How big is a big chub?

[Anderoo]

Yup - Ron Clay had one on crayfish from the Ouse in 1963! I'm sure that Walker used them too.

 

http://www.fishingmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/3300/v/1/

 

That would have been a native white claw, of course, which is now a protected species. No reason why a signal couldn't be used, though.

 

It's illegal to use them (native white claws or invasive signals) as bait. I have thought about it, yes, but of course I wouldn't want anyone to break the law

 

If, in theory, you gathered half a dozen small crays (which you need a licence to do) and used them as bait in the same river you just got them from (illegal) I reckon you would be in with a good chance of both big chub and perch.

 

However, if you're fishing and you catch one accidentally, it's illegal to return it alive. You have to kill it. I can see why the law is there (to stop movements of crays between water systems) but it's got more holes than a landing net...

[MALC2]

Any fish 5lb or over.

[peter mccue]

There are no crayfish (yet) on the Sussex Ouse, but I remember them from my youth on the River Darenth (Otford, Shoreham: Kent). Hard things with claws, like mini lobsters. I can't quite see how chub could eat them. Do chub have pike-like teeth that crunch them up or what?

 

MC

 

No, but what they do have is a set of throat teeth called the pharangeal (sp) teeth which operate effectively like a hammer & anvil, & would have no problems whatsoever with a signal crayfish.

[Chris Plumb]

Chub and perch definitely eat crays - in abundance - quite common for both species to sick ups bits of signal in the net (when I've caught them on another bait of course!). In fact a couple of years ago I had a 5lb chub sick up a whole small signal which was still alive!

 

A decade ago my PB chub was stuck at 4lb 13oz for quite some time and I dreamt of getting a 5lb chub. Then in 1999 I had one of 6lb 3oz - trotting for dace on the Kennet! Missed out 5lb completely! Thought I'd never beat it but there's been an absolute explosion in the size of the chub locally. A couple of seasons ago - I had 5, 5lb+ fish in a morning - And my PB has now nudged upto 6lb 5oz - so for me a 6lber is a specimen...

 

 

C.

[Guest Rabbit]

With most species you could rate a specimen as to the type of water it was caught, not so with chub, they can be big in most waters, from a stream to a lower river system.

 

My best is 6lb 4oz and on one memorable evening I had two fish over 6lb and my son had one.

 

My last big chub was just over 5lb, and thats the mark I would rate as a specimen, (for what its worth.)

 

Big chub can be so easily spooked so by catching the odd one is a real bonus.

[wanzelbin]

Tony Miles rates crayfish as one of the best possible baits for chub in his book "My way with chub". Didn't realise it was illegal to use them now - I'd always hoped to give it a go. He goes into quite some detail about how to catch them - claiming Trefor West to be an expert.

 

I'm reading "Chub and Dace" by John Bailey and Roger Miller at the moment. It was published in 1990 and at the time Roger Miller says his best chub, after more than 12 years of fishing for them, is a 5lb 9oz. Both authors speak reverently of fabled giants - "actually meeting a man who claimed a near-6lb chub from the region". In Tony Miles' book (published I think around 1987), he had had only one 6 pounder, and that had been many years before.

 

6lb chub certainly aren't common, but judging by these books' comments, there's certainly a lot more of them now-a-days.

 

I've found the best method of catching bigger chub is in the winter on milder days when water's not too high, somewhere between main flow and slack, with big baits - double lobworm (on which I caught my best 6lb 4oz), or more usually a big lump of spam. The water's never really clear where I fish so I don't know how much that might change things.

[dant]

Someone mentioned earler about the solitary nature of big Chub, this can often be the case but I think it depends on the river in question. If you're fishing a river that looks chubby from source to sea then the large Chub can be solitary and spread out.

But on rivers like my local River Waveney, where the Chub are concentrated around features such as weirpools, riffles and the narrower sections of the river, with the rest of the river appearing bare, the larger fish tend to hang around in small gangs of say 3,4 or 5.

I've spent many an hour up a paticular willow tree observing the Chub under and around a bush at the end of a mill race and there definitely seems to be a clearly defined hierachial system in operation. The mob occupy prime position facing the sluice and bully any of the smaller fish..

If you fish smaller rivers and are fishing near a feature and spot smaller Chub of say a 1lb or 2 there can often be a lump sitting just out of view...

 

I think my favourite Chubbing conditions are at this time of year and for the next month or two on a small river, maybe the tail end of a weir pool around an over hanging willow about three or four days after a deluge so that the river is carrying colour but finening done..

Bait - a large lump of meat on a size 4 or 6, bread flake or what I've taken to using lately with great success is a strip of Herring of about 2 inches long by an inch wide..

[fishy_con]

I reckon that anything above 50% of the record weight for that species would qualify is a big fish, specimens are a bit higher magazines like anglers mail would give you a more accurate number. Seeing as i never get anywhere near that on any type of fish id be happy with anything although that is set to change THIS weekend when i finally get to fish marsh farm

[Steve Walker]

It's illegal to use them (native white claws or invasive signals) as bait. I have thought about it, yes, but of course I wouldn't want anyone to break the law

 

I bet Newt knows where you can buy frighteningly realistic crayfish lures, though.

[Anderoo]

I bet Newt knows where you can buy frighteningly realistic crayfish lures, though.

 

I'd be interested in getting some crayfish flies for perch fishing this autumn.

 

The picture below pretty much sums up what I would call good chub weather. Cold and bright, with clear, lowish/normal level water. I wouldn't cast until dusk though...

 

I wonder where I should cast...