Its body is long and cylindrical in shape and is covered in large greenish-brown scales which are edged with narrow bands of black across the back, paling to golden on the flanks and even paler on the belly.

It is most abundant in small rivers and large streams in the "barbel zone" where there are riffles and pools.

It occurs along the banks of slow-flowing lowland rivers in large lake and even in mountain streams.

The males aggregate at spawning sites and will follow the ripe females, often with much splashing, to shallow riffles.

Females lay pale yellow sticky eggs which adhere to the gravel, weed and stones in flowing water.

Chub can also be contaminated by metal pollution such as copper, magnesium and sodium which can accumulate in tissues like the muscle, gills and liver.

Small chub are freely biting fish which even inexperienced anglers find easy to catch.

Consequently, large chub (in excess of 2 kg) are keenly sought by anglers who prefer to target specific fish.

The British angling record for chub was broken on 16 March 2012 when Neil Steven caught a 9 pounds 5 ounces (4.2 kg) fish from the River Lea in Essex,[13] though there are several over 10 lb on the Angling Trust's Top 50 list,[14] which have been deprecated for various reasons.

Some anglers do this without any weights and let the bait slowly drift downstream with the line steadily moving through their hands, slugs and luncheon meat are excellent for this method.

More obvious, shiny flies that imitate small fish may work for more aggressive chub, this method is all-year but best in warmer months.