How are Chub stocks on your local river?

[Dales]

From those that I have talked about Chub on a number of sections of the Lea it seems to be 5 lb plus Chub or nothing but I went Piking last March at the Warren with Jedibond and he had some smaller Chub that week from the Lea below Dobbs Weir but that's about the only report I have heard of smaller fish in those parts.

 

Notice you are looking at this thread on this thread Ian, can you add anything about the Lea Chub?

Edited March 21, 2011 by Dales

[jedibond]

I went, around February 2010 from memory. I fished the section before Dobbs Weir where you can't walk on the other side of the river so I was casting out cheese paste and lumps of bread to some over hanging bushes on the fair side. I had quite a few knocks so their was definitely fish in their but I think they were roach, dace etc having a little nibble. I assume they then got muscled out of the way by the chub. The smallest one I caught was about 3lb and went up to about 5lb so they weren't small by most people's standards but I didn't get anything smaller than that.

[Dales]

Cheers Ian

[Anderoo]

I agree with Tigger on this one. I've seen the same thing on several rivers now, you can catch plenty of little chub (plus other small fish like perch, dace, skimmers, roach, etc, depending on the river) in the warmer months, and they all disappear after the first couple of frosts. I've never managed to find out if they do literally migrate elsewhere for the winter, or simply stop feeding - at least on anything us anglers can present.

 

Come winter, you start catching the big chub. The next summer, the tiddlers are back again.

 

I have had quite a few small chub (1-2lb) from the Thames this winter, but almost all were from certain swims/stretches, with most of the river being barren. So I am leaning more towards the theory that they hold up somewhere comfortable for the winter and stay there. In these spots, it's not unusual to catch 2 or 3 in a row, so they must be shoaled up.

 

The only time I've had small chub and big chub from the same spot was when I had the big one at the end of the season. I had 2 little chub of about a pound each in 2 casts and then on the 3rd cast had the biggie. That was very unusual as the baiting normally creates a dominance so the biggest takes up pole position and is therefore the first one (and often only one) caught. So I don't know what happened there! It's normally either 1 big fish or several small ones, or nothing.

 

The same thing happens on a smaller scale on the tributaries, where a big fish is 3-4lb (with a 4 being an absolute monster). Chublets in the summer, bigger fish in the winter.

 

That, plus the fact the fish are at their very best in the winter, why winter chubbing is best (The withdrawal symptons are starting to kick in now )

Edited March 21, 2011 by Anderoo

[Dales]

Thanks Tigger and Anderoo that does go some way to explaining why it would appear that only big Chub are about as I guess most Chub anglers target them in the colder months. It will be interesting to see how I get on in the summer months as it will be hard to wait until autumn to wet a line on a new water.

[Anderoo]

Yes, it will be interesting to see. On some rivers they literally aren't there, just the big ones. The Lea (the bits famous for big chub, at least) may fall into that category.

[Dales]

Yes, it will be interesting to see. On some rivers they literally aren't there, just the big ones. The Lea (the bits famous for big chub, at least) may fall into that category.

 

A number of people seem to think it's true of parts of the Lea, that's why I was interested to see if it was a local thing or wider phenomenem. But as you said in an earlier post the lack of numbers helps lead to the extra size.

[Tigger]

Dales, if you trott maggots during the summer months you'll soon find out if there's any small chub about, and I don't just mean chub as small as a pound or so, I mean chubletts as long as your finger

Edited March 21, 2011 by Tigger

[Anderoo]

If so, I guess the question then is, why are there tiny chub that have made it through successful spawning, but nothing between them and the old 5lb+ fish? Perhaps the chub do spawn successfully every year, but the small ones just don't survive for whatever reason?

 

With a dwindling and aging population, the amount of fry produced each year would be decreasing anyway, and rivers like the Lea are riddled with crays, which are partial to fish eggs.

 

The crays doesn't explain the loss of small fish (if that is indeed happening), but rivers local to me that do suffer from the year class(es) of big chub with very few back-up fish are also full of crays, and I imagine that must be a major factor in the number of fry that actually make it out of the egg. I've watched a single cray hoover up a ball of bread mash in the margin of a local river, and I bet him and his many mates would make short work of a year's worth of spawn.

[Dales]

Dales, if you trott maggots during the summer months you'll soon find out if there's any small chub about, and I don't just mean chub as small as a pound or so, I mean chubletts as long as your finger

 

My summer sessions are likely to be with maggot and worm in catch all style of fishing, it's the best way to gleam some knowledge about a new venue and catching some small stuff should help give me an idea on baits for the Perch, Pike & Zander come the Autumn/Winter.

 

The odd thing is that not everyone who fishes the Lea are after Specimen fish and the pleasure anglers seem to catch plenty of Roach on maggots and the link Anderoo posted alludes to this. even the pleasure anglers do not seem to catch Chublets.

 

If there is another generation coming along behind, they don’t seem to be caught, even in the warmer months when small roach appear quite frequently in decent bags.