Can you identify the mystery fish?
When Pete McKay landed this impressive fish during a pleasure angling session on a tidal stretch of the River Trent, at first he thought that he had caught a huge chub.
Upon closer inspection of the impressive 6lb 2oz specimen, however, he realised that something wasn’t right and so asked the opinion of his fellow anglers along the stretch.
Most thought it was an ide, some were sure it was a chub, while a few considered it to be a hybrid of some sort.
“A couple of the lads were adamant that it was an ide, and I’m minded to believe them, but ideally I would like the views of an expert just to be sure,” Pete told Angling Times.
Four separate pictures of the fish have now been sent to fish identification experts at the Environment Agency, and the results will be posted on this website as soon as we receive them.
88lb haul wins River Severn match
The great start to the river season continued when the winner of the latest event on the Severn landed 88lb 12oz of barbel and chub.
Over 40 anglers lined the banks of the waterway at Linley Bank to take part in the Nick Gretton Memorial and it was Basildon’s Tony Peploe that managed to steal the show after he bagged the impressive net on pellet feeder tactics with a 6mm banded offering as hookbait from peg 47.
The backing weights also included healthy numbers of specimen sized fish, with Paul King taking the runners up spot with 52lb 6oz and third placed Brian Rigby hauling out 47lb 2oz.
Angling Times visits the UK's best big fish canal
Angling Times has just visited a canal that has produced chub to over 7lb, and fish in excess of 5lb are coming out regularly to match and pleasure anglers.
The cameras turned up to see how specimens like this are landed on pole tackle and we weren’t disappointed, in the company of one of the best canal matchmen in the Midlands.
The venue is also full of carp, perch and bream, is fishable on a £2.50 day ticket and you can go for miles without seeing another angler – don’t miss the feature in next Tuesday’s Angling Times and catch a video of the action at gofishing.co.uk.
Big chub catch wins River Swale match
Maver and Mary’s Tackle rod Graham Skirrey showed once again why he is considered one of the top river anglers in the north when he bagged a winning 58lb of chub during the latest event on the River Swale.
With 45 quality anglers lining up to take part in the Northallerton DAC Cup, it was always going to take a good weight to scoop the victory and Graham managed to do just that by taking 16 fish on the bomb with either caster or wasp grub hookbaits from peg 31 at Scruton.
Backing weights were equally impressive, with runner up Mark Mossman taking 42lb 2oz.
Opening Day River Catches
Rivers are off to a flyer with the highlight of opening morning a 34lb carp believed to be from a Cambridgeshire waterway.
The River Wye has seen the chub on the feed with eight in eight casts coming to Angling Times regular Terry Knight, whilst fishing the Red Lion stretch with Dynamite baits’ Red Robin boilies.
And barbel have been showing on the River Rother at Beignton as well as the weirs of the Trent. Boilies again taking the fish.
Elsewhere, Jason Ward has tackled the locks on the Nene around Northants and lured six perch over 2lb on floatfished lobworm and bleak livebaits.
Mail your pictures and reports to abigail.brewster@bauermedia.co.uk
River Yare 6lb 14oz chub is best in years
Jon Cranswick has every reason to be ecstatic at the capture of this pristine 6lb 14 oz chub, because it’s believed to be the biggest specimen to be caught from the River Yare in more than 15 years.
To say it’s tough to catch a fish of this calibre from the Norfolk waterway is an understatement, as the angler from Norwich has been targeting its chub populations for the past three seasons and has revealed that he could go almost a month without a single bite.
After finding a deeper area on the upper reaches of the river he put his faith in home-made cheese paste in conjunction with a simple feeder packed with liquidised bread.
This is the first chub over the 6lb mark that Jon has landed from the Yare, and his well-earned specimen was beaten with the help of 6lb Maxima tied straight through to a size 8 Drennan hook.
Could 2010/11 was the best chub river season ever?
The river season ended in spectacular fashion for the nation’s specimen hunters this week, with big chub stealing centre stage as the curtain came down on another year of running water sport.
Leading the way was Alan Stagg, who put in the hours on the River Loddon for a stunning 8lb 5oz chub.
The Basingstoke-based rod, a frontrunner in this year’s Drennan Cup competition, had spent a month prebaiting a couple of swims every other day before finally hitting the jackpot.
