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.
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.
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.”
Chocolate river no problem for monster chub!
FLOODWATER has halted fishing on many rivers across the country but anglers targeting southern waterways are currently enjoying sport from a glut of specimen fish.
Hampshire specialist Simon Daley was one of them and he found success in pursuit of chub on the Dorset Stour with the capture of a 7lb 7oz giant.
The big-fish hunter, who made headlines a fortnight ago with a superb 16lb 13oz barbel, had intended to trot maggots for his quarry but a rapidly rising river forced a change of tactics.
He said: “The river was bank high and chocolate in colour, so trotting was out of the question.
“Instead I decided to fish the slacks with a strong-smelling paste hair-rigged to a size 8 hook, 8lb mainline and my favourite Drennan 1.25tc rod.”
Early in the session Simon thought his chance was gone when he missed a bite but a few taps on the tip five minutes before packing up was enough to warrant a strike.
He added: “I connected with a heavy fish and had to play it hard to keep it away from the snags.
“I was shocked when it surfaced – the length and girth was immense.
“I’m sure come February or March it’ll be a proper monster.”
Is this the new British Record dace?
A RIVER angler thought he’d hit the jackpot when he slipped his net under a suspected 1lb 10oz British Record dace, but EA scientists have now confirmed his catch is in fact…an ide.
The pristine silverfish fell to the rod of 47-year-old John Stembridge who hooked into something entirely different whilst trotting maggots for roach on a stretch of the River Itchen.
He said: “I thought it was one of the big roach but when I netted it I instantly thought it was a record dace!
“It had all the characteristics although I must admit the head looked unusual.”
After John reported his catch to Angling Times a picture of the fish was sent to Nigel Hewlett and Alan Henshaw of the Environment Agency for confirmation.
Alan said: “Unfortunately the lateral line scale count of this fish is between 60 and 61, which puts it firmly in the ide camp. Dace typically have between 48 and 51 (Bagenal system) or between 45 and 55 scales (Maitland and Campbell system), depending on your source.”
John Stenbridge’s giant ‘dace’ sadly turned out to be an ide