Creek Chubs

[FishinCricket]

Your wasting your time with a cast net. If the fish arent fast enough then the rocks will catch it. The only other option is a seine.

Always seems to work for me... (assuming I'm not using the wal-mart one with the 1 inch holes in it)

[Outside Bend]

From my experience they tend to really gravitate towards the pools of small streams, particularly in areas with rootwads and other woody cover. Maybe placing traps in there would be more effective. I've also caught tons of them from small streams using white 1" curlytailed grubs, though I haven't tried it this time of year before.

If you have two folks and a seine, I've had success scaring them out from rootwads and sycamores attached to the bank of small streams. It's hard to explain, but you basically make a C around the rootwad with the seine, then have a guy inside the C kick around and underneath said rootwad, scaring the chubs and other critters into the seine.

If all else fails, a backpack electrofisher works wonders : )

[ozarkstripers.com]

I use a black wire trap this time of year and use either cheese/bread ball for bait (be sure to smear some around the openings on the trap) or canned dogwood. The trick is to place the trap with the entry holes facing the current and place brush over the top and sides leaving the entrances exposed. Works great for chubs and slicks.I leave mine out overnight and check in morning

[BrianS]

Get you an ultralite with a small hook and split shot and use small crawdad tails. I used to catch alot of chubs this way but it seems they are more difficult to catch this time of year.

[Wayne SW/MO]

If all else fails, a backpack electrofisher works wonders : )

The smaller fish like chubs definitely come when "called".

[creekin bassnerd]

I caught this little guy in a small pool next to a rapid on Big Piney Creek, AR a few weeks ago. Put him on a hook but no bites.

[Trout Commander]

I concur with Eric on the sz16 Hare's Ear Nymph - more fun that way too!

[Al Agnew]

Wire traps work well, but the wire needs to be either black or rusty looking...shiny new wire traps don't work as well. If you know where the chubs are, as apparently you do, just bait the wire trap with dry dog food, or crackers, or a mixture of both. When you toss it in, make sure that the holes are facing directly upstream and downstream, and pay attention to how the current appears to be moving on the bottom where the trap is, because sometimes it'll be moving differently on the bottom than it is on the surface. If possible, throw the trap in sometime in the middle of the day, check it late in the afternoon and rebait if necessary, and then let it stay overnight. If the chubs are there you should get plenty during the day, but sometimes they get more active after dark.

Be sure and check the openings. I like to get big chubs for walleye, and I had to enlarge the openings in one of my wire traps to allow chubs as big as I wanted to get in easily.

If the chubs are visible, the pool isn't too deep, and it doesn't have a lot of obstructions, a seine is the surest way to get them, but that requires a 15 ft. or 20 ft. seine and two people. I can usually talk my wife into helping me...glad I married that woman. If the pool is too deep to wade and seine, another option which sounds really stupid but often works is to go out at night with a flashlight and the seine, and check to see if the chubs have moved up into the shallow riffle area at the head of the pool. Often they do, and can be easily seined at night. I once seined a bunch of minnows on New Years Eve night at 1 AM after a party...got a little tipsy at the party and made plans the next day for a walleye trip, and needed the minnows. Air temps were about 10 degrees, and when you'd lift the seine out of the water it would freeze solid by the time you got the minnows out of it.

[Chief Grey Bear]

get a glass or plastic trap and put a full sleeve of saltines in. face the opening downstream and leave it for a few hours. Your wasting your time with a cast net. If the fish arent fast enough then the rocks will catch it. The only other option is a seine.

Glass will out preform plastic 10 to 1. But in Missouri it is illegal. Any thing more that 10 or 15 crushed crackers at a time is a waste. A seine is also a very good option. As long as you are not by yourself.

[mhall02]

I caught this little guy in a small pool next to a rapid on Big Piney Creek, AR a few weeks ago. Put him on a hook but no bites.

That is because that is a stoneroller, not a chub

http://www.tnfish.org/PhotoGalleryFish_TWRA/FishPhotoGallery_TWRA/pages/CentralStonerollerSmallNorrisNegus_jpg.htm

Try one of these:

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~tbonner/txfishes/semotilus%20atromaculatus.htm