“I fished an evening session at a spot where I’d been trickling in some hemp, 6mm Elips pellets and dead maggots for a few weeks, but didn’t get a bite, so I moved to another area, which also proved fruitless. Ultimately I ended up back in the original area the next morning and at 8am had a proper wrap-around bite,” said Alan.
“When the fish came up in the clear water I initially thought it was a good seven. But when I unhooked and weighed it, and the needle shot past the 8lb mark, I knew that my ticket had come up and all the hard work had paid off ,” he added.
Alan tempted the fish, which smashed his old chub pb of 7lb 9oz, on two maggots fished ‘mag-aligner’ style on a size 12 Mugga hook, a 14ins soft braided hooklink and 8lb Hydro Flo mainline.
The capture comes at the end of a sensational campaign that has seen the Gardner Tackle employee bank perch to 4lb 1oz, a number of huge roach to 3lb 8oz, barbel to 15lb 8oz and rudd to 2lb 6oz.
“I thought the roach would be the highlight of the season, but this chub has now taken over as the pick of the lot. I’d known about these fish for a few years, and wanted to catch one so badly,” said Alan.
Elsewhere, George Whiley capped off his River Lea campaign by smashing his personal best with an 8lb 11oz chub – the biggest example of the species landed anywhere in the country this season.
Just a week after banking a huge barbel of 15lb 9oz, the 56-year-old returned for another short session, and adopting ‘roving tactics’ with a lump of chopped ham on the hook, latched into the enormous chub in only the third swim he tried.
“I primed six swims with free offerings and then fished them for 15 minutes each. In the third, touch legering in the margins, I felt a gentle pluck followed by a slow pull. The fish ran straight across the river, flat-rodding me and making me think that I had hooked another big barbel!” said George.
At first glimpse, the Cheshunt-based rod instantly knew the fish would comfortably beat his old chub pb of 7lb 8oz. “As she slid over the net I gave a huge sigh of relief as I gazed down at a chub of the size I had only dreamt about,” he added.
George used 10lb Power Pro braided mainline, 8lb fluorocarbon hooklink, size 4 Carbon Specimen hook and a two swan shot link leger to beat the fish.
TOP 10 CHUB OF 2010/11
8lb 11oz, George Whiley, River Lea
8lb 8oz, Steve Fenton, River Lea
8lb 8oz, Laurence Mason, River Lea
8lb 6oz, Keith Little, River Lea
8lb 5oz, Alan Stagg, River Lodden
8lb 2oz, Andy Clark, River Lea
8lb 2oz, Mick Millborrow, Hants Avon
8lb 1oz, Leighton McDonnell, Great Ouse
8lb 1oz, Adam Smith, Dorset Stour
8lb 1oz, Simon Giblin, River Lea
Huge chub dominate catches on the River Lea
In the mid-1990s, when the impact of the ‘first flight’ of cormorants was felt by those who fished our major rivers for roach and dace, I commented that the most serious effects would be felt in years to come, when year classes of fish had become seriously depleted.
In many instances, and on some rivers, the roach and dace stocks have recovered – indeed, several well-respected anglers have said that this season about to close produced the best sport for these species in their angling career.
What worries me is this – where is the next generation of chub?
A few friends fish the River Lea regularly for chub and, once found, they are not difficult to catch, even the really huge fish. I believe they are a single year class, at best two.
When no mega-chub are caught, no chub are caught. There are no pounders, twos or threes to go at – it’s either massive or nothing.
By my calculations, these Crown Fishery monsters that seem to spend much of the year in Carthagena weirpool, or Dobbs Weir, and leave in winter when there is some flow appearing in certain swims over a mile or so of river, arrived in the 1980s so they are approaching 30 years old. They can’t be long for this world and, like cheap flights, when they’re gone they’re gone. If there is another generation coming along behind, they don’t seem to be caught, even in the warmer months when small roach appear quite frequently in decent bags.
With the bottom a carpet of signal crayfish, plenty of perch of all sizes and no shortage of pike, will we ever see chub from the Lea once this super-stock have died?
It isn’t only the Crown or Lea Navigation: the ‘Old Lea’, best known for Fishers Green, I suppose, has a similar situation and, although I’m not so close or so much in touch with the river, so does the Throop Fishery on the Dorset Stour.
If it does happen, I will be the one saying “I told you so...”
