Creek Chub Thread

[Fish Sticks]

Who’s targeting creek chubs, anyone? I just hit a degraded limestoner today that suffers from a lot of silt, warm temps, and fugly state/club stockers. Its redeeming quality is its excellent population of Creek Chubs that take dries all day like my Mr. Wiggly.

 

[Stiff12]

Is a blacknose dace thread next? Asking for a friend

 

[Fish Sticks]

Is a blacknose dace thread next? Asking for a friend

Have not been able to catch one yet, quite possibly

 

[caddisflyer]

Here is one.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Is a blacknose dace thread next? Asking for a friend

What ever makes yours and your friends 12stiff

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Who’s targeting creek chubs, anyone? I just hit a degraded limestoner today that suffers from a lot of silt, warm temps, and fugly state/club stockers. Its redeeming quality is its excellent population of Creek Chubs that take dries all day like my Mr. Wiggly.

View attachment 1641231044

I don't target them but I seem to catch my fair share of them . I do think targeting rough fish can be worthwhile. We get too stuck on select game species, especially as C&R fisherman who have no intention of harvesting. There are guys contemplating, trying to figure, watching water temps, traveling etc, on how they can keep catching trout all summer during a drought, yet are surrounded by thousands of other WW fish.

 

[jifigz]

I have never targeting creek chubs and I don't think I ever will. There are by-catch fish that I am quite happy to catch, such as Fallfish, and I very much and enjoy. I don't share the same sentiments about the creek chub. I am happy to catch most any fish, but there are much better fish to catch than a creek chub.

Honestly, creek chubs aren't even very plentiful near me. I would have a hard time specifically looking for them.

 

[Swattie87]

Is a blacknose dace thread next? Asking for a friend

Smart move. When I bycatch an undesirable species (like Chubs or Brown Trout for instance) I usually say I’m just holding it for a friend too.

 

[Clams]

I have a small creek in my backyard that is filled to the brim with what look like basic nondescript minnows but were in actuality creek chubs. My son spent a good chunk of his youth in that creek catching chubs with a net. He'd fill a bucket with like 20 of them and then dump them back in. Most were just an inch or two but some were as big as six inches and could be caught with a piece of hot dog as bait. At one point when he was around 10 he caught two little ones and we put them in a tank in the house. They were cool to watch. They were voracious eaters, we fed them mainly fish pellets and every now and then if we found a bug in our house we'd drop it in the tank and they would hit it immediately and gulp it down, very much like watching a bass feed. They grew to about six inches in a year and then we released them back in the creek. I wasn't sorry to see them go because that tank really smelled bad. We also used them as live bait for catfish and bass. My son is now 23 and works as a fishing guide. It's crazy but those chubs were instrumental to who and what he is today.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

I have a small creek in my backyard that is filled to the brim with what look like basic nondescript minnows but were in actuality creek chubs. My son spent a good chunk of his youth in that creek catching chubs with a net. He'd fill a bucket with like 20 of them and then dump them back in. Most were just an inch or two but some were as big as six inches and could be caught with a piece of hot dog as bait. At one point when he was around 10 he caught two little ones and we put them in a tank in the house. They were cool to watch. They were voracious eaters, we fed them mainly fish pellets and every now and then if we found a bug in our house we'd drop it in the tank and they would hit it immediately and gulp it down, very much like watching a bass feed. They grew to about six inches in a year and then we released them back in the creek. I wasn't sorry to see them go because that tank really smelled bad. We also used them as live bait for catfish and bass. My son is now 23 and works as a fishing guide. It's crazy but those creek chubs were instrumental to who and what he is today.

I had a creek down the street where I grew up, and we did the same thing with small hooks and dough balls. The big ones would hide under rocks and shelfs like trout and come out only to snatch the bait. There were both creek chubs and some huge dace, as well. We graduated to riding bikes to the closest lake, but fishing a creek you can walk at 10 years old can def get into the brain. I am still sick with it...

 

[Fish Sticks]

I have. Stream in my front yard down the hill and its spring fed but its small, full of creek chubs. I see their value based on how they will feed and their location. If I only have an hour to fish I am not driving 30 min. I will put a compradun on a 3 weight and go brown lining right in town to see what I can catch. They live in places most anglers don’t even think hold fish.

 

[wardman]

I had a creek down the street where I grew up, and we did the same thing with small hooks and dough balls. The big ones would hide under rocks and shelfs like trout and come out only to snatch the bait. There were both creek chubs and some huge dace, as well. We graduated to riding bikes to the closest lake, but fishing a creek you can walk at 10 years old can def get into the brain. I am still sick with it...

Had we known the Wissy was in Flourtown (relatively close), I bet we would have biked there too! Waders and all!

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I for one, enjoy catching these chubs. There's a creek by my that is not suitable for much than dumping stockers into and it is full of them. I like that you can catch em' however you like. I've had larger versions of them take eggs that had the diameter of a penny. It's nice that these fish seem to still be feeding in winter and I have a lot of fun catching them then. That creek is nice to hit when I don't have much time to drive anywhere else. I do agree with Jifigz that it is often more fun to target fallfish and redbreasts so I tend to focus on those species.

 

[laszlo]

If I can be honest here, to me there is nothing more disappointing than catching a stinking, croaking, ugly horny headed chub expecting it to be a beautiful little trout. Not a fan

 

[Mike]

They are a God-send to the ice angler who targets large channel cats. As mentioned, they “bite” through the winter, at least in the limestoner we’ve used for a source. A small piece of worm fished in a bridge hole in winter works great to get a quick mess of large baits.

 

[Fish Sticks]

If I can be honest here, to me there is nothing more disappointing than catching a stinking, croaking, ugly horny headed chub expecting it to be a beautiful little trout. Not a fan

Its also very disappointing to be a millionaire if you want to be a billionaire. I think the word “expecting” is the operative word at play here. Because of the 6 million or so stocked that we know of because streams without trout are deemed not fit for fishing, Pennsylvanians are always “expecting” trout. If children were not socially conditioned since birth as anglers to feel this way we might allow our selfs to lead much more full angling lives, not only enjoy 2-3 hour trips to famous streams, and be thankful for the fish in our back yard.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Went out streamer fishing the creek chub streams post rain bump. Started out with a size 14 sex dungeon on T-9 sinking line trying to just give em the meat. I moved two trophy creek chubs in the 5” class from their haunts but no committers. I was still intent on slinging 🥩 so I upper it to a huge size 12 clouser. Then I started hitting some mid range creek chubs. Missed the trico hatch this am. Creek Chubs were prob sipping pretty hard id imagine

 

[Kyle]

If I can be honest here, to me there is nothing more disappointing than catching a stinking, croaking, ugly horny headed chub expecting it to be a beautiful little trout. Not a fan

catching 3" chubs would bore the hell out of me too. if i chub fished i would later use them to catch channel cats and have a fish fry along with smoked ribs.

to each their own. but i cant see how catching creek chubs is any fun. or less my rod was the end of a milkweed plant

 

[Fish Sticks]

catching 3" chubs would bore the hell out of me too. if i chub fished i would later use them to catch channel cats and have a fish fry along with smoked ribs.

to each their own. but i cant see how catching creek chubs is any fun. or less my rod was the end of a milkweed plant

Its all relative. One could say if I had to fish for tiny channel cats I’d rather inhale the blast from a 12 gauge because I only fish for 7 foot long 300lb wells catfish and I use 100lb braid and this rod

 

[Swattie87]

It’s a good thing Squatch isn’t a regular around here anymore.