If I was forced to only fish for one species (God forbid!), then that fish would undoubtedly be the chub, yet what gives it such an appeal to me I’m not too sure. Although the large brassy scales of a big chub are a sight to behold, it’s certainly not the most handsome fish to grace our rivers. Even a huge specimen would never match the bulk of an average carp or pike, or even that of a barbel or bream for that matter, so it can’t be that. Pound for pound it isn’t even a remarkable fighter, yes it has a marvellous, adrenalin pumping first run and an uncanny ability to find the slightest snag positioned under the near bank, but let’s face it, it hardly pulls your arm out of its socket during a battle. 

So what is it that appeals so? Well for me I think it must be the challenge, the challenge of landing what is probably the most contrary of all out indigenous species. Although, at times they can be unbelievably bold biters, virtually dragging the rod out of your hand, they can also be infuriatingly timid creatures, wary of the slightest resistance and prone to dropping the bait upon feeling the very minimum of resistance. 

Battle of wills
More often than not the chub exhibit this fickle behaviour during periods of high pressure and cold clear nights accompanied by severe frosts are usually a sure sign that a hard nights fishing is ahead, hard but tremendously rewarding. This is because the dedicated (or is it demented?) chub angler knows that fishing in these conditions will usually mean a real battle of wills is about to take place and at times it really can seem like just that, a battle. After missing several half-hearted bites it gets personal, and many is the time I have sat into the early hours of the morning, knowing I had work to go to the following day, but stubbornly refusing to pack up until I have put a chub on the bank. 

Most of my chub fishing now takes the form of short evening sessions after work and the mainstay of this is carried out on the River Ribble in Lancashire. It is a harsh, unpredictable river and like a lot of Northern spate rivers, is extremely prone to flooding. The majority of the river has shallow gravel margins with the deepest spots being on the numerous large bends where the meandering river is constantly scouring the outside bank, regularly depositing trees into the water. It is here that the largest chub make their homes, spending the daylight hours within the protective canopy of fallen and partially submerged branches, only venturing from their lair to feed in open water after nightfall.

Heavy and bizarre
Although reports in the national press of Ribble chub are few and far between, it is a different matter for the ever-increasing barbel. And barbel, it seems, nationally, are the new ‘in’ species and a result of this is an increasing number of barbel anglers present on the banks. These anglers fish heavy gear, twin carp rods, 12lb mainline, 2-3oz leads and hair rigs baited with pellet or boilies usually complete the set-up. Now let me say at the outset that I see nothing wrong with fishing in this manner for the resident barbel, in fact the Ribble can be so snaggy it would be foolish and even unfair on the fish themselves to use tackle that is not up to the job.

What I do find, quite bizarre is that a great many anglers are more than happy to continue to use a similar set up through the winter months when the target species is chub.

Now, once again let me say this is not meant as a criticism of those anglers who choose to fish in this way, purely a personal opinion that to fish for chub in this manner means anglers are missing out on a great deal of what fishing is actually about. 

Let’s face it, heavy leads, hair rigs and a taut line equate to a bolt rig. We can attempt to convince ourselves that we are striking bites on this kind of set up, but in reality all we do is tighten up to a hooked fish, or at best set the hook on one that has already been ‘pricked’. I must say I’m personally not comfortable fishing in this way, I like to see (and feel) my bites develop, I like to strike knowing that the timing is critical if the fish is to be hooked, I like the enormous satisfaction of the light quivertip rod hooping over as a big chub finally makes his mistake.

Optimum set up
After refining my approach over a period of several years I have now arrived at what I consider to be the optimum set-up for catching the Ribble chub in the manner that gives me the most personal satisfaction. And it is this method and the thinking behind it that I would like to discuss in this article.

First of all I cannot emphasise enough the need to minimise any resistance to a taking fish. To this end I use the lightest rod and the softest quivertip I can get away with on the day. My personal preference is for the Shimano Technium Quiver, it is built on an extremely light blank which can be held at all times with little or no effort, but perhaps more importantly it comes complete with a range of five fibre glass quivertips rated from .75oz to 3oz. I will use the lightest quiver that the conditions will allow and would think nothing or changing the tip three of four times a session should my swim selection or the river conditions change.

For night fishing I fit two isotopes on the quiver, one positioned at the tip of the rod the other some 18 inches further back. This enables me to pick out both any very slow bites that would be impossible to spot with just the one light (the isotopes move apart) and also the most minute of drop back bites (the isotopes suddenly spring back together). The excellent ‘nite-light’ adapters from Enterprise Tackle make the quick adjustment or removal of isotopes an absolute breeze and negate the need to have two rubber sleeves whipped onto each quiver tip. 

