8lb 14oz chub is one the biggest ever caught from a river

THIS is a picture of one of biggest chub ever landed from a river, weighing in at a colossal 8lb 14oz.

It was banked by Simon King from the ultra-tough Fishers Green stretch of the River Lea in

Hertfordshire, and marked the successful culmination of a decade-long campaign by the 51-year-old to land a ‘monster’ from the popular southern river.

The Osprey Specimen Group member smashed his previous personal best for the species by a whopping 15oz after landing the fish, which is the biggest specimen banked from the venue since Neill Stephen’s record-shaking 9lb 4oz chub caught in February 2012.

Simon (51), a company director from east London, used a boilie hookbait in a bid to avoid the venue’s notorious crayfish population, and also took another fine chub weighing 6lb 2oz in the same session.

"People might think that there are loads of 8lb chub out there with regular pictures appearing in the press, but many big fish are re-captured, so to bank a near-9lb chub like this, which I strongly believe is an unknown specimen, is more than I could have dreamt of,” he said.

“Due to the coloured water and increased flow the true size of the fish didn’t register until I went to lift the net. It was so heavy I really thought it was snagged up on something, and then when I peeled back the mesh I was terrified by the sheer size of the fish – it looked truly massive!”

Simon used a smoked salmon-flavoured boilie from All Season Bait Developments, and presented his offering on a short coated braid hooklink in conjunction with a 2oz lead on a safety clip and 10lb mainline.

“There aren’t that many bigger, solitary chub in the river these days and the crayfish can demolish standard baits like worm and bread in minutes while you’re waiting for fish to make an appearance, so that’s why I use boilies and a coated braid hooklink. I agree with Neill Stephen, who believes that it must be the crayfish part of the fish’s diet which has been pushing the weights of these chub up significantly in recent years.”