Search For Big Chub

By Tony Miles

To the dedicated chub specialist or indeed to the all-rounder looking to put a few more chub on the bank there aren't all that many books devoted to the species. Luckily Tony Miles has put pen to paper and given us all we need. His first chub book, My Way With Chub, has become a serious collector's item. Shortly after publication in 1988 the publishers, Ironbridge Publications, went bust and consequently very few copies were printed. Couple that with the fact that the content itself would have made it a classic and you can imagine the value of the book to angling literature collectors. Don't expect much change out of £200 for a decent copy of that one.

Search For Big Chub is a follow on from this earlier work and is thankfully still readily available. It covers all the usual kind of stuff very well - baits, baiting, tackle, various techniques etc etc. Where this book excels though is in the slightly more advanced sections, the author's experience coming across in an easy to understand manner without being patronising to the reader. Miles' tactics for catching the biggest chub from an unseen shoal of fish for example make particularly interesting reading and will certainly get you thinking about your own approach, at least it did for me.

One or two of the techniques and rigs have been described already in his earlier book "Quest For Barbel" co-authored with Trefor West. Understandably there is a little crossover of the two books, chub and barbel often inhabiting similar swims on similar rivers and caught using similar techniques. The majority of the book however is definitely geared specifically towards chub.

There is also one chapter on stillwater chubbing. Which makes interesting reading, but if you are specifically after instructions on stillwaters then try to get hold of a copy of "Fishing For Big Chub" by Peter Stone. Quite hard to find now but well worth tracking down.

In summary, I would thoroughly reccommend this book to anyone with an interest in the species. As with all of Tony Miles' books it is written in a clear and easy style yet manages to throw in some quite advanced techniques without appearing too complicated. Well worth a place on your bookshelf.

Available from Coch Y Bonddu Books for the cover price of £19.95. They also occasionally get second hand copies in.

First published by Crowood in 1996.

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