Chub are famous for eating anything, and that reputation causes more bad chub fishing than it prevents. When any bait might work, anglers stop thinking about which one suits the situation, and the situation is what actually matters with chub.
The real variable is not what they will eat, it is how you get it to them without them knowing you are there.
Bread
Bread is my first choice for chub in most river conditions. A big piece of flake pinched round the hook, fished on a light link, drifted or laid into a likely spot under a bush, is the classic approach and it still works everywhere.
It has two advantages that matter. It is visible in coloured water, and it breaks down into an attractive cloud that draws fish upstream to you rather than requiring you to find them precisely. Mashed bread as loose feed and flake on the hook is a complete chub method on its own. See the bread fishing guide.
Cheesepaste
The traditional winter chub bait and still one of the best. A firm cheesepaste holds on the hook in fast water, releases scent steadily in cold conditions where scent trails matter more, and is large enough to deter small fish.
Make it firmer than you think you need for pacy water. A paste that washes off after ninety seconds is not fishing, it is feeding.
Luncheon meat
Excellent in summer and after rain when the river is carrying colour. A big cube on a size 6, rolled down a crease, is about as effective as chub fishing gets in high water.
Its size is the point. Meat filters out the small stuff and gets picked up by better fish. Our luncheon meat guide covers cutting and hooking it so it survives the cast.
Lobworms
Always worth having. After heavy rain, when worms are genuinely washing into the river, a big lob is not just an attractive bait, it is the natural food item chub are actively looking for.
This is the one situation where matching the hatch genuinely applies in coarse fishing. Flood conditions, coloured water, big worm. See worm fishing.
Slugs
Free, effective and slightly unpleasant to collect. A big black slug fished under a bush on a summer evening is a proper big-chub bait, and it is one almost nobody uses anymore.
Chub eat things that fall in the river. Slugs fall in the river.
Pellets and boilies
On rivers that see a lot of barbel anglers, chub have learned to eat pellets and boilies with enthusiasm, and both are effective. A small boilie is a good way to fish for chub while avoiding the minnows and small dace that will destroy a bread bait in minutes.
The part that actually matters
Chub are extremely spooky in clear water and almost fearless in coloured water, and your approach should change completely between the two.
In low clear conditions, the fish will see you before you see them. Approach from downstream, stay off the skyline, keep low, and put the bait in without a splash. In coloured water you can get away with a great deal more, and the priority becomes making the bait findable rather than staying hidden.
Get that right and the bait choice is almost secondary. Get it wrong and no bait in the world will save you. Our stalking chub guide is the companion piece to this one, and the chub species guide covers behaviour through the year.
Dan Whitfield started fishing aged seven on the canal at the end of his road and never really stopped. He spent his twenties and thirties on the match circuit – club level rather than national – before deciding he’d rather catch one decent fish than a net of small ones.
These days he mostly fishes the River Trent for barbel (personal best 14lb 2oz), the Oxford Canal for roach and skimmers in winter, and the occasional gravel pit when tench are spawning and the surface fishing is too good to miss. He’s a former club secretary and still helps with junior coaching at his local angling club in Nottingham.
At The River Bend, Dan writes the coarse species guides, river fishing technique articles, and the match and pole content.
Covers: Barbel, bream, roach, tench, carp (coarse context), river fishing, canal fishing, feeder, float, match/pole