Hemp Seed For Chub?

[Olly]

I too agree with Shaun but with giant hemp or even plastic hemp it is not too difficult to present a bait - not always a success I might add! I also fed hemp loose and in groundbait but a hemp filled bait dropper or feeder does 'bring them in' to be caught on a bigger bait I have found.
Having fed and fished hemp on the hook for barbel it was very fiddly, a bit easier with the invention of superglue!

[BeechmereLake]

Some of the best Chub fishing I had was on the Bristol Avon on what is better known as the "free stretch" at Chippenham where I was born, the bait used was Hemp & Tares. There was two seriously good pegs below the weir at Chippenham and the first time me and a mate used this combination of bait we emptied both pegs taking well over 100lb a fish each in a single session.
Now I live on the Thames things are a little different, Yes you can still do big weights of chub on the Bronze maggot should you carry a gallon with you and fish it match style but the pegs are few and far between now and need to be selected carefully, with crayfish causing the over population of the river bed the chub are seriously getting bigger with many fish around here well over the 7lb mark, 5lb fish are the once normal 3lb fish one could catch on a "Maggot peg" as we called them but catching several big fish at a time has become harder probably because they are no longer a shoal fish as such but more of a loner type fish.
I think hemp as a loose feed maybe a little bit much this time of year but with the weather as it is you would have to try it to see if its effective, have to say for me, on the Thames right now, I would be using bread flake fished under a topper should the flow be good, colour needs to be right too, all I tend to do is use the fishing method as a way of feeding the fish too, simply fish big bits of flake down the middle striking the bait off just above where you think the fish are laying up, by doing this you can govern the food supply to the fish and keep it very tidy instead of balling half bucket loads of mashed bread in and spreading the fish out. You could also use the odd ball of liquidised bread as an attractor to bring any decent roach on the feed too, a 1.5lb roach wouldn't go a miss should the chub not feed.
Should the river be more coloured then two baits sure to catch a Thames Chub are lobby's and cheese paste.
Im gonna try the old hemp and Tares next year to see if the bigger fish respond to it like they used too, it was a killer method back in the day and still takes massive catches of roach to the right angler on the Thames, probably a better Autumn method but hey look at the weather.

[Santiago]

I've fished hemp and tares on the Thames for over 20 years and although I might have attracted chub into the swim I have never caught one on hemp or tares, just mainly roach and dace. Trotting maggot or casters over hemp works well, as does bread flake, or legered worm or meat. So if I were going to target chub I wouldn't put hemp on the hook but I would trickle it in as an attractor. However, I suspect trickling in maggots works just as well when trotting, with either maggot or caster on the hook. But the bigger chub seem to be caught more often on legered baits or ultra lite plugs and sea dead baits meant for pike. This time of year I would use something big and smelly as bait if legering, otherwise trot with a big flake of bread.

[Azur]

I went through a phase on the Loddon of putting a dropper full of hemp/maize/small chunks of luncheon meat into a swim before fishing. It accounted for a few nice chub in the cooler months so definitely worth a go!

[ExeAngler]

Mark,

When I was lucky enough to have some good River fishing near me I often used to feed hemp for Chub. It was a way of keeping the cost down and it also stopped you getting bitten out by Bleak, I would then use other baits like Maggot, Caster, Worm, (which was really effective) as a hook bait. You may also get some good Roach if you have them in your river.

[Aquaerial]

I'm with Shaun on this one Mark. A big lump of cheesepaste or crust allowed to roll under a feature on the near bank after introducing a few bits of cheese or bread mash. Lovely chubley!!

Agreed me too- time and place for hemp. If you really are determined to make life challenging with hemp & caster why not just use a fly? I'll watch the backcasting, gusting winter winds on light tackle and soul destroying tangles in dead and dying nettle stems with amusement as I cast my dollops. One thing though if you really want to try and hold them in a swim (and I feel its better to rove if you can) get them feeding hard on mashed bread before casting a line. you may get more than 1 or two out that way.
This has reminded me that I have a 'float' somewhere that eventually becomes a leger as it fills with water and sinks. I haven't used it for a few years as the Thet is a shadow of its former self. It provides for a really stealthy approach as by holding back the float loads itself as the bait flows forward and then bingo the whole caboodle ends up on the bottom under a feature. Works for Perch as well..with lobs.