Huge haul of big chub was best session in 60 years' fishing
A float rod, a reel loaded with 3lb line and two pints of maggots were all Bill Bristow needed last week to compile his best-ever catch of big chub in over 60 years of fishing.
Wind and rain held no fears for the 68-year-old Chippenham, Wiltshire man who spent the day trotting a float on the Dorset Stour to take 17 big chub to an impressive best of 6lb 11oz.
Using just 3lb mainline and a size 20 hook baited with a single red maggot, Bill also took fish of 6lb 10oz, 6lb 1oz and 6lb, as well as four others over 5lb, for a total bag weighing more than 75lb.
He said: “I arrived at 7.30am and fed the swim for an hour, catapulting out a pinch of red maggots every few minutes, before making my initial cast. I took my first chub on about the third or fourth run down, and from then on it was steady action all day long. My second fish was a six-pounder, and so was my last ¬ it was a remarkable day and the fish just kept coming.” Bill has caught plenty of big chub from a host of venues in the past, and boasts an impressive pb of 7lb 8oz, a fish taken from the River Lea. But he ranks this latest haul as his best in six decades of angling.
“I’ve had bigger, and some great hits, including four ‘sixes’ in a day before, but to catch four sixes backed up by four fives and then nine other fish makes this the best catch of chub I’ve ever had,” he said.
Some may look at Bill’s fine tackle approach to catching big chub by design and wonder if it’s strong enough, but he was quick to dismiss such worries.
“I didn’t lose a single fish on the day. Balanced light tackle will land far bigger fish than you might think,” added Bill.
ANGLING ART GALLERY – NOW IN THE GO FISHING SHOP!
Go Fishing is offering anglers the chance to own a limited edition print from legendary angling artist John Searl this week.
We’ve just secured the final, limited stocks of six incredible pieces of artwork, plus his latest book, for Go Fishing users in what could be the best investment deal of 2011.
John Searl is our finest angling and wildlife artist and these magnificent prints from his own watercolour paintings are a much sought after, especially as most are limited to just 50 prints.
Each print is hand signed and hand numbered by the artist himself, and reflect a whole host of classic angling moments captured forever.
“Some of John’s original prints have sold for thousands of pounds in auctions and galleries over the years so they make a sound investment,” said Steve Fitzpatrick of Angling Times.
What’s in store?
John Searl Pin Perfect print – LIMITED EDITION 100 PRINTS
Price £95 + £5 p&p
Exclusively commissioned for Angling Times and Shimano to celebrate their 90th Anniversary, this is John Searl’s latest artwork and feature’s Britain’s favourite species – the roach.
CLICK TO BUY
John Searl Under the Bridge print – LIMITED EDITION 50 PRINTS
Price £95 + £5 p&p
‘Under the Bridge’ is a celebration of Britain’s favourite species of fish – the roach – and depicts two specimen-sized river redfins leaving the sanctuary of their weedbed to feed on anglers baits – hemp and sweetcorn - trickled in from a bridge overhead.
CLICK TO BUY
John Searl On the Float print – LIMITED EDITION 50 PRINTS
Price £95 + £5 p&p
Just 25 remain of this Limited Edition print and each one has been hand signed and numbered by the legendary angling artist John Searl. On the Float is a celebration of winter river fishing and depicts a brace of huge chub taken from on the Hampshire Avon.
CLICK TO BUY
John Searl Lady of the Stream print – LIMITED EDITION 50 PRINTS
Price £95 + £5 p&p
This is a sneak peek at a rarely seen underwater environment and its inhabitants and takes the angler into the realm of the grayling, one of Britain’s most enigmatic species of fish. Only 20 of the 50 prints remain.
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John Searl Winter Magic print – LIMITED EDITION 100 PRINTS
Price £95 + £5 p&p WAS £125!
Possibly John Searl’s most famous watercolour ‘Winter Magic’ depicts a catch any angler would be proud of with a brace of chub of 6lb 3oz and 6lb 1oz joined by an equally impressive trio of roach weighing 2lb 12oz, 2lb 6oz and 2lb 2oz, all caught by the angler himself. Just 40 prints remaining.
CLICK TO BUY
John Searl Hampshire Avon Map print
Price £35 + £5 p&p
Any angler who has fished the famous Hampshire Avon will love this watercolour artwork from legendary angling artist John Searl. This unique angling map immortalises the famous river and it’s wildlife.
