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Clement weather
In late autumn and early winter, there may be sunny, fairly warm days, and that's when you need to take action. As fish are cold-blooded animals, mild weather during cold spells will tend to arouse the senses of these predators. The best lure fishing takes place in the afternoon when temperatures are highest. In the south of France, near Toulouse, the weather last week was 15 degrees, ideal for stalking fine specimens.
Spotlight and strategy
Nothing could be simpler and more effective than ultra-light fishing. My rod is a Grace Saunda from Pontoon 21, little known in France, it's mainly developed in Central Europe for trout fishing competitions in rivers or areas and is perfectly suited to casting lures between 1 g and 7 g equipped with a size 1500 or 2500 reel (it doesn't matter which brand) on which I wind an 18/100 fluorocarbon. I fish very finely to avoid the distrust of this species.
The spots we're looking for are rather calm areas, identical to the pools known to salmon anglers, i.e. rather wide areas after a current. These are shallower or deeper areas where the slow-moving waters warm up fairly quickly when temperatures are mild in winter. The lures best suited to the search for the finest specimens are crancks or jerkbaits, which I sometimes animate.
Fishing action
Sometimes it's all upstream: on my cell phone, I spot a few fishing spots that I arrive at on foot, by bike or by car, depending on the distance. I prefer the small rivers on the outskirts of Toulouse, which are teeming with chub.
Rod up, landing net ready, I approach them from a distance, keeping well away from the water's edge so as not to be spotted by these wary fish. Two strategies are available to me.
First, I cast to the other side, close to the bank, where the water is fairly calm and I can catch a nice specimen warming up in the sun. Then, if the lure isn't snapped up in the first few seconds, I calmly bring it back. I comb the area with several casts.
In the second stage, I fish upstream and animate my small jerkbait (between 5 cm and 7 cm) with a few scion strokes. The attack isn't necessarily brutal, sometimes it's resistance, other times the strikes are rather fine and it's not uncommon to miss fish that push the lure without really grabbing it. On the same pool, it's possible to hit several fish, some of them quite big.
If the pools are shallow, the "bottom tapping" technique is very attractive. The bib taps on the river bottom, which is often muddy, and the cloud raised by the lure's action unquestionably triggers attacks. Beware, however, as the lure fishing season ends on the last Sunday in January. At that point, you'll need to track chub using other techniques and, above all, get your fishing licence.
