One of the biggest braces of zander ever recorded
LANDSCAPE Gardener Matthew Ward was left stunned when he banked one of the biggest braces of zander ever recorded in the UK.
The 35-year-old recorded specimens of 11lb 9oz and 17lb 9oz during a trip to Upton-on-Severn and both obliterated his previous personal best of around 6lb.
He said: “The larger zander gave me quite a strange bite – initially I just tightened up to my float, thought ‘this feels a bit heavy’, and I was into the fish.
“I soon realised just how big the zander was as I eased it towards the net, and I was praying that it didn't come off!”
Both of Matthew’s zander fell to chub livebait fished via a float-paternoster rig.
Surprise perch catches in matches
When Gary Hampshire’s tip pulled round he suspected a carp to be the culprit, so you can imagine shock when he realised he was connected to this immense perch, caught on would you believe it, the bomb and pellet!
The fish came during a tricky day fishing at Doncaster’s Lindholme Lakes, where his 6mm bait was picked up by the special fish.
“At first, I thought it was a carp,” Gary revealed, “but when it broke the surface, I was absolutely gob smacked! I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Unfortunately, I didn't have any scales, but I ran back to van and got the tape measure.
“The fish was 48cm long, and I would guess it weighed over 4lb.”
Yorkshireman Darren Richards was also in for a shock when he banked this 4lb 3oz perch during a Christmas match with his local angling club.
Fishing the River Wharfe in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, Darren had been catching small dace, so he decided to change his hookbait in the hope of something larger.
“I thought I would try hemp and caster in the feeder with a small piece of worm on the hook for maybe a bigger dace or small perch,” Darren explained.
“I didn’t think for one minute I might catch a fish this size - it only just fit in my small landing net!
“I was and still am buzzing about catching a specimen fish and a new PB.”
The fish equals the Wetherby Angling Club’s record perch, and Darren went on to win the match with a weight of 4lb 7oz.
Predators for the taking
PREDATOR anglers utilising lure and deadbait tactics have been enjoying unrivalled sport from giant pike of late.
Here are three monster pike reports to get you in the mood for a weekend of predator action!
Bailey Metcalfe 28lb 3oz pike
Bailey’s 28lb 3oz beast devoured a popped-up mackerel
After years of trying and miles of travelling for a monster pike, Bailey Metcalfe finally achieved his goal when he banked this sublime 28lb 3oz specimen just two minutes from his house!
Targeting a slack bay on a bend on the River Aire in Yorkshire, Bailey tempted the specimen on a popped-up mackerel tail legered in 13ft of water.
He said: “Catching this pike is a moment I’ll never forget. It’s the fish of a lifetime and possibly the biggest ever to be caught from the Aire.
“After years of searching I’m absolutely made up to have landed the fish so close to home.”
Richard Miller 32lb 8oz pike
Richard’s pike ended his 25-year-quest for a Fenland ‘thirty’
Fenland pike don’t get much better than this immense 32lb 8oz specimen landed by Cambridgeshire angler Richard Miller.
The fish brought an end to a 25-year quest for a Fenland 30 which came during a very cold and frosty morning.
“I received a sequence of bleeps on the alarm and hit into the fish,” Richard said.
“During a very subdued fight the pike seemed to get bigger as the battle went on, and it was so big that it broke my landing net!
“I was over the moon to have landed it – it’s the pike of a lifetime and I don’t think I’m ever going to better it.”
Mariusz Blaszczyk 30lb 4oz pike
This 30lb 4oz esox broke Mariusz’ landing net!
A few final casts on the way back to the car paid off in style for Mariusz Blaszczyk who banked this immense 30lb 4oz pike from Leeds DASA’s stretch of the River Ouse.
The big predator came during a short four-hour lure session with his son Kacper, where other pike of 12lb and 16lb were also banked.
Mariusz said: “We stopped at a few fancied swims before heading home, and on my second cast I had a bang on the lure - it was fish on!
“A few seconds later I realised I was into something big as I couldn’t lift it from the bottom.
“When the fish surfaced, we both just said ‘wow, what a monster’.
Mariusz’ ‘thirty’ measured a length of 118cm and similarly to Richard’s catch had also broke his landing net!
Bristol Avon dace record equaled with 1lb 2oz 8dr specimen
MARK Everard’s decision to fish through howling 40mph winds, heavy rain and a rapidly falling temperatures paid-off superbly with the capture of this plump 1lb 2oz 8dr dace.
Undeterred by the less-than-ideal conditions the University Professor trotted breadflake over liquidised bread on his local Bristol Avon to hook into several roach and dace, but the 1lb 2oz 8dr fish proved to be the highlight of the session.
He said: “I set the Bristol Avon dace record back in 1996 with a 1lb 2oz 8dr fish, equalled it in 2009 and now I have equalled it again!”
“What is interesting is that this new fish, a female, has not yet put on much in the way of spawn and could be heavier come the new year.”
TWO-HOUR DRIVE REWARDED WITH A 2LB 11OZ AVON ROACH
A TWO-hour drive to the Hampshire Avon was ‘more than worth it’ according to Roy Jones who banked a 2lb 11oz roach during his latest visit.
The Hertford-based artist float-fished maggots into an area of slack of water and enjoyed sport from small roach, dace and chublets throughout the day but struck into something much bigger near the end of the session.
Roy said: “I knew straight away that it was a big roach and it was panic stations when it approached the net and I saw just how big it was!”
2lb 11oz of prime Hampshire Avon roach for Roy Jones
Chew pike smashes personal best by more than 30lb!
FEW ANGLERS have held a 30lb pike so when Alyssa Williams’ second cast of the trip produced this immense 34lb 14oz specimen she couldn’t believe her luck!
The huge predator, which completely annihilated her previous pike best of 8oz, was tempted from Somerset’s Chew Valley Reservoir during a day session with her husband Sam Jones.
Speaking to Angling Times, Sam revealed that the tremendous catch would never have happened had he not let Alyssa have a go with one of his rods.
Alyssa’s pike weighed an incredible 34lb 14oz
He said: “Alyssa had been pestering me for ages to have a go but when I finally caved in I didn’t expect her to catch a monster!
“She did it all herself: mounted the small herring on two single hooks, drove the bait boat 80 yards out and dropped it before eventually landing the fish.”
Prior to hooking the pike Alyssa missed a take from a trout but wasted no time making sure her bait was back out on the spot.
“When she had the take from the trout I gave Alyssa a bit of advice on how to hit the bites,” Sam added.
“After the pike took the bait Alyssa picked up the rod, wound down and hit into the fish, and straight away it took off across the surface.
“The pike then began to kite behind a small tree so I waded out a bit to guide it away before slipping it into the net.
“I knew it was over 30lb, and when the scales spun round to 34lb 14oz we couldn’t believe it – Alyssa was over the moon!”
Alyssa’s pike is one of the largest caught from Chew this season and just one of a handful of fish caught by the American in the UK.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 2007 Newcastle-based Lynn Baker banked what’s believed to be one of the largest UK pike ever recorded by a female angler. It weighed 39lb 8oz and devoured a sardine deadbait during a trip to Scotland’s Lake Menteith.
Lynn Baker’s giant 39lb 8oz pike caught from Lake Menteith, Scotland
FIRST CHUB TRIP OF THE WINTER PAYS OFF WITH 7LB 2OZ SPECIMEN
A MAIDEN visit to a new river couldn’t have ended any sweeter for Kevin Sanders who left later that evening with a new chub personal best of 7lb 2oz.
The 42-year-old from Cambridgeshire pinned his hopes on the River Lea for a few bites but had to wait until dusk for some action.
He said: “I tried several swims through the day with only a couple of knocks for my efforts but when I went back to my first swim for the evening my tip pulled round into something very heavy!
An absolute chunk of a chub for Kevin - and a new PB!
“It was a strong fish making several runs but eventually I coaxed this huge fish into the net.
“At 7lb 2oz it beat my previous PB of 6lb 7oz.”
Kevin’s fine chub fell to a wafter hookbait wrapped in paste.
8lb 1oz chub is one of season's best
ROBIN Cave has slipped his net under one of the biggest chub of the year weighing an incredible 8lb 1oz.
The specimen ace was itching to get back on his favourite stretch of the River Thames after recent floodwater rendered it unfishable, but had no idea his first outing would yield a new personal best.
He said: “I know there are some big chub in this stretch so to draw them in I baited a small amount of pellet and crushed boilie, before fishing a 22mm Oxford Carp Baits GS Crab boilie over the top.
“As the light faded my tip shot over and after scrappy ten minute fight I finally landed my prize – a chub weighing 3oz bigger than my previous pb!”
Robin’s 8lb 1oz giant beat his previous PB by 3oz
Matchman turned speci-ace banks 3lb 7oz roach!
A MATCH angler trying his hand at specimen fishing has hit the jackpot with the capture of a 3lb 7oz roach from a venue without previous history for the species.
35-year-old Tim Dabrowa had his mind set on catching a huge redfin from his home county of Cambridgeshire and believed a carp syndicate would give him the best chance of achieving his goal.
He told Angling Times: “I joined an angling club earlier this year which has a carp water under its control and I just thought there would be a chance of it holding some roach.
“I’d fished it on and off since August and managed to catch them to 1lb 14oz which was fantastic, but I’d always knew there’d be a bigger fish.
In a mad half-an-hour, Tim banked roach of 1lb 12oz and 3lb 7oz
“During my latest session I arrived at the lake for 7:30am but it was freezing cold, so it was no surprise that after two hours I’d not had a bite!”
Tim was close to calling it a day when he saw a big roach top 40 yards out and quickly positioned his helicopter maggot feeder rigs on the spot.
It was a move that proved to be successful just moments later…
“The bobbin started pulling upwards and I struck into what I knew was a big roach by the classic heavy plodding and headshakes,” Tim added.
“My heart started thumping as this giant silverfish made its way into my net.
“I quickly cast back out and added a 1lb 12oz fish before losing another on the next cast – it was a mental half-hour of fishing!
“I just have to go back and target a bigger one – I fell I’ve only just scratched the surface on this lake.”
Tim’s new personal best devoured red and white maggots dipped in Geranium oil.
British record barbel - the full story...
THE BRITISH barbel record has been beaten following the capture of a 21lb 2oz giant.
Self-confessed pleasure angler Colin Smithson, who banked the fish from an undisclosed river in Sussex, revealed that he ‘almost drove into a ditch’ when a friend told him that he had just beaten the national best for the species.
The fish beats the old record, set by Grahame King with a fish from the Great Ouse in 2006, by just 1oz, and was taken during a short afternoon session on a club-owned stretch of river.
Colin (60), who retired last year, revealed how the capture was just reward for the countless blank hours he had spent on the tricky, low-stock waterway over the past 15 years.
“It’s a difficult river. You could go every day for three months and not catch a fish, so this one has been a long time coming,” said Colin, who caught the fish on November 7.
“On the afternoon that I caught it, the conditions were brilliant. The river was 3ft up and coloured, and still rising steadily. I fished the swim for an hour then introduced some sticky groundbait on the crease line of a marginal slack to put down a scent trail.
“After an hour or so a big mirror carp rolled in front of me and sent up a sheet of bubbles from my spot. After a while I called my daughter and said ‘I’m going to give it another 25 minutes as I think something might happen’… and it certainly did!”
When he got the bite, Colin presumed he was playing the big carp he’d seen roll earlier, and it wasn’t until the back-end of the fight that his opinion changed.
