Chub

Order:OSTARIOPHYSI

Family: Cyprinidae

Latin Name: Leuciscus cephalus

When you look at the picture above it is hard to confuse the chub with any other fish, but the above fish is a mature specimen and likely to weigh in excess of a few pounds. When they are as large as that the chub is quite distinctive. The chub in some of our waters, particularly the stillwaters, however, have been stocked ourselves and are, at the most, only three or four years old. In the smaller sizes the chub can have a very similar appearance to other silver fish, particularly the ide, so they are included in this guide to recognition.

Chub are naturally found throughout the UK on steady to fast flowing rivers but have, in recent years, been stocked into stillwaters where they thrive and can grow to enormous proportions. They are not quite as common in west Wales and the far South West of England as in other parts of the UK.

Description

Chub have an elongated, shallow, body and their back and under belly are almost straight as opposed to the roundedness of roach and rudd.

Their colour is almost a golden brown with a tint of orange and a whiteish under-belly. The fins ion their underside, the pelvic and anal fin, have a red to orange colouring whereas the tail and dorsal fin are generally grey or black.

When young these fish are easily confused with an ide, or common orfe, but perhaps the most distinctive difference is the mouth. The chub has earned the nickname of ‘Big Gob’ for exactly that reason. It’s mouth is the full width of it’s head and it has larger than average lips which are usually a distinctive light, even white, colour. When bringing a chub in it is usually this ‘Big Gob’ that emerges first from the water leaving the angler in no doubt as to which of the silver fish they have caught.

Habitat

Chub are found in most rivers, even the smallest of streams are able to support fairly large chub weighing a good few pounds. The fast flowing waters we operate, such as the Trent at Lady Pitt Farm, and the upper Witham at Long Bennington, are renowned for chub and those habitats are perfect for these hard fighting fish. As stated, in recent years chub have been deliberately stocked into stillwaters, ours included, and these fish are now thriving and growing beyond all expectations, perhaps due to the availability of feed in heavily fished ponds and lakes.

Baits

Naturally chub eat both plant life and small water borne creatures including small fish, insect larvae, worms and crustaceans.

As the fish matures it tends to prefer small fish to other available food, but, fortunately for us anglers, they will still take most baits including maggots, bread, worms, caster, even pellets and artificial flies or lures. Hemp is a very good bait to loose feed and keep them occupied in your swim.