UK Coarse
Specimen · Technique journey
A bait where they live: under a bush, in a hole, down a crease. Bread, maggot, cheese, worm, a lure on some stretches. After 16 June. First cast counts.
Beginnerspecimenriverfloatbeginner
Chub are river fish that also turn up on some urban canals. They are greedy and shy at the same time. A bit of bread into a hole, a trotted maggot, a legered cheese paste, a worm after rain. Travel light, look, fish the best bit first.
They fight in snags. Hooklength is a compromise between finesse and getting them out. Open season on rivers. A licence, and the sense not to camp on a peg you just spooked.
Open-season rivers, urban stretches, after rain, dusk, winter with bread and cheese.
Close season. A stillwater F1 lake. The fifth hour on a bush you educated at 9am.
From the graph
Bait
Bread
Flake into the hole
Bait
Maggots
The universal bait. If you could only have one thing in the bag for a mixed UK stillwater or canal, maggots would still be the answer.
Bait
Cheese
Paste under a bush
Bait
Worms
Dendrobaenas, lobs and redworms. Perch, bream, tench and a bonus eel. The bait that still works when fashion has moved on.
Bait
Lures
Occasional, where allowed
A starting point, not a shopping list you have to finish. Match the water in front of you.
Kit that can land the fish you are actually fishing for, and a mat.
On the peg
A pinch of mash, a few maggots, or nothing. The first bait in the hole is often the one.
Float or a light leger, 5–8lb, bread, maggot, cheese or worm, a net.
Bushes, rush holes, creases, cattle drinks, urban brickwork. Look walking, not from a barrow dump.
First cast into the hole, or a trot through the crease. A still bait under the bush if they will not come out.
Walk, look, fish the best hole properly. Do not set up camp on the first bench.
Colour after rain is a gift. Low clear water wants stealth, bread, and dusk. Winter floods — if it is safe — can be excellent.
Open season. Stealth. A bait where they live, first time. If it goes, hit it and keep them from the roots. If not, the next hole. Maggot down a crease if you want a net of smaller ones too. Cheese or bread when it is cold.
Starting routine
0–10 min
Get a bait in the water on the line you intend to fish. Do not search the whole venue in ten minutes.
10–30 min
A pinch of mash, a few maggots, or nothing. The first bait in the hole is often the one.
30–60 min
If nothing, change one thing — depth, bait or spot — not three. Read the troubleshooting on this page.
They melt a float. A pluck on bread. A slam on a leger. Do not wait.
Immediately on a proper take, then keep the rod up.
Out of the bush, net, wet hands. They are tougher than roach and still not a dry-grass fish in frost.
Camping. River in May. 0.10mm into roots. Announcing yourself on the skyline.
Spooked: you, or the fifth trot. No fish: next bush. Tiny chublets: bigger bait, or a better hole. Close season: stillwaters, not this.
Beginner setup
Bread flake under a bush you can reach, 6lb line, after 16 June, a net. Or maggot on a stick down a crease.
More advanced
Change depth, bait or feed before you change peg.
Rig
Waggler setup
Locked float, bulk around the base, droppers down the line, fine hooklength. The same skeleton covers traditional waggler and, with a dumpy body, pellet waggler.
Rig
Bomb / running leger
A bait under a bush
Rig
Stick float rig
Shirt-button shotting down a stick float so you can hold, ease, and mend a bait down a river crease.
No linked on-the-bank problems for this method yet.
Catches
Nobody has shared a catch using this technique yet. When someone does, it will show up here — we do not invent anglers or photos.