Chub - hair rig or straight on the hook?

[Tee-Cee]

In my opinion fishing conventional or hair rig is okay.I think its more to do with changing from one to another if bites are not coming or are difficult to hit!
I have fished both without one being more superior to the other but on many occasions it was changing that caught the fish!Its the same as changing the length line below the weight-sometimes 6" will be okay and sometimes 3' is necessary to catch...
Similarly with hook sizes;large baits(generally speaking) need large hooks.For example I would not use a 12 for large lobworms or a 4 for a single maggot BUT both MIGHT catch fish!!

It pays to be flexible at every turn and when I leave the bank I like to think I have tried everything I know........

Last big chub came to a bushy fly and before that a hair rigged paste bait wrapped around a cork ball did the trick............so for my money play every card you can to put fish on the bank and experiment to the extreme if necessary....

Tight lines!!

 

[Barney 2]

Cheers Barney, I've had a look at the soft hookers but I haven't spent a great deal of time after chub yet this season and kept on using the hard pellets, now winter is just around the corner I will be knocking up some serious amount of cheese paste and using crust for a most if not all of my chub fishing but I'll have a gander at the sonubaits range.

Sorry SF, not the soft hookers - I can't get on with them, but these: http://www.sonubaits.com/products/hali_hookers_range/

I find fishing a halibut pellet on the hair, about 5mm longer than the hook bend, my rig keeps getting tugged around then dropped. Switch to boilies and that stops but no chub, only carp or bream will come! If I fish 8mm hali-hookers on the pellet waggler with the hook nicked in the side I can catch chub!

I will be trying a larger halibut pellet in a band close to the shank as per Pauls picture though - so thanks Paul! I like the way the bait can still move out the way so as not to impede hooking.

 

[Stick_Float]

They seem pretty much ideal, cheers for the link!

Beware when using bait bands for chub that the band doesn't slip down to the bend of the hook as you are less likely to hook them, I find the brown latex bands to be ideal.

 

[Barney 2]

They seem pretty much ideal, cheers for the link!

Beware when using bait bands for chub that the band doesn't slip down to the bend of the hook as you are less likely to hook them, I find the brown latex bands to be ideal.

Thanks, I was thinking the band was tied to a very short hair rather than looped or hooked onto the shank. Presumbly this would stop any slippage and still have enough movement for the pellet to move out of the way for hooking.

 

[Stick_Float]

That would of course mean slippage is not a problem but the pellet wouldn't be tight to the shank as I personally prefer, as I mentioned earlier I use the bait band as a hair so the elasticity pulls the pellet tight to the hook - which has led to a better hook up rate for me but still not perfect by all means - I still miss the most violent pulls sometimes.

 

[Paul H]

You can make a very, very short hair to which the band is attached or you can actually whip the band to the shank whilst tying the knotless knot.

Mostly I just loop the band round the shank then through itself and pull tight.

Like this.

As long as you use a band suitably sized so that it is a tight fit around the pellet or whatever it will stay tight around the hook too and so won't slip down to the bend often at all.

 

[The bad one]

None if the hair is short enough.

To me this is a hair rig - the bait sits below the hook bend:

​

Paul this what I didn't agree with and your statement "the bait sits below the hook bend:" A hair rig isn't defined by how far the bait sits below the hook. It's defined by the attachment, a hair, of whatever line type material the user chooses to use for it. It's length is immaterial to it's name. Other than it could be called a short or a long hair. Nevertheless it is a hair rig.​

 

[Dave Slater]

I totally agree. The hair is the method of attachment and not where it sits in relation to the hook.
This has been an interesting debate. I will stick to my guns and say that I would always opt for straight on the hook using conventional baits. The chub just suck them in and it is the most effective method. I would, however, opt for the hair if I was using a more modern approach as I think the chub just bolt with the bait. I am sure small bites are missed as they would not register but this method is very effective for many people.
I was going to switch over to this approach myself this season but decided to stick with my conventional baits. My reasoning for this is that most anglers on my rivers are using modern baits and methods so, strangely, fishing conventionally is something different for the fish if they are getting hammered.
The results shown by The Bad One are, indeed, impressive but I think my methods work just as well. I have caught a lot of big chub this season so far, including 8 fish over 6lb, so I guess it is just a matter of fishing what works best for you.
I think a lot of the fish caught on modern baits and methods are caught by barbel fishing and taking bonus chub. As I am not targetting barbel as well conventional baits are a good option for me. I may change over after we have had our holiday as I have seen a lot of barbel this year and my barbel PB needs updating.

 

[Paul H]

Paul this what I didn't agree with and your statement "the bait sits below the hook bend:" A hair rig isn't defined by how far the bait sits below the hook. It's defined by the attachment, a hair, of whatever line type material the user chooses to use for it. It's length is immaterial to it's name. Other than it could be called a short or a long hair. Nevertheless it is a hair rig.

Fair point, I suppose what I was trying to say was for the purposes of this debate only. I mean that where I have referred to hair rigged vs banded or hooked baits I was mentally picturing a standard hair rig where the bait sits below the bend of the hook.