CLICK TO BUY
John Searl Chalkstream Roach book – LIMITED STOCKS
Price £35 + £5 p&p
‘Chalkstream Roach – the Ultimate Challenge’ by John Searl is the definitive book that all roach and river anglers will love to own.
Every aspect and style of roach fishing has been covered, from trotting and stalking in Summer and Autumn, to traditional bread-fishing in Winter.
CLICK TO BUY
Personal best 6lb 5oz chub caught from the Trent
A short session on an undisclosed stretch of the River Trent in Nottinghamshire ended with Simon Lewis landing this 6lb 5oz personal best chub.
After netting a pb 6lb specimen a fortnight ago from a virtually untouched area of the waterway, the Nottinghamshire-rod was determined to repeat the feat ¬ and returned to do just that.
With darkness setting in, the specimen hunter felt the opportunity to meet his goal had passed, but his kit was eventually called into action when the ‘lump’ fell for a small dumbbell boilie presented on a bolt rig setup.
Running water debut session sees 5lb 1oz chub landed
Warrington-based specialist Gary Knowles and 20-year old river ‘novice’ Brad Parkes shared a red letter day with a 5lb 1oz chub falling to Brad on his running water debut.
The day’s fishing on a Stoke-on-Trent AS stretch of the River Dove – a prize for Brad’s enthusiastic involvement with the Staffordshire Youth Organisation – saw the pair land nine chub on cheesepaste and breadflake tactics.
Garry said, “I told Brad I’d saved one more pool for us to try after dark, and he touch legered as we chatted. With five minutes left he struck into his biggest fish!”
11-year-old catches the chub of a lifetime plus video footage
One of the biggest chub caught this season has been landed by an 11-year-old school boy.
Weighing in at 8lb 8oz the fish of a life time was caught by Jamie Vine while fishing stillwater carp syndicate Grenville Lake in Cambridgeshire. The big specimen, which is one of three fish recorded at the weight this season (the other two coming from the river Lea), was caught by accident after it fell for the youngster’s popped up maggot hook bait, intended for the resident carp.
“We didn’t know the significance of what he’d caught to start with,” Jamie’s dad Alan, who he fishes with, told AT. “I had a drop back bite on one of the rods and Jamie grabbed it. We thought it was a small carp to start with until we saw it in the net but didn’t know that it was less than a pound off the current record.”
Amazingly the fish isn’t the first large chub to come from the 72 acre lake, with a specimen of 8lb 10oz landed by another carp angler - and venue owner Paul Ward thinks there could still be bigger to come. “The fish got into the lake when the near-by brook used to flood,” he told AT. “I’ve been out on the boat and seen some huge chub swimming just under the surface. I’m sure a very big fish will come out sooner or later.”
Jamie Vine sent us some camera phone footage of the fish, which can be seen below...
Simple tactics catches three chub for 18lb
Big-fish man Paul Elt has banked three chub for nearly 18lb on simple
floatfished maggot.
The St Neots, Cambs-based angler took fish of 6lb 3oz, 5lb 12oz and 5lb 11oz in a short session on a club stretch of the Great Ouse.
He opted to fish the float - a method that has accounted for a series of huge chub this winter, including an 8lb 2oz fish from the Hampshire Avon.
Here he tells the story of how he did it.
“In the early morning gloom I could just make out the dull orange glow of my small Avon float as it drifted downstream, dangerously close to the branches of an overhanging willow.
“It had travelled only a short distance when the orange tip vanished. A gentle strike set the tiny red hook and a chub was on...now the fun could begin.
“Catching winter chub on float gear is one of my favourite methods, whether the venue is a small brook or deep, wide river. Waiting until dusk or dark for perhaps a single bite on cheesepaste or boilie is old hat, so when conditions are right a float, small hook, light line and two pints of maggots are fine.
“Snow-melt or coloured water is the scourge of the maggot angler so I studied the weather forecast intently. With the worst of the winter weather seemingly behind us and no recent rain as such, I was confident I would find my local River Ouse in perfect trim - low, with a hint of bottle green.
“Arriving at a favourite swim in the dark I could just make out that the level was good and the surface glassy smooth - conditions were perfect.
