It’s the middle of December and unsurprisingly, the temperatures have now plummeted right down! Trotting for Chub in winter is often something I’ll try when conditions look really quite bleak.
For years, now, I found that trotting for chub can provide some great sport, even on the coldest of winter days
So, a session was planned on my local river. Chub are a very accommodating species in most conditions, and I was confident of maybe catching a fish or two for the cameras! It was the perfect opportunity to make one of my contributions to the Korum YouTube channel.
Below is a list of the other items of tackle used in this session:
- 13ft Korum Glide rod
- Korum Infernos reel
- 6lb Korum Glide Mono mainline
- 1.6g Korum Fineliner float
- Korum Gripper Stops
- Preston 1.6g Olivette
- Korum small quick snap swivel
- Preston 4lb hooklength
- Preston size 16 hook
On the hook and in my waist pouch, I had red maggots. I believe that maggots absolutely come into their own for all species during the winter. Feeding just the right amount of these in the right location will keep the bites coming all day long!
The session started slowly, with just a few small fish from the first couple of spots. This included a small Roach and Perch. Knowing when to move swims is always tricky. You need to stay in a swim long enough to feed the maggots and build the fishes confidence. However, there is a point where you need to cut your losses and move to the next swim if the bites just aren’t coming regularly.
I moved around the river, not really catching much until I moved into one specific swim. At last, I had found some fish! I fed a few maggots around and overhanging bush, and then on my first trot through, I found exactly what I was looking for, a decent chub.
For some reason I decided to carry on moving around the river after landing that fish. This proved to be a mistake. I guess it meant that I could do some filming, covering my methods and tactics, but it didn’t result in any further bites. It became quite apparent that I needed to head back to the only spot where I had found fish all morning.
I arrived back in the swim I repeated the process from earlier in the session. I fed maggots to the bush on the far bank and sure enough hooked a fish on my first trot through. I really appreciated the extra strength that the tackle provided as these chub were boring hard for the far bank snags, but I successfully netted another stunning looking chub. That was really quite a tough fight, so I decided to leave the fish resting in the net while I’ve had another trot through. I really had stumbled upon a few fish as once again, the float buried as it moved through the swim. After another incredible battle, I found myself standing there with two decent chub in my landing net!
Obviously, capturing video and photos for the cameras slowed me down a bit, but after a while I was able to carry on fishing and incredibly landed a couple more chub from the same spot, repeating the same method.
Eventually, the time came to bring the session to a close, but not before I’d landed about half a dozen nice chub. I was very pleased with how the session went, and it was nice to be able to capture it all on video for the Korum YouTube channel.
I felt like I had demonstrated how effective this method can be in the winter. I don’t think I’d have caught the fish had I just sat in one or two spots all day. Moving around the river, trying to locate fish was absolutely key to my success. I also feel that trickling in maggots made a huge difference. Nuisance fish are less of an issue through winter, which means maggots can be used for specimen fish of all species. Trickling in the maggots little, and often just seems to get them into a complete frenzy sometimes!
Thanks for checking out this article about trotting for chub. Maybe give it a go this winter and let me know how you get on! Tight lines. You can view the video of this session below 🙂
