeder itself.
18 Find gravel and you’ll find chub. They are at their most confident when feeding over it, so make locating gravel a priority.
19 Patience is the key when wanting to get chub into a feeding frenzy. Be prepared to keep constantly trickling in bait for an hour or so before casting out your hookbait. You want the fish competing for every mouthful.
20 Be prepared to venture off the beaten track. Chub aren’t a species that take too much pressure, so travel light and be prepared to hunt out stretches of river that aren’t heavily fished.
21 Floatfishing for chub on rivers can be a rewarding experience. But make sure you match the size of the float to the pace of the flow. Light stickfloats are fine on smooth, even-paced rivers but you’ll need something like an Avon when it’s faster and more turbulent.
22 Dusk is a great time to target chub with a floating bait. The fish naturally rise to the surface in pursuit of fly hatches so try a piece of crust on the surface.
23 A change in depth to an otherwise uniform area of river is always a good place to look for chub. These deeper holes will be well oxygenated and somewhere passing food will naturally congregate.
24 Clear river chubbing is great fun, but you need to be stealthy. Leave the big leads at home and link leger with a couple of swan shot nipped on the line.
25 Try camouflaging your feeders when the water is gin clear in high summer. Use a permanent marker to darken your feeder down.
