Decade wait for a pb chub ends with a 7lb 13oz specimen

SOME anglers won’t let anything come between them and their fishing goals - and Gareth Goldson proved he’s one of these dedicated few after a gruelling campaign, that saw him travel over 1,150 miles, resulted in two huge personal best chub weighing 7lb 13oz and 7lb 4oz.

The Hardy and Greys consultant has been trying to beat his pb for the species for the last 10 years and finally achieved his target after getting up at 2am to make the six-hour round trip from his home in Cromer, Norfolk, to the River Ouse in Bedfordshire.

It’s a journey he’s made on 10 different occasions, some of which were solely to introduce bait into his chosen swims, and this time he struck gold with a trio of specimens that also included a 6lb 10oz fish.

It was this tireless dedication, along with an attack based around the introduction of Dynamite Baits’ Source boilies and a matching hookbait mounted on a simple link-leger rig, which saw him finally realise his dream and beat his previous biggest chub of 7lb 1oz.

“It’s been really tough dragging myself out of bed at 1.45am, making the three hour drive down to the river and then fishing a couple of hours before it gets light,”  Gareth told Angling Times.

“But this is when the big chub are usually at their most confident and to beat my personal best twice in one morning makes all of those hours in the car worthwhile.

“I knew that if I religiously kept the bait going in then it would give me the best chance of getting among the better stamp of fish and it was these spots that produced the goods for me.

“All of the chub came from a stretch that is seldom fished and can be very frustrating because of the amount of crayfish that it holds. But my catch proves that if you put the work in and have confidence in what you’re doing then you don’t have to visit the popular stretches to get results.”