Nomadic chub keep feeding!
HUGE chub have featured heavily in end-of-season catches, and maybe the extra-cold February weather played a part.
When rivers have that green, frost-filled appearance chub are often the only species that can be reasonably expected to feed... and then usually slowly.
For some reason at the back end they become more nomadic. Perhaps they are already preparing to gather for spawning, and the snag swims of summer and autumn become redundant.
A big, visible bait such as bread or something with plenty of pong – smelly cheese paste for example – will often produce.
Anglers in Yorkshire used to swear by really big chunks of wasp cake but that seems to have disappeared from the menu. Perhaps it was an exclusively match fishing thing.
These catches seem to go against popular opinion among some groups that river fishing is dead. Angling is, and always has been, cyclical – in other words, when one species is in decline, others will benefit.