Thats fascinating BN! What gave him the idea of fishing for them with plugs? was he after pike one day and found the chub took a liking to his lures? Got to say I'm not so keen on the idea of catching chub on trebles - does he still have trebles on or has he switched them to single barbless? What sort of lure is it - looks like a surface popper/crazy crawler type? You should get on there with your fly gear! (I'm assuming its a Black Country cut)

__________________

Chub absolutely love lures. They're a highly voracious predator. I've had good success on an 11cm Jointed Rapala in rainbow trout colours and a jointed bomber in a muted silver colour. I usually change the trebles on my lures for lighter wire versions as I think most of the hooks are far too thick and heavy. Not had a problem unhooking chub.

__________________
Cheers,
Lawrence

You would not believe...............the lure is a sort of mini jerk bait made of cheap and tatty plastic that was bought from Aldi. It measures around 50mm and is blue and white. It originaly had two trebles, one at the rear the other around halfway. They were both removed and the rear one only replaced with a smaller barbless treble. The lure is a floater with a rattle. For the most part the chub either hit it immediately (within a few cranks of the reel) or leave it alone. We have had plenty of chub on other lures but this one for some reason we have yet to figure out beats them all hands down. Unfortunately we cannot find another..........so he'd better not lose it Yes it is a black country cut and yes I have plans to give them a punt with the #7..........time and mrs bn permitting......................birdsnest

__________________
Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

You know what it reminded me of? a couple of go's I've had fishing small surface lures for largemouth bass in New England - brilliant fun. Got me fired up now, I'll have to try that on a few bits of cut and river near me- I still have a couple of nice little surface lures left - there's one I have which is a little swimming mouse - bet they'd like that! - ......same constraints as you though....time, SWMBO, kids etc etc

__________________

Well, I'll be blowed, Chub on a plug. Fascinating BN.

__________________
"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

That's more gear you'll be needing to buy then Steven....

__________________

The best two lures for river chub ever, 3cm original floating rapala minnow in black and gold and the smallest arbogast jitterbug surface lure in any pattern (the fish can`t see the top anyway). Fish the minnow either straight retrieve or with twitches casting upstream and retrieving towards you on a light 6-7ft lure rod rated to about 10-15 grams, little fixed spool and 15lb braid, or let the minnow drift under the overhanging cover and hold it still, it will dive and wriggle right in front of the chubs nose, just wait for the hit
Fish the jitterbug slowly around the cover the chub love to lie in, the takes are heart stopping, one minute the lure is gurgling peacefully along the surface and then SMASH, a chub or pike wallops into it, the pike often going airborne in the process, brilliant fishing (especially at night but don`t tell anyone else ok ) Don`t be surprised if a big ole perch comes along too and if the water has pike or zander in it, use a soft wire trace.
Andy.

__________________
There is more to fishing than just catching fish....

My little floating mouse lure is basically an arbogast jitterbug pattern but with a mouse body and a tail - can't wait to give it a swim now! It caught me quite a few bass and small pickerel (pike) in the States - heartstopping takes as you say - airborne fish

__________________

I have had a lot of success fishing lures like the jitterbug, meadow mouse, crazy crawler etc by casting paralell to the river bank and retrieving really close in where a small swimming creature like a vole could be expected to be found. You will often get takes right at your feet doing this or see a bow wave forming behind the lure before it gets smashed by a chub or pike
Andy.

__________________
There is more to fishing than just catching fish....

I do very well with a small size of the Shakespeare Big "S" plug particularly in the Autumn and funnily enough in the slacker canal like sections rather than where there is heavy flow.

By the way I'm sure that the animal was a ginger cat not a fox, wrong colour, wrong gait and wrong tail profile for a fox.

__________________
“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary