Rivers on fire for huge chub!

River anglers across the UK are turning their attentions to big chub with a string of popular waterways producing their biggest fish of the season.

Laurence Hanger realised a lifetime ambition of catching a chub over 7lb when he slipped the net under this superb 7lb 4oz specimen.

He’s put in thousands of hours on the River Loddon to achieve his goal, and everything came right when he pinched a single SSG shot on to 6lb mainline and trundled a maggot hookbait close to an overhanging tree to get the bite that brought his new personal best.

“I’ve worked so hard for this fish and to finally land it really made this session one of the greatest days of my life,” said an emotional Laurence.

“I started the session with an aligner rig with a huge PVA bag filled with around half-a-pint of maggots to try and get everything as close to the tree as possible. But after a biteless hour I changed tactics, and it worked almost immediately.”

The River Severn has produced two of its biggest-ever chub, the first being this claimed 8lb specimen (left) banked by Darlach AA member Peter Thompson, who’s fished the upper river for the past 40 years.

Like Laurence, he opted for a single SSG shot to hold bottom, but his hookbait of choice was a large cube of luncheon meat.

Meanwhile, on the lower Severn, a legered tutti-frutti boilie proved to be the right hookbait for Upton’s John Gough when he banked his first chub over the 7lb mark, tipping the scales at 7lb 4oz.

He beat the fish with the help of a braided hooklink and a size 8 Drennan hook, the same set-up that he used to land a double-figure barbel during the same session.

“These fish are wising up to pellets and I think they fill themselves up on them, so I have been using a mixture of Bait Tech groundbait mixed with Vitalin, corn and meat. This has really done the trick,” said John.

“It’s just a shame the pictures of the chub didn’t come out very well at all.”