Creek Chubs

[Andymorg]

Is anybody else having no luck catching any creek chubs in the central/west part of the state? I have been hitting every spot I’ve seen or heard of creek chubs for the past 2 weeks and haven’t caught or trapped a single one. Is it maybe water levels? At this point I’m stumped. Any pointers?

 

[measure-it]

Suckers will be the go-to big bait now that they're legal.

 

[KDM]

Do you really expect someone to post up their productive bait spot for tens of thousands of fishermen to then gps plot it and strip mine it of bait into oblivion? That said, I will give up a trick I have used to find some real honey holes for creek chubs in an effort to help a bunch of folks. Find a topo map of the area you want to fish and look for steep ravines that lead to a river. Not a creek, but a river. The longer the ravine the better. The reason you want to look for these locations is that when it rains the runoff will flow quickly to the bottom of the ravine and then flow slower to the river giving time for the creek chubs to find the flow and go looking for the worms, bugs, and other food flowing into the river. Then look for accesses close to that ravine and find out who owns that dirt and go ask permission to trap minnows. Walking a hundred yards or so will eliminate 99.99% of folks looking for creek chubs. Fishermen, and most people for that matter are lazy. If and when you find a good spot.....KEEP YOUR PIE HOLE SHUT!! Did you hear that part. Hope so, because it is the only barrier between a full bait well or a waste of time and effort. Also, the best creek chub spots I've had are only good at short, specific times of the year. In the spring during their spawn, the week or so after a good rain, and for some reason right around corn harvest time. At least the corn harvest by Ft KDM. I think that might have something to do with falling water temps and the warmest water is in those slight flows up that ravine. Sorry for the long winded post. Hope you find a spot or two. Good Luck!!

 

[MSA]

you're not going to see good chub numbers until a big storm/rain comes thru and floods the creeks. Run off was almost nothing this year, so new chubs couldn't run upstream and fill the pools. Any spring with no run off chubbin sucks until a big rain floods them for a day or two.

 

[Davy Crockett]

If you guys decided to try river fishing/trapping for them would you expect them to hang in an outside bend due to more current ? Or they are where they are . Iv'e read shallow and fast running water but that's about it.

 

[Rowdie]

The creeks are low. I haven't put any traps out this spring and now I usually just use crawlers, leeches, n cranks till fall

 

[MSA]

If you guys decided to try river fishing/trapping for them would you expect them to hang in an outside bend due to more current ? Or they are where they are . Iv'e read shallow and fast running water but that's about it.

every time I've tried for them on main rivers like the mouse I'm lucky to even catch 1 or 2. usually the trap is just full of crayfish, bullheads, a few minnows, and some madtoms.