He said: “The tip went knock, knock, bang! And my first thought was ‘I’ve got that carp on’. The fish it was doing big loops around the swim, making really strong runs. When I finally got it to the surface I could only see its back, and at first I thought ‘Wow, it’s actually a common carp!”
“Things then got scary when it snagged me under the bank. I got it moving again, and when it hit the surface a second time I could see it was a barbel. My heart started pounding as it again dived for the same snag, but it all came good in the end!”
Colin’s catch was photographed and weighed in the presence of other club members, before being released. But it wasn’t until he was on his way home that Colin learned the significance of his capture.
“I thought that I had smashed the club record. When I told my friend Bradley Hughes the weight, he replied: ‘That’s not just a club record!’ At that point I almost put my car in the ditch! The next day I contacted the British Record Fish Committee and got the process going.”
The remarkable catch also evoked poignant emotions for Colin, as he revealed.
“I want to dedicate this catch to my brother Roy, who died a couple months ago aged 63. He lived for fishing and was a National disabled fishing champion. When I got the fish in the net I looked up at the sky and said: ‘I don’t know if that was you, but thanks Roy’. He would have loved to see this fish. It’s an incredible creature and I’m a very happy man – my Mount Everest has been climbed.”
The fish fell to a hair rigged pellet on a size 10 hook on an 8lb hooklink attached to a Banjo feeder, a pattern which Colin believes holds bottom well on rivers. He beat it using a 1.75lb Shimano Vengeance rod and a 6000-sized reel loaded with 15lb mainline.
Nine hours, one bite, 35lb!
Ronan Murray only had one bite during a nine-hour piking session... but he wasn’t complaining when it turned out to be from this huge 35lb 7oz fish!
Targeting a water in his Irish homeland, Ronan presented a floatfished roach to fool his quarry, and he knew he was into something a little bit special straight away.
“When I struck I realised instantly I was connected to a good fish, and after a long hard fight I eventually got her in the net.
“I knew this was close to my PB which stands at 36lb 4oz, from December last year, but when the scales stopped at 35lb 7oz I was still a happy man!”
Perch trip of a lifetime
Angling videographer Robert Theobald enjoyed the perch trip of a lifetime this week – smashing his personal best three times in the same day.
Topping Robert’s catch was this 4lb 1oz specimen, which was backed up by three more fish weighing exactly 4lb each. The superb haul was taken from the same reservoir where Robert filmed his friend Charlie Coppollo catching a glut of big perch last month. All of Robert’s fish fell to Berkley Pulse shads in a perch pattern, presented on Berkley all-round jig heads.
Monster chub comes out after dark
Chub don’t get much fatter than this 7lb 13oz cracker taken from the Great Ouse by James Crameri.
The train station supervisor, from Bury St Edmunds, was targeting a favourite swim on a fining-down river, but it wasn’t until the hours of darkness that the specimen pulled the quivertip round.
“It was the only bite of the evening although in fairness I didn’t fish much longer after catching it as my desire to continue had been overtaken by the size of the chub I’d just caught!” said James, who used a legered boilie on a semi-fixed rig cast to the crease, with a PVA bag of loose offerings nicked on to the hook.
Test in form for magical roach
A flurry of big roach have been caught from the crystal clear waters of the River Test in the past few weeks Angling Times can reveal…
One of the best hauls came from match angler Aidan Bordiuk, who swapped his pole for a float rod during a recent session on the Hampshire river and took three roach over the 2lb barrier, topped by a fish of 2lb 3oz.
After spotting a group of big roach, Aidan spent over an hour feeding maggots to gain their confidence, and on his first run through connected with ‘the fish of a lifetime’.
“The float dipped straight away, and I was into a roach of over 2lb – I couldn’t believe it,” said Aidan.
“Over the next few hours I caught fish of 2lb 3oz, 2lb 2oz, 2lb and 1lb 14oz, as well as lots of other fish over the 1lb mark.
Aidan used 3lb line and a size 18 hook below an Avon-style float to fool the crafty specimens.
