Chub enigma

[Peter Wilde]

Can a fish species change its whole character to suit its circumstances?

We know what the old books (and indeed some modern ones) say about chub. "The fearfullest of fishes" meaning they are super-sensitive to the presence of humans on the bank. But on the other hand they are supposed to be willing to eat a very wide range of baits (which is true, if a bit oversimplified - you still need the right bait for the day!) and are not supposed to be easily put off by heavy tackle.

Today I caught a smallish (2 lb 10 oz) chub and a couple of bream, all on sweetcorn (legered on 4 lb line and a size 10), and all in the same swim. The river was very, very low; and crystal clear.

After a while I began to see three or four larger chub, coming and going across the gravel and in and out of weeds, and right under my rod top. They could, I was pretty sure, see me; and must have been aware of my repeated casting and at intervals, playing and landing fish. They were there to hoover up the free offerings of corn I was introducing, and this went on for about 2 hours.

These biggish chub (one looked over 5 lb) surely knew I was there and fishing for them but on this occasion they stayed close for the free feed. They were however well aware that sweetcorn on a hook should be left well alone (despite various changes of bait size (one grain or three), hook size, trail length and whether the bait was legered, or freelined and slow sinking).

My theory for what it's worth is that these chub have adapted to there being more people on the bank (especially in the hot weather) and with the river so shallow, think it's normal to see people and so are less inclined to flee? But to keep safe, in compensation they have evidently become very tackle shy instead.

All part of the fascination of fishing. Has anyone else encountered this kind of behaviour, I wonder?

[Dave Burr]

I love a challenge like that, but would never say that I always get it right. Fish are not daft and can make us look like mugs, and that's just the ones we can see.

[Paul F]

Sounds really interesting, hey certainly are very cautiously clear, shallow water, I would have tried a change of bait, maybe flake or crust?

Keep at em, you'll suss them out

[Tengisgol]

Fish are like any creatures and they will adapt to take advantage of the circumstances. Lots of usually shy animals and birds lose their caution and happily live amongst humans for a free and easy food source (pigeons, seagulls, foxes - I could go on for a long time).

Fish are no different and the trout at Bakewell eating chips are a good example. So you are seeing two different phenomena here, the second being fish that are able to distinguish between a hook bait and a free offering, even when there are considerable numbers of freebies/particles. The extremes I have reached to catch tricky maggot-feeding tench will demonstrate that and others will no doubt give examples of the challenge of fooling trout with imitations in a hatch, or carp hoovering a pitch and leaving just a hook bait.

The trick is often about how the weight of the hook is compensated for (so making the corn more buoyant with foam, cork or similar perhaps) - even creating or buying imitation corn that is buoyant. Also, thinking about weights and distance and compensating for the impact of the line also on how your hook bait behaves.

And there is the fun and thrill of the challenge!

[Lea Dweller]

I completely agree that fish (like many other creatures) change their 'normal' behaviour to suit changes in their local circumstances. Because of these changes, fish become harder to catch. Match angler's and specimen hunter's have spent considerable amounts of time and effort to tempt their chosen quarry. Whether it be 'twitching' the bait, tweaking the rig, hook size, flavour etc, they try very hard to get bites! Having watched and spoken to match anglers and read of the methods of specimen hunters many years ago, there is no doubt that they work harder than the average angler. Like many of us, I am prepared to change my presentation to an extent on any given day, but 'pleasure angler' definitely applies to me now!

[Old Wulf]

I don't know for sure that more people on the bank results in fish becoming tackle shy, but I am convinced that fish can become "acclimatised" to more bank side activity. A stretch of a tributary of the Wye that I fish is frequented by dog walkers who habitually walk along the top of the bank. The resident fish are used to this, as a result they do not spook easily. This is most helpful when I'm fishing it as I'm not as nimble as I used to be.
There is one caveat though, as it's not fished much the fish do not equate people on the bank with being caught. I do wonder if it was intensely fished would the fish begin to follow the pattern of behaviour that Peter has experienced.

[GameKeeper]

Very interesting,the river that I fish has a good head of chub and they are super wary as there is very little traffic on the bank. I only ever catch the smaller fish around the 2lb mark but I have seen some very nice specimans around the 4lb mark.I only use crust or cheese paste as bait maybe a change of bait might tempt the larger chub ?

[Peter Wilde]

Many thanks for the suggestions and constructive comments!

I'd already thought of bread as a change bait ... hadn't got any with me on my first visit. Went back today and tried it, also cheese paste, but had an almost exact repeat of the previous week. Chub ignored the bread. Actually it or the tackle visibly spooked them; but they soon re-appeared and carried on mopping up sweetcorn free feed. While absolutely ignoring any hookbaits, whether small or large. One bream, and a small dace, did take sweetcorn but those chub were obviously much too educated about tackle! A single grain of sweetcorn on very fine tackle might have got bites but with large chub (and barbel) around, plus heavy weed growth it seems foolish to go below 4 lb line; so I didn't.

Think a natural bait - worm or slug - might possibly do the trick but they are pretty unobtainable to me in the current drought in the SE. Perhaps the right artificial fly could work, I suppose, but at risk of pike which are prolific here.

Will probably give the river fishing a rest now till we get some rain. Crystal clear water today enabled me to watch the bait (and see the bream take it) in 3 ft deep and fast flowing gaps between weedbeds, very abnormal indeed for this river. This is what this interesting swim looked like (last week - the water is much clearer now):