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.”
Specimen angler bags brace of 5lb plus chub
Packing up after a blank opening period would have been the easy option for Paul Elt buthe will be glad he stuck at it as he eventually fooled a brace of 5lb plus chub from his local waterway.
The Cambridgeshire-based all-rounder constantly fired maggots into the swim for over two hours without a single indication on the float but his perseverance was more than worthwhile when the first big specimen fell for a bunch of grubs flavoured with Dynamite Baits Red Fish Liquid.
It didn’t take long for the float to shoot under again, with another fish of a similar size being netted.
“With temperatures so low and no bites to show for my efforts early on, I did begin to question my sanity but a little patience soon turned it in to a red letter day,” explained Paul, who used 4lb mainline and a size 16 hook.
Match fishing legend banks personal best chub
Match angling legend Denis White had two reasons to smile after the latest match on the Yorkshire Ouse as he netted a 5lb 14oz personal best chub which helped him take a spot in the frame.
The former England international drew peg 254 on the Linton stretch of the waterway and took a gamble by fishing a groundbait feeder packed with maggots to the far bank in search of an elusive bonus fish.
It was a ploy that came good, with his only bite of the day coming from the big specimen which secured second place.
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.”
Big River Waveney chub netted by carp angler
A few hours chub fishing ended with Rich Wilbey netting this big specimen from the River Waveney but its true size will never be known as his scales broke moments before he was about to weigh it!
The Airfield Lakes boss took time out from his carp fishing exploits to target the scenic Norfolk venue and decided to ignore the usual hookbaits and use a whole mussel.
“The rod was bent double for at least 20 seconds but I eventually turned it around and coaxed it into the net,” explained Rich.
“I managed to land a 4lb 12oz chub a couple of days before but this was much bigger. It had a head like a cod and I was distraught when I realised my scales had clonked out,” he added.
Maggot feeder tactics score for 6lb 9oz chub
A SHORT window of opportunity between torrential rain showers was all Darran Goulder needed to slip his net under this fine River Lea chub.
Targeting a stretch of the waterway at Carthagena, the seasoned all-rounder from Kent took the fish on his first cast after casting out a maggot feeder rig incorporating an ultra-short 1in braided hooklink.
“I thought I might be in for a good session after such a promising start, but the rain got steadily heavier and the river started to rise before my eyes - within a couple of hours it was bordering on unfishable. With all the water we’ve had recently, it just goes to show how the timing of trips this winter is going to be critical, said Darran, who beat the fish using 11lb Power Pro braid straight through to a 50g Kamasan Black Cap feeder, which the 28-year-old had adapted to fish inline.
His hooklink was 6lb Drennan Super Specialist Braid, attached to a size 16 Super Specialist hook carrying a single maggot.
Maggots scoring for big chub
THE pulling power of maggots for specimen chub has been proven once again this week with two anglers catching fish over the 7lb-barrier.
Raphael Kyte demonstrated experience beyond his years when he twitched his hookbait across the bottom of a swollen River Great Ouse to bank this 7lb 11oz specimen.
The 14-year-old Northants-based schoolboy found his favourite stretch of the waterway way above its normal level, so headed to an area off the main flow where he thought the fish might be holding up.
After settling in a swim with an overhanging tree on the far bank he cast a simple maggot feeder rig towards the feature and repeated the process every 15 minutes in a bid to coax any resident fish out from the snag. And to make his triple maggot hookbait even more appealing he slowly edged his rig back towards him before reeling in.
“After about an hour I felt a very heavy fish pulling back against the rod tip,” said Raphael. “It took me about 10 minutes to get it to my own bank and even then it kept trying to bore under the rushes by my feet. I finally got the better of it and called my dad, Patrick, to come and help with the weighing. On the scales it smashed my old best of 4lb 9oz which I caught from the River Nene in the summer.”
Another angler to break the 7lb-barrier using maggot tactics was well-respected big fish hunter Alan Stagg - slipping the net under a superb 7lb 3oz specimen during a trip to a southern river.
A maggot hookbait and a PVA bag filled with around half a pint of white grubs proved to be the winning combination for the Hants-based Gardner Tackle media manager. After a spirited fight he beat his prize with a rig comprising of 10lb mainline, a coated braid hooklink and a size 12 hook. He said: “I had a feeling there was a chance of catching a decent fish from the river before the cold snap. It was a very long fish and not one which I recognise from venue.”