“I filled my ESP bait belt with red maggots that had received a good glug of Dynamite Red Fish liquid, then catapulted a pinch of the grubs across and upstream of my run.
“The swim was not an obvious one. A small willow barely overhung the water, a tiny slack behind it creating a perfect lie for winter chub. A submerged branch downstream was barely noticeable. I felt confident.
“My choice of rod was a 14ft float model from Drennan - it affords good control of the float and the tip is soft enough to cope with the small hooks needed to fish maggots. I’ve recently started tying my own spade ends, something that greatly improves presentation. After trying several patterns, Red Maggot in size 16 is always a starting point.
“With 4lb 4oz Drennan Floatfish mainline to a 3lb bottom, the Avon float was cocked by a 4g olivette around 12ins from the hook - preferred over shot because it prevents tangling. A tiny dust shot a few inches below and everything was ready to go.
“An under-arm flick sent the float out across river and into the desired spot. Seconds later and it disappeared.
My strike met with a bent rod and for a split second I thought I’d hit a snag. For several minutes the fish didn’t move more than a few feet from where I’d hooked it but gentle pressure on the rod started to ease it up in the flow and for the first time I saw my float just below the surface.
Gently I guided the chub to the waiting net. At nearly 6lb it was a great start to the day.
“With the sun now well up, I continued to trickle in maggots. An hour passed before the float blipped momentarily, barely enough to be called a bite, but enough to tell me something was down below sipping in the passing grubs.
Time to stop the loosefeed - and two trots later the float buried. Bingo!
“After successfully landing the first fish, a second made its way into the net, again hooked in the top lip. This one pulled the needle steadily round to a satisfying 6lb 3oz.
“A red letter day was on the cards and with another big ‘five’ joining the trio before I lost a good fish in the snags it was time to head home.
“A classic winter’s day fishing the float can be hard to beat.”
Match fishing tactic produces huge River Lea chub
The South East’s River Lea has proved itself as one of the most prolific running waters in the country this week, throwing up two huge fish of different species.
Steve Fenton drew on past matchfishing experience to bank the joint biggest chub of the year from the river – a chunky specimen that topped the scales at a huge 8lb 8oz.
Targeting the tough Fishers Green stretch of the river on the Essex/Herts border, the Hertfordshire specimen hunter used a pouchful of maggots to coax the resident chub into feeding, despite river temperatures recovering from an all-time low.
This approach did the trick, with a homemade cheesepaste hookbait wrapped around a hair-rigged cork ball tempting the specimen.
The fish smashed his previous best for the species by 14oz, as well as equalling the biggest chub of the season so far.
“I used to be a keen match angler, and the introduction of a few maggots is a great way to get an indication if there’s anything in your swim because you will often get a few small knocks as the fish respond to the maggots,” Steve told Angling Times.
“This worked like magic because I had one quick pull on the tip, so I re-cast and five minutes later I hooked into the chub.”
“I knew the chub was over 7lb when I got it in the net, but it wasn’t until I put it on the scales that I realised exactly what I’d caught. It just goes to show that everything you learn in fishing comes in useful, even if it’s not from the same discipline.”
Steve landed it on a leger rig made with 7lb fluorocarbon hooklength and a size 12 hook.
Throop Fishery produces stunning chub haul
A total of 42lb of chub from nine fish is a good day’s fishing in anyone’s book, especially when one of those fish is a specimen of 6lb 9oz.
For angler Eddy Widdup, who cannily got out of shopping for the day to get on the bank, the catch made for a day to remember.
Fishing the Throop fishery on the Dorset Stour, Eddy went armed with four pints of maggots, targeting the stretch’s Beat Two peg with float gear. Trotting a stickfloat down a long glide, Eddy used a light 0.09mm hooklength and a size 20 hook and took a while to catch the first fish, but then they just kept coming.
“The pattern worked out with me spending 15 to 20 minutes feeding then I had a couple of trots through the swim which produced a fish each time,” Eddy told AT.
“I had nine chub in total between 3 and 6lb 9oz. Most were around the 4lb to 5lb mark. I totted them up in the end for 42lb. All in all, a good day’s fishing.”
8lb specimen chub head a glut of heavyweight fish from across the country
One of the most prolific weeks in chub fishing history, seeing the capture of two 8lb-plus fish and several 7lb specimens, proved that there has never been a better time to beat your personal best for the species.