 

[The bad one]

I totally agree. The hair is the method of attachment and not where it sits in relation to the hook.
This has been an interesting debate. I will stick to my guns and say that I would always opt for straight on the hook using conventional baits. The chub just suck them in and it is the most effective method. I would, however, opt for the hair if I was using a more modern approach as I think the chub just bolt with the bait. I am sure small bites are missed as they would not register but this method is very effective for many people.
I was going to switch over to this approach myself this season but decided to stick with my conventional baits. My reasoning for this is that most anglers on my rivers are using modern baits and methods so, strangely, fishing conventionally is something different for the fish if they are getting hammered.
The results shown by The Bad One are, indeed, impressive but I think my methods work just as well. I have caught a lot of big chub this season so far, including 8 fish over 6lb, so I guess it is just a matter of fishing what works best for you.
I think a lot of the fish caught on modern baits and methods are caught by barbel fishing and taking bonus chub. As I am not targetting barbel as well conventional baits are a good option for me. I may change over after we have had our holiday as I have seen a lot of barbel this year and my barbel PB needs updating.

Quite right Dave if it's working don't fix it! However, because of the quantities of pellet being used for barbel on the river, the chub are switched on to them big time, so only an idiot would fish a less productive method.

Given the chose I'd fish the bait direct on the hook much more simple and less fiddly, but alas it can't be done with HP, so it has to be the speed hair for me, as that's less fiddly than trying to get a pellet in a band with cold hands and aging eyesight.

 

[Keith M]

I would never use a hair rig for Chub and what I saw last saturday on a clear shallow stream in Hertfordshire illustrates an example of why:

The guy in the next upstream swim was trotting with a small balsa and using luncheonmeat on the hook, every now and then I would see a cube of luncheonmeat which had come off of his hook rolling onto the gravel right next to me. several times I witnessed a chub picking it up in its lips and darting off away from the rest of the chub to the other side of the stream with the luncheonmeat clearly held in its lips where I assume it would swallow it once it was away from the other Chub. (much as a bird flies away with a piece of bread in its mouth to eat it well away from the flock)
If the guy had been quivertipping with a hair rigged cube of meat then all his bites would been the annoying pull rounds without hooking any fish.

Even though I occasionally catch a Chub on a hair when after Barbel, I certainly wouldn't use a hair for chub by choice.

 

[Stealph Viper]

You have no way of knowing how the fish would have reacted to the bait being presented on a legered rig, as on a float rig it is presented differently.

 

[Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)]

Stealph,

Keith was talking about loose offerings of luncheon meat that had come off the hook. If they had taken the float rig, from what Keith observed, the float would have shot under as the chub had the bait in its lips and a strike would have resulted in a hooked fish.

Nobody on this thread has indicated that chub cannot be caught using a hair rig method. (Indeed two of my largest chub this season have been caught on hair-rigs as I fished for barbel) The observation of many of us is that chub have a tendency to pick and hold a bait at the very front of their lips; thereby the chub holds the hair rigged food in its lips but the hook is not in the mouth so a strike will dislodge the bait and result in no contact with the fish. This makes the hairrig method for specifically targeting chub "suspect".

I know there are times when you will be on chub and they hoover up anything that moves.....often disgorging maggots or sweetcorn they've been guzzling on...however as winter and the "chub season " approaches and perhaps the fishing gets more challenging you want to maximise your chances.

So as I rove up and down the Dane I'll be placing my baits directly on the hook if I'm targeting chub...but hair-rigging pellets for the barbs.

In the end its a matter of a)choice and b) confidence

 

[Dave Slater]

Sums it all up perfectly Paul. The only thing I would add is that they tend to take softer baits like cheese and bread down easier than other baits, at least on the waters I fish, resulting in slower and smoother bites which are easier to hit.

 

[Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)]

I'm with you there Dave...tend to get all traditionalist as the frosts arrive...trundling a link leger with a nice bit of flake on. I've noticed on the stretch of the Dane I prefer in winter (for no other reason than I tend to get the whole stretch to myself)...that the better fish tend to arrive at dusk....number of times I have my best fish on the hopeful, really honestly it is, actual genuine last cast of the day! I suspect low clear river explains that in one!

 

[doclester]

I've caught all of my Chub on hair rigged raw stewing steak.
Perhaps i could have caught more if i had put the stewing steak straight on the hook, but perhaps i wouldn't have done.

hello stealph viper,

i like this idea of fishing with raw stewing steak. are you marinading it in anything? or would you suggest doing so and with what? do you think liver or other offal might be any good?

cheers

rich. c

 

[Stealph Viper]

I never marinaded the Raw Stewing Steak, simply because, as soon as it's in the water, the blood oozes out of it adding a trail of it's own scent, the meat becomes pinker and swells slightly.
There's enough attraction in the Raw meat already.

 

[the oracle]

always on the hook...

leave the hairs for barbel....

 

[captainbarnacles]

I always fish on bait on the hook. In summer you tend to get positive bites as the fish are more active and more often than not grab the bait hard , but not always , sometimes they can just move the tip of the rod a mere fraction looking like a roach bite on a bad day. Winter time there much more dificult i find , those tiny pecks on the tip or even the lightest of floats . Bread flake or worms are a good bet in winter. And i find free lining with just a couple of swan shot works well let them nibble a bit with no resistance feel the line through your fingers ,, you can feel them sucking at the bait. You can strike at this point or wait for the big pull , but if you do wait then you'll prob find that you have deep hooked ther fish and this i dont like. you'll just have to suss them out at the time.I find too that maggotts are a good bet anytime, if you can keep feeding just a few at a time every 30 secs or so for about 15 mins without fishing then you should have them queing up at your rod.A single maggot freelined under a waggler will do the trick. But always cast above your feed and let the bait float into it nice and natural.Tight lines.