Dream end to greatest ever river season!
ANGLERS around the country enjoyed a prolific end to what may go down as one of the best seasons ever on the country’s rivers.
There was a host of big fish landed in the last couple weeks of the season, including these specimens reported to the Angling Times News Desk…
Robin Cave 9lb chub
WHEN Robin Cave embarked on his final session of the river season he had no idea he was about to catch a near British record chub weighing 9lb on the nose. The 59-year-old builder from Oxford latched into the clonking chevvin on a paste-wrapped boilie, which was fished next to a snaggy tree on the River Thames.
“I’m still buzzing now – I thought my 8lb 1oz chub from earlier in the season was special, but this was something else,” Robin told us.
Warren Hammond 8lb 1oz chub
NOT many anglers can claim their first chub on a new rod weighed 8lb 1oz, but Warren Hammond can! It was a personal best for the 51-year-old electrician, who trotted red maggots on his 15ft Drennan Acolyte set-up during a visit to the Dorset Stour. Warren says:
“I can’t think of a better end to my season than this!”
Garth Sykes 18lb 3oz barbel
IMAGINE smashing your barbel personal best twice in a single session – well that’s exactly what Garth Sykes did during his final visit of the season to the Tidal Trent. Using boilies to target a slack area of the river over a 48-hour period, the Leeds-based rod hooked and battled specimens of 15lb 10oz and 18lb 3oz. He says:
“When I saw that the reading on the digital scales had gone over 18lb, my legs started shaking!”
Phil Smith 30lb barbel brace
“Fishing boilies next to a tree at Castor on the River Nene, I managed to catch barbel of 15lb 1oz and 16lb 5oz between 10:30am and 3pm.
“I normally stay on the river until last knockings, but I drove home at 5pm with a huge smile on my face! Former PDAA bailiff Mark Smith got in contact later that evening to tell me that at 31lb 6oz, my barbel brace was the largest ever recorded from Castor. I was truly over the moon.”
James Champkin 4lb 3oz perch
“I’d been catching some nice 3lb perch on the River Lea, but a four-pounder eluded me for months. With a couple of days to go before the end of the season, I decided to have another crack in the area with lobworms fished over maggots and broken lobs. Within an hour I had lost a big fish, but just a few minutes later I received the all-important bite that resulted in my longed-for ‘four’.”