This was definitely the case for a trio of carp anglers who decided to spend a few days ‘chubbing’ on the Hampshire Avon. Switching to the river because all of their local waters were frozen, the anglers from Ringwood, Hampshire, managed an amazing haul of specimens, with featured fish weighing 8lb 2oz and 7lb 4oz, along with no less than five fish over the 6lb mark.
Catching the big eight was Mick Millborrow who hadn’t cast a line on the river for over 30 years until his first trot of a fl oat with a maggot hookbait, which produced the 8lb 2oz monster - a new personal best for the specimen hunter, and what is believed to be the river’s biggest specimen in over five years.
The most prolific angler of the group, though, was Richie Martin – also from Ringwood – who stuck to a game plan of floatfishing maggots and a little-and-often trickle approach to feeding, the result of which were chub of 7lb 4oz, 6lb 14oz, 6lb 10oz and 6lb, along with several smaller fish.
Last, but certainly not least, was Mike Fugar, who also used a fl oat rig with 4lb line and a size 16 hook to win the battle, with specimens topping the scales at 6lb 12 oz and 6lb 8oz.
“It was what fishing is all about,” Richie told AT. “We were all doing something a bit different to our normal style of fishing and shared an experience and catches that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.
And what makes it even more special is that our biggest fish came from an area that isn’t one of the known hotspots.”
Another river angler who took advantage of the red-hot chub conditions this week was Simon Diblin, who showed the importance of taking a selection of hookbaits by smashing his personal best twice in one session, topped off with a magnificent 8lb 1oz specimen.
After failing to tempt any of his original target, the River Lea’s specimen perch, the all-rounder from Harlow, Essex, moved on to a swim at Carthagena Weir in search of big chub.
Finding the fish a bit elusive to start with, a quick change of bait to an inch section of the Hot & Spicy Peperami worked like magic as a new personal best of 5lb 8oz soon came to the net, quickly followed by the huge specimen.
“I tried fishing a bread feeder with a piece of flake on the hook and I got a few finicky plucks on standard meat, but I’m so glad I put a stick of Peperami in my bag because the others just weren’t working,” said Simon, who presented his legered bait on a size 10 hook to a braid hooklength.
“A lot of my time is spent carping, so the lightest rod I had for chubbing had a test curve of 2lb, which seemed a bit heavy,” Simon continued, “I’m glad I had the extra beef in the end though, because this fish had so much power.”
Winter chub is a Throop Fishery record
The thaw is on and the chub are feeding hard, with a stream of catches coming from the nation’s rivers since Christmas.
The biggest specimen to be landed came in the form of a new Throop Fishery record for the species. But far from falling to a pellet casting specimen hunter, the 8lb 3oz chub was landed during a contest held on the famous Dorset Stour fishery to matchman Nigel Groom.
Just a few ounces heavier than the previous best from the stretch, the fish fell to trotted maggot during a Ringwood and District Angling Association match. The fish, however, didn’t give Nigel a big enough overall weight to take the top spot. That went to RDAA match secretary Peter Hutchinson with over 31lb.
“It was a beautiful fish, long and fat,” Peter, who witnessed the new record told AT.
“It took Nigel over 10 minutes to land because it held on in the heavier than usual flow.
“Sadly though, no one thought to take a picture of the fish, which is a real shame.”
Also producing specimen chub was the River Blackwater in Essex. Following on from his catch of what is believed to be the biggest brace of the species ever taken from the waterway landed a few weeks ago, Alan Stagg returned to the river to take yet another big fish. At 5lb 15oz the specimen was tempted from under a far bank raft and was followed by two smaller fish of 4lb 6oz and 4lb 12oz.
“When I arrived at the river and saw ice in the margins I nearly went straight home,” the Gardner Tackle-backed angler told AT. “I gave it a few hours though and took all the fish using bread flake with a cage feeder packed with hemp and cheesy garlic flavoured liquidised bread.” Alan’s tackle consisted of 6lb Hydro Flo main line through to a size 8 Talon Tip hook.
Another fisherman to take advantage of the chub sport recently was Bedfordshire angler Lez Reed. Fishing the river Ivel at Biggleswade on Boxing Day, Lez legered breadflake on a size 10 hook to 5lb line straight through to tempt his 6lb prize, along with a 4lb 8oz fish, during a short afternoon session.