Angling Dreams boss Adam Fisher also struck silver recently when he swapped the beauty of the Wye Valley for the equally scenic River Test and was rewarded with this fine roach of 2lb 5oz.
Fishing with Fisherman’s Blues radio host Nigel Botherway, the pair shared a swim which required them to trot baits through a deep run for both roach and chub.
Adam told Angling Times: “There was a hard and hacking upstream wind blowing, which made life tough even if it did help with our presentation. All the more reward to hook a fish like this!”
Adam fooled the fish on a single white maggot, ran through the swim under a float. The tactic also took a dozen other redfins over 1lb.
First grayling trip results in stunning lady
On his very first grayling trip, Alfie Naylor banked this stunning 2lb 11oz fish from the iconic River Itchen in Hampshire.
Using classic trotting tactics with a modern twist – braided mainline – the fish was one of over 50 fish that the Newark rod banked over the course of a weekend session.
Bumper roach haul after three day feed
A prebaiting campaign on his local River Itchen paid off handsomely for big-fish man Roman Vann when he put together an astonishing haul of roach to a top weight of 2lb 5oz.
Priming his swim with hemp for three days prior to his session, Roman waited until a low pressure front had moved in and he could see numbers of roach in the swim.
This resulted in a catch which included three fish over 2lb to 2lb 5oz, along with half a dozen over 1lb 12oz.
He told Angling Times: “The last three relatively calm and mild winters seems to have bolstered roach numbers and weights on the southern rivers.
“The plan seemed to work perfectly as each time I checked the swim the concentration of roach was increasing.
“When roach are feeding actively there is no need to fish too fine because you will just lose more large fish to hook-pulls.”
Romans haul fell to maggot feeder tactics with three maggots on a size 12 hook tied to a 5lb hooklength.
Big chub are rare on the Yare
THE River Yare isn’t noted for its chub sport but local angler Ben Parfitt proved otherwise when he slipped the net under this 6lb 11oz chunk.
Over the last month the all-rounder has been link-legering luncheon meat into likely areas on the Norfolk waterway, which culminated in a new personal best of 5lb 15oz around three weeks ago.
Believing that there was a bigger chub to be caught on his chosen stretch however, Ben persevered and managed to beat his chub record by almost a pound during his latest visit.
Big Thames chub the perfect remedy
DESPITE suffering from a severe cold Ken Hellewell braved harsh weather to get out and bank this fin-perfect 7lb 1oz chub.
The Farnborough-based angler reluctantly headed to a length of the River Thames and was forced to fish areas of slack water due to the floods.
He said: “I’d only fished for four hours as I really wasn’t feeling well, and I had to settle of fishing the slacks as the river was so high.
“I’d fed four areas with liquidised bread and fished a chunk of flake over the top on the hook.
“It was my only bite of the session but at 7lb 1oz I was very happy I’d made the effort to get out.”
Meaty hookbait fools Ouse specimen
Every season the Great Ouse produces big chub, and for Mark Austin the river certainly didn’t disappoint with this cracking 7lb 9oz specimen.
Targeting a stretch of the river in Milton Keynes, the big chub took a legered Pallatrax ‘Meatbeast Squabs’ presented on a size 8 hook.
Mark revealed that this tactic has been effective for other fish from the same stretch: “I smashed my Chub PB (previously 6lb 13oz) with this stunning fish at 7lb 9oz,
the same tactic has also produced five big chub over 5lbs in two sessions along the same stretch.”
Angler lands giant sturgeon twice in one month!
IN the fishing world lightning does indeed strike twice, as Stuart William Larkin found when he caught the same giant sturgeon two times in the same month.
The monster fish bottomed out Stuart’s 70lb scales the first time he tempted it from Hollyhurst Lake Fishery near Birmingham, but little did he know he would have to do battle with it again two weeks later.
It took a liking to two very different hookbaits too, the first time falling to a quarter tin of luncheon meat and the second time a pair of 10mm boilies.
