Chub in United Kingdom — catches, stats & how to catch
Chub: a wary, sharp-eyed predator of fast riffles and undercut banks. Light spinning with small crankbaits and spinners, dry-fly work on insects. Map, top water bodies, and analytics — based on real angler reports.
Bite calendar for Chub
The best days and hours to fish — a bite forecast factoring in pressure, wind, temperature, and the moon phase.
Open the bite forecast →Chub bite forecast by region in United Kingdom
Description and behaviour
The chub is one of the most recognisable fish of small and mid-sized rivers: a broad forehead, large scales edged in dark, and bright orange-red pelvic and anal fins. It is easily told from the ide by its massive, almost square-sectioned head and large mouth, built to snatch prey right off the surface of the water.
This is a daytime, sight-feeding and very cautious fish. It holds on fast-flowing riffles, around bridge pilings, under bushes overhanging the water, and in the pools below the rapids. An omnivorous predator, it hunts insects falling from the bankside vegetation, takes small fish and froglets, and does not turn up its nose at crayfish or, on slower stretches, algae.
Spawning and seasons
Chub spawning is drawn out and starts comparatively late — when the water warms to 12–15 °C, which usually falls in late April to May. The chub lays its eggs in batches on stony, gravelly riffles with a strong current, often in several passes a couple of weeks apart.
After spawning the fish stays scattered for a while, recovering near the pools and back-eddies, and then reoccupies its usual summer lies — riffles, drop-offs under bridges, and stretches beside overhanging vegetation. Towards autumn the chub drops down from the small tributaries into the deeper wintering pools of the main channel.
When it bites
In summer the chub is most active in the early hours right after dawn and at dusk, when it moves out to hunt the riffles and the edge of the overhanging bushes for fallen insects. During the heat of the day the larger fish more often hold in the shade under the bushes or by bridge pilings and take a lure placed accurately right under their cover.
In spring after spawning and in early summer the bite is steady throughout the daylight hours, especially in the current of a riffle. In autumn, as the water cools, activity shifts to the middle of the day, and before ice-up there is a short but noticeable feeding run.
Methods and tackle
The main tackle for chub on small and mid-sized rivers is a light spinning rod rated up to 10–15 g: it makes it easy to reach a lure under the overhanging bushes and into the tight pockets by bridge pilings. Work the retrieve with a short cast upstream or across the current, letting the lure drift down past the cover.
Fly fishing with a dry fly is highly effective on quiet stretches and along the edge of the bushes, especially during an insect hatch. Classic float fishing on the drift with a light shotting pattern still works on riffles, and a bottom rig with an insect on the hook is good by bridge supports where the current is steady.
Baits and lures
Among artificial lures the chub responds well to small, lively-actioned crankbaits and size 0–2 spinners — work them right at the edge of a riffle and under the overhanging bushes. For fly fishing, dry flies imitating a grasshopper, a cockchafer, and insects fallen from the trees all work well.
Among natural baits, a grasshopper and a large beetle drifted freely under the bushes are unbeatable in summer; caddis larvae and a large dung worm also work well on the riffles. In autumn the chub takes a livebait readily — a small gudgeon or bleak presented by the bridge pilings.
Playing and landing
The chub fights sharply and powerfully for its size, especially in the current of a riffle, where right after the strike it tries to bolt under snags or a bridge piling. It is important to turn the fish against the current at once and never give slack — a chub's lips are tough, but fish are lost through sudden lunges right at the surface.
A tip: approach a promising spot under the bushes as quietly as possible and make the first cast from well back — a big chub sees the angler on the bank perfectly, and at the slightest threat it instantly slips under cover, after which the bite at that spot dies off for a long time.