Like all specimen angling though, catching big chub consistently is about preparation

Still, I should be able to find a little bit of time to fit in a few evenings chub fishing. Like all specimen angling though, catching big chub consistently is about preparation. I have done my home work and I have a good idea of where to fish, which in itself can take a long time to find out, but now the real work begins with baiting and swim preparation beginning in earnest. All this really relies upon you knowing where the big fish are likely to be caught from. This might mean that you have witnessed other people catching good fish, have seen the chub in residence, or have caught some yourself. More likely you will need to fish the water a few times to get an idea of where the fish are likely to be. Make sure you know the water well in daylight before fishing it at night, particularly if you will be moving between swims. Perhaps while still getting to know a reach of river the best advice is to lightly bait a number of swims. Chub will quickly respond to a new bait. Introducing free-samples a couple of times a week is enough, although if you can be more regular than this it will pay dividends. A pound or two of fifteen millimetre baits spread along half a mile of river is all I am suggesting. There is no need to fill the river in with bait, which is likely to remain uneaten. The idea is just to get the chub to take your bait confidently. You will soon notice that the bites from the chub become more confident as the bait becomes established. Chub have a disconcerting habit of giving huge un-missable bites in winter, which you proceed to miss! A lot of anglers put these bites down to barbel, but often they are caused by timid chub. The chub picks the bait up right in the extremities of its lips, then moves off downstream and the bait is literally dragged out of its mouth by the resistance on the tackle. As the chub become more confident on a bait the number of these bites will diminish and the number of hit bites will increase.

Unless you are heavily pre-baiting a single swim, the total number of bites is unlikely to increase dramatically. If I know a stretch well then I may well bait one swim (generally one that is rarely fished) more heavily in the hope of trying to get the chub feeding here enough to keep me in one swim for a whole evening. Such banker swims need careful management though, as if you fish them too much they will become no better than any other.