The chub is the most loved by fishermen in the past, guarantees, if undermined in the right ways, fun in all seasons. Let's see how to catch it with fruit, an ancient fishing, a little forgotten.
Fruit fishing has countless advantages: it is cheap, clean and allows us to avoid the nuisance of little fish. But it is not widely practiced, mainly because it is believed that these baits require a preventive baiting that most of the fishermen do not have the time and desire to achieve.
In reality, preventive baiting only serves for some of them, so let's see each of these baits in detail, presenting them according to their seasonality.
Cherry
In the second half of June, when this fruit reaches full maturity, it is time to take big chubs that are very greedy for this red berry.
The cherry requires a preventive baiting to accustom the chub to eat it, baiting that can also be done in a single solution, throwing a certain quantity of fruit into the water, the more mature they are, the better it is, at least a couple of days before where we will go fishing.
How much fruit to throw depends solely on how big the spot is, how much water is running and whether the fish we are trying to undermine already know about cherries, having been baiting in previous years, or not.
One thing to avoid absolutely when fishing with fruits such as cherries, blackberries or grapes, is to massively slaughter the day of the catch. Not only does it serve no purpose, but you can rest assured that we will not take anything.
In general, the best places to fish with this fruit are those in which the water turns and the current is quite slow: the large holes, the tanks downstream of the waterfalls, all those places where the current slows down.
This is for two reasons: the first is that in these places the thrown fruits are not taken away by the current and the fish have the time to find them and learn to like them; the second is "technical", that is linked to the fact that with a slow current we will be able to fish by resting the bait at the bottom without the float signals us sinking.
In places with more sensitive current, we will have no other solution than to fish slightly detached from the bottom. In the construction of the line there are no particular precautions to be taken except to consider the weight of the fruit, which is not indifferent and therefore the plumbing will be slightly in default.
To trigger the cherry, you use hooks of appropriate size to the fruit, preferably with a wide curve and you must have the foresight to trigger the fruit after having removed the core, so you can "sew" easily with the hook for not risk of an empty retrieve because the hook cannot sting the lip of the fish for the resistance of the fruit itself.
If you have never tried to fish with cherries, take some advice, try it! We do not know what the reason is, but these fruits are mainly used for larger fish and when the float sinks, you can expect that there is a large chub on the other end of the line.
Elderberry
With the arrival of the month of July fishing definitively assumes the typical characteristics of the hot season: the levels of the rivers decrease, the external temperatures rise above 30 degrees and it happens to run into days where the fish are abulic and do not make the catches you hope, by size or by number.
It should be a period of great activity, but a little because of the climatic conditions and a little because of the fact that in the summer the fishing pressure on the rivers is at its maximum, with consequent "stress" of the fish that is found to have food in abundance and continuous disturbance, the outcome of the outputs is not at all obvious.
We’re not talking about failing, of course, but when you take some fish where only a month before they made fabulous fish, it is right to wonder if it is not the case to change something in our way of fishing, too often stopped only the maggot.
In this period elder is a lure that can give us some wonderful output, in the company of the chubs of course, but the surprises are always possible as carp, delicious sweet and sugary fruits, in addition to the increasingly present barbel.
We think there is no fisherman who does not know the elder, grows in abundance along the rivers and along the country roads and hills, so that can be found by everyone with ease, without any expense.
This bait does not require almost any baiting, either because the plants are abundant along the watercourses and since always, letting the ripe berries fall into the water, they carry out a natural baiting, because there is a habit of fishing with this bait and often the fish are already used to it.
With the elderberry, not only the trigger, but also the baiting is very similar to the one with maggot. In this regard, it is useful to pick up the elder and shell it in a bucket the day before the exit: in this way, once on the river, you can bake with handfuls of berries without having to waste time, each time, to detach them from the bunch. To the full advantage of the rhythm of baiting and the fluidity of the fishing action.
When fishing with elderberries, do not be afraid to feed the fish: this does not mean having to throw in kilts of berries, but rather a constant baiting that does not risk feeding the fish, a bit as it happens to us with light and watery foods , which do not make us feel any heaviness.
