Mobile Approach For PB Chub And Bonus Barbel

Otter predation on the Great Ouse has led to Predator Action Group chairman Tony Gibson altering his winter barbel approach to a chub tactic that also picks up a few ‘whiskers’.

- Tony Gibson

I’VE always liked fishing for all kinds of species, though once Great Ouse barbel started to come out at seriously big weights, my winter river fishing tended to be much more biased towards targeting them.

When otters reduced the Great Ouse big barbel population, chub become my main target.

I try to fish as often as I can. I’m chairman of the Predation Action Group, which takes up a fair amount of my time, along with various sponsorship duties that I’m involved in.

Being a consultant for Dynamite, Carp Spirit and Enterprise Tackle also takes up time that would otherwise be spent fishing. However, I am semi-retired from my job, working in IT, so I have more opportunities to go fishing now than I did when I was working every day.

River chub can be targeted with a wide variety of methods, and you can always rely on them to feed at some point in a 24-hour period, regardless of conditions and time of year. Believe me, fishing for them never gets boring.

Cautious chevins

Chub can be greedy at times, feeding boldly, but at other times they display an amount of caution bordering on paranoia, so they’re always an intriguing challenge.

I like fishing stretches that have plenty of character and intimacy, usually the upper and middle reaches of a river, always looking for a spot that may offer a personal best fish.

My favoured stretches contain very few really big chub, so the fishing is a real challenge.

My chub and barbel fishing tends to take place in autumn and winter, when the fish are in their best condition, as I prefer to switch to other species in summer.

The amount of colour in the water in the colder months often means that I’m not able to spot individual fish. I will still walk along the riverbank though, baiting any swims that I like the look of.