The use of a very light rod however does have a significant drawback. On a small river or when fishing the inside line a normal set up is fine but when, like on the Ribble you may be presenting a bait at a distance of some forty yards or so, setting the hook can become a major problem. A combination of the rods soft action and the stretch afforded by using a monofilament main line means that very little pressure can be exerted upon the hook even with the most severe strike imaginable. This problem can easily be overcome by replacing the mono mainline with braid. There are a good number of quality braids available now and I use one of around 6-7lb breaking strain which was designed principally for match anglers, enabling them to pick up minute indications from timid bream.

This brings me nicely onto to the next advantage of using a braided mainline and it is that bites register instantly, and are much more pronounced due to its non-stretch properties. Should a chub pick up the hookbait and drop back just an inch or so, a positive indication is still given, in fact I can honestly say when holding the line, you can actually feel the chub pick up a bait with its lips !

During winter, the swims I tend to target are usually wide outside bends, where, due to the increased width and depth of the river there is often little on no flow. This means the chub has all the time in the world to inspect your bait prior to picking it up, so, in an attempt to move the odds even further in my favour I now use a 5lb fluorocarbon hooklink of around 24 inches in length. To this a size 4 or 2 hook is attached using a four turn grinner knot and a small swivel connects this to the braided mainline. A short paternoster link consisting of a swivel at one end and a snap link at the other, along with a rubber buffer bead is threaded onto the main line above the swivel and the simple rig is now complete. The use of a snap link enables the rapid change of weight and my pockets are usually full of a range of small bombs and cage feeders ranging from 1/8oz to 1oz in weight to speed up the process. I also find a small section of silicone tubing slid over the snap link ensures that the rig does not snag the landing net when landing fish – a potentially disastrous scenario.

I will usually start the session by introducing a small amount of cheese-flavoured mashed bread through a cage feeder before placing a large piece of breadflake on the hook. If bites follow, then I will top up the swim via the feeder throughout the session. However should no bites be forthcoming, or should they begin to noticeably slow down then the feeder will be replaced with a light bomb and the frequency of casts greatly reduced. In this instance changing the hookbait to cheesepaste usually provokes a response, and this is when the real fun can begin.

Spooked fish
By now the fish are spooked, probably not frightened but they certainly know something is amiss and this is when chub fishing can be so infuriating. Bites can vary from savage pulls to the most minute of indication but nearly every one is missed. For some time now I have been convinced that the chub pick up the bait on the outside of their lips and slowly back off. What happens next is that either the gradual build up of pressure causes the chub to drop the bait or, that a strike pulls the bait from its grasp. Just recently this theory has been backed up when upon retrieving my bait I have found the imprint of the chub’s lips on the soft cheesepaste – I kid you not !  

There are, I have found two ways to overcome bites of this nature and both involve removing all resistance to a taking fish from the equation. The first, touch ledgering, is simplicity itself, simply point the rod directly at the bait, and pull a loop of line approximately 2ft long from the reel before closing the bail arm and hold the line between your thumb and forefinger. I’m not exaggerating when I say you can actually feel the fish picking up the bait, sometimes even mouthing it before moving off downstream. The trick is then to pay out all the available line as the fish moves off, giving the chub plenty of time to engulf the bait before striking.

Upstream trick
The second is to present your bait upstream of your position, and although this can prove to be a little more difficult to master, it really can be a devastating method of hooking shy biting chub. To fish this method effectively it is vital that a fixed paternoster is used, and to quickly turn your running paternoster to a fixed version, simply tie a powergum stop knot immediately behind the paternoster length to hold it in position.

Right weight
However, the key to fishing this method correctly is having precisely the correct amount of weight on the paternoster link. This should be just enough to hold bottom, and by that I really do mean just enough. As a guide once cast into position you should be able to put no more than a couple of inches of deflection into the quivertip before the lead dislodges and drops downstream. Ideally this distance should be no more than a couple of feet or so before re-settling. To achieve this level of fine-tuning I always carry a box of split shot to ensure I am 100% happy with my presentation. As soon as a fish picks up the hookbait the lead is dislodged causing the whole rig to drop back offering no resistance to a taking fish. A sweeping strike nearly always results in a hook-up and again the non-stretch properties of braid help greatly in picking up slack line when presenting a bait in this way.

Another big advantage of this type of set up is that with the minimum of tackle and just the one rod, moving swims is much less of a chore and as such, is more likely to happen. There is little doubt that being too comfortable can affect your decision to move swims and to sit behind twin rods waiting for the nodding tip to signal a hooked chub doesn’t keep you anywhere near as mentally aware or as stimulated as ‘feeling’ for bites. Although as mentioned earlier, this style of fishing can be tremendously frustrating, there is no doubt that when you get it right, and that big chub finally graces your net, the enormous feeling of personal satisfaction will keep you coming back for more…

The article orginally appeared in Coarse Angling Today