Elderberries are triggered using the classic seaming system: insert the hook into the hole left by the petiole, let it come out from the side, then extract the hook, turn it and plant it again in the berry. A slight pull of the rig et voila, the trigger is ready.
If we have chosen a hook of suitable size, a 20 for the single grape is perfect, the trigger will be well resistant to throwing at hand while we have to pay attention to launch with the Bolognese. A whipped launch would certainly fly the bait away.
The trigger of the double berry is similar, with the only difference that the larger hook allows us to pierce the first berry that we then slide along the wire. Now it is enough to trigger the second berry by stitching it on the hook and letting the already triggered berry come down for a perfect presentation.
The berries, let's repeat it, are found almost everywhere and ripen in July until the first half of August. As the season progresses, the swollen and turgid clusters become increasingly dry and shriveled and we will have to look for the most shaded plants or climb to the hills to find ripe berries again.
Then, like every good thing, even the elderberry fishing ends up leaving room for other seasonal baits, such as grapes and blackberries. A little trick: the elderberries stain a lot and soon we will have purple fingers, but just rub your fingers with half a lemon to clear each trace.
Blackberry
The thorny branches of the brambles, which we fishermen know very well, in the summer months give us some sweet fruits with which they are forgiven for the scratches they inflict on us and for the holes they cause to our waders.
The blackberries are a very little used bait, but can give exciting catches, provided you know a couple of simple things. Meanwhile, the blackberry should be used without groundbait or almost: chubs are attracted to this fruit, but they also get tired rather quickly, probably due to the high sugar content.
No prior baiting is necessary, just throw one or two crushed blackberries between the fingers from time to time, in order to reduce them to pulp. If we do things right, chubs will attack with enthusiasm the blackberry triggered on our hook, so much so that often happens to see eaten on bait lures sustained in the water by not very thin threads.
So much enthusiasm but does not last long. The time to make some catches and then you will need to move, then doing a traveling fishing: no net, only a bolognese of the measure suitable for the water course and a couple of handfuls of blackberries, this is what you need to have fun with the chubs and an unusual bait.
As for the lines to be used, there is little to say, except that no particularly sophisticated lines are necessary, indeed you can also use endings a bit 'more robust than usual. Pay attention to the weight of the blackberry which, like the cherry of the rest, is quite substantial. We must therefore subdivide the float.
Hook of size appropriate to the fruit and rounded shape, no matter the color as it will be completely covered by the bait. The key thing to know, given the poor bait of the bait, is the way to trigger the blackberry. The best system is to cut the fruit by resting the end on the side and forcing it to the center. Once this is done, we pull upwards and we will have the hook well planted in the middle of the fruit. The blackberry has a rather short seasonality, like the elderberry.
However, blackberries can be frozen or bought from the greengrocer in small packs. The cost per kilo of greenhouse blackberries is quite high, but we do not need many to make a good catch so ... if you do not want to sting your fingers, you know how!
Grapes
Grape, it is known, is one of the most appetite baits from the chub. Tradition has it that it is a September lure even if in reality, beautiful fished with grapes can be done throughout the summer, so the grapes are hungry for chubs.
The grapes to be used must be black and rather small grapes: the best is certainly the strawberry grapes, which can be found in the fruit and vegetable markets since July. There are lovers of this bait that freeze when it is easily available and then use it already in June of the following year.
In order to have usable fruit, we must have the foresight to free whole bunches, without removing the individual grapes from the bunch, on pain of finding themselves, once thawed, berries that do not show any tightness. If we freeze the stalks instead, we can have rather "tender" berries, but certainly able to resist the hook.
For triggering, the best system is to use a carpfishing needle, with which we will pierce the grape. Once this step is completed, we will hook the hook in the buttonhole and we can easily pass it through the grape, thanks to the needle.
Being a voluminous and heavy bait, if we weigh in the past, we must let it pass near the bottom, but without touching it, on pain of continuous sinking of the float. If, on the other hand, you are fishing in bridle or wide rolls, we can also place the grain on the bottom.
The line has nothing special, will have to adapt to the current of the spot in which we will find to fish while the hook, also in this case preferably of round shape, must be adapted to the size of the grape. There is no need to exaggerate, a 12 is a "hook" more than enough.
