Chub Fishing on Lures

Gob of a predator!

Having spoken to my friend Mark Lindsay on various occasions about lure fishing for chub, we planned to venture out on one of our favourite little Southern rivers to have a crack at our grey-lipped opponents. I have caught chub on spinners, dry and wet flies, coupled with small softbaits, but was still yet to tempt one on a little hardbait. Mark, this season has had some great success on little plugs or crankbaits as they are known. Having picked up some little lures myself off the internet after previous discussions with Mark and reading a few pieces about chub on plugs, I was really looking forward to putting this method into practise.

The traffic was pretty horrendous on the way and having battled through it, I was eventually making my way to meet Mark on a nice section of the river which looked a perfect haunt to present the little lures. Mark was his usual confident self and it was not long until he had had a couple of attacks on his little crank bait. The given day was very bright and as expected, the chub were not in any mood to give themselves away for too long. Having wandered down many familiar hunting grounds Mark and I had gotten to know pretty well, one last area gave us a lot of hope to break the deadlock. Mark had managed at least one enquiry on every visit to this certain section. After having a few snatches from smaller chub on a steady run, one particular depression in the stream we knew had to be attacked. After a few casts and another enquiry from a smaller chub, I flicked the lure upstream and it appetisingly 'plopped' into the surface column of the water. With the effects of the ripples forming arcs on the surface, a dark shape emerged with a white vacuum coming into view, engulfing my lure. I tightened into the grey-lipped culprit and it soon made a dash for the snags within the swim. The fight was immense on the light lure tackle, consisting of some great final dashes before slowly guiding the  chub towards Mark who was kindly on hand to net it.

A fine summer chub which was up for hitting the lure!

With the bright sunlight persisting, we did sight a few more larger chub tight into the streamer weed, but it did prove challenging to tempt any interest with the lure. Having only arranged a short session, time was too getting on. As we roved our way back to the car, we had a few chublets, a trout and even a dace to add to our tally. It was certainly clear that these little lures that Mark had introduced me certainly had the tendency to trigger an aggressive response from a fair few species. It was good to have caught up with Mark for the first time in a while, and to have a really enjoyable introduction to fishing lures for chub.

As my mum had a few things to do in the area on the following day, she kindly offered to take me to the river again. Admittedly, I did try my luck, asking to go to another one of my favourite little rivers. After setting the route on the navigator, I was soon walking the banks of the second river. On arrival, it had to be the lowest and weediest I had seen it, but I knew I was still going to be in for a good chance of some perch and chub. I started using a little jig for the perch and was soon catching some exquisite little sergeants (perch) which were like peas in a pod. After seeing some very inviting deeper holes, I could not resist going into the lure box and digging out the same lure I'd had the chub on the day prior. On the first cast I aimed for some overhanging foliage, and it was not long until a good chub came into view and investigated my lure before deciding against it. My excitement levels hit the roof. On my next cast, the lure yet again landed on the surface with a very appetising 'plop' and a smaller chub shot out and hit the lure. It was a stunning fish of a pound or so and certainly a worthy sign that the chub's aggressive instincts were in tact on the given day. Following this, I fished a few spots catching some smaller chub and missing a couple of good fish (some over 4lbs) in a particular pool swim. In the end, the roving approach, keeping casting to minimum, in each spot payed dividends when I managed to connect with a slightly better fish of round the 2lb mark.

A lovely looking little chub on the lure!

I decided on the remainder of the trip to go back to the jigs again and a few more stripy culprits were on hand to add to the session. Overall, it had been a lovely couple of days fishing before having to return to work in the week. Thanks goes to Mark for the introduction to chub on lures!

Tight lines,

Tom