Bream turns into monster chub!
Mike Staines had a silver surprise on a recent session, when fishing for bream on the River Lea he hooked into a giant chub of 7lb 13oz.
He told Angling Times:
“I ventured over to the Kings Weir Fishery on the River Lea at 11am and planned to fish for the big bream that live there all the way up until the afternoon.
I managed two slabs of 7lb 11oz and 7lb 13oz whilst using maggot feeder tactics but decided to switch one of the rods to an open-ended feeder with groundbait and a pellet hookbait just before it got dark.
The logic was that it would be easier to attract the fish to a smellier bait but It would also gave me a better chance of catching a barbel or a chub – which grow very big in this river.
At 5:40pm I landed an 8lb 14oz bream on the pellet set-up but an hour later the same rod signalled yet another very good bite.
The tip absolutely hammered round but unlike the bite, the fight was very sluggish as the fish came straight to the surface and was eased into the net first time!
To be honest I thought it was another bream, but when it turned out to be a chub I was absolutely delighted.
“It’s one of the biggest chub caught from King’s Weir this season.”
A hat-trick of Ouse chub - Phil Mapp
“Over my last two sessions targeting the River Great Ouse I’d managed to catch a brace of chub on each day, so I was determined to catch three in this trip to finally tick-off the ‘hat-trick’.
Using a roving approach with link-legered breadflake, I targeted snaggy areas and by 9am I’d had my first bite – a small chub weighing 4lb on the nose.
By 12:30pm I had one of 5lb 3oz in the net so there was plenty of time to tick off that third fish!
At 2:40pm I got an indication on the tip that I leaned into, and immediately this strong fish tore off downstream under some snags.
After gaining some line and pulling the chub into the crease I regained control and eventually the flow pushed the fish round into the margin where she graced the net.
At last I had the hat-trick I’d been searching for thanks to this excellent 6lb 14oz chub, which gave me a grand total of 16lb 1oz for the day.”
"I've done it again - another Ouse giant!" - Vito Napoli
“My rod remained motionless in eight swims and I was beginning to feel defeated.
“I continued scouting around and spotted a nice crease under an overhanging willow tree which looked too good to miss.
“I kneeled down in position and lobbed a nice lump of cheddar cheese into the crease and bounced it under the tree.
“The rod tip soon pulled hard to the right and an immense scrap commenced.
“I thought it was a barbel until it emerged from the water and thrashed its tail in anger!
“I was surprised and ecstatic because I knew it was going to be another PB – I had only caught a 7lb 3oz best a week prior!
“After she was measured and weighed I was gobsmacked as she came in at 7lb 11oz.”
"I had achieved my target - a 7lb 10oz chub" - Ben Fairweather
“Unfazed by two blanks on my favourite stretch of the Dorset Stour I planned my next session and introduced some bait after work. The following evening I arrived in the swim, fed some more bait then lowered-in my simple rig – a 14mm boilie accompanied by a small PVA bag of crushed boilies.
Two hours later I hooked a hard-fighting chub which ran me around the swim like something possessed!
It weighed 7lb 10oz which meant I had achieved my target for the winter.”
Mega night of Trent chub!
We all like catching a chub or two, so imagine Mitch Godfrey’s delight when he landed 10 of them for 53lb!
Mitch had been baiting a swim on the River Trent with Polony boilies for five nights, and once he dropped on to it, he was in for a session to remember.
“The chub came thick and fast right from the off,” said Mitch.
“Fishing from dusk until midnight I managed 10 fish between 4lb 8oz to just under 6lb – it was an amazing night!”
Chunky Chub with a Taste for Cheddar
This thick-set chub almost had Vito Napoli fooled for a barbel, but he was pleased when this 6lb 15oz chub popped up.
Fishing with a lump of cheddar cheese under an overhanging Oak tree, Vito felt a few plucks on the line before his tip pulled round.
“Initially I thought I'd locked onto my 19th barbel of the season,” Vito revealed,
“it shot off like a missile, but as I turned the fish it started to dive deeper down towards cover. It showed no mercy all the way to the net.
“It had a huge head and shoulders, it’s been eating well and will definitely make a very special fish later on in the season.”
Britain's longest river has anglers in Severn heaven!
ANGLERS fishing the River Severn for chub are currently being treated to some of the largest specimens ever seen on the river.
Topping this week’s reports are a pair of 7lb-plus fish, with the highlight being a 7lb 4oz monster.
Roger Carswell was the fortunate captor of the larger specimen, which he described as one of the biggest Severn chub he had heard of, in his nigh on sixty years of fishing.
The Shrewsbury based rod told Angling Times:
“Recent conditions on the River Severn have been exceptionally good for January and it's been a dilemma whether to target chub or barbel.
“Following a couple of decent chub and a 5lb barbel, the swim went quiet, and I was considering a move – then the tip bent purposely around again.
“After a bum-twitching fight, I was soon looking down at the flanks of one of the biggest chub I’ve ever seen in my landing net.
“Severn chub do seem to be getting bigger in recent years, this may be due to the reduced barbel population – I’ve had quite a few six pounders over the last couple of seasons.”
Roger’s fish fell to a piece of bread flake mounted on a size 6 hook tied to 6lb hook-link, with a 2oz cage feeder delivering liquidised bread loose-feed.
The second biggest chub from the Severn this week fell to Phil O’Callaghan, who caught a chunky 7lb 2oz fish from the upper river.
Bread was also the winning bait for Phil, who followed up his new personal best with another fish of 4lb 11oz – both on link legered flake.
It's chub time!
IF YOU’VE been trying to up your chub personal best then now is a superb time to hit the bank, as a flurry of specimen catches have proven.
Here are the stories behind three ‘sevens’ to get you inspired to get out chubbing…
Simon Baker 7lb 9oz chub
SIMON Baker’s decision to sit in the dark for over an hour to pre-bait his swim with maggots worked an absolute treat, as he latched into this sublime 7lb 9oz chub just 20 minutes into fishing!
It proved to be the 30-year-old’s third 7lb-plus chub of the season, with a single maggot fished on a size 20 super spade proving to be the difference between failure and success.
Simon said: “The first cast was made and within 20 minutes the float disappeared. A very heavy chub sat in mid flow slowly being teased until finally netting my first chub of 2020.
Ken Hallewell 7lb 6oz chub
“I WAS so lucky to land this one as I was fishing in a real jungle of a swim,” so said Ken Hallewell who battled this mint 7lb 6oz chub from the snags into his net.
The Farnborough-based angler targeted his local River Thames stretch and lowered a bread feeder with flake on the hook just behind a raft, thinking it’d be his best chance of a bite.
“A drop-back bite registered on the tip and I had to play this strong fish very hard from the off, as there were snags in every direction!” Ken said.
Robin Adcock 7lb 2oz chub
AFTER years of trying to catch a 7lb-plus chub Robin Adcock was elated to slip his net under this 7lb 2oz specimen.
Pinning his hopes on the Middle River Trent, Robin enjoyed several runs from barbel up to 13lb 4oz during the night but struck into something altogether different when morning arrived…
“At first I thought it was another barbel but when I had it in close it tried to dive in to the bank side cover, then I had my suspicions it could be a chub,” he said.
“After a great scrap under the rod tip I was elated to see it was a monster, and a new PB at that.”
A single 14m cheesy garlic pellet was Robin’s successful hookbait.
Huge Yorkshire chub landed at dusk
Yorkshire chub don’t get much better than this 7lb 2oz specimen landed by Tony Stockdale from the River Swale.
Hitting the bank on Boxing day, Tony settled into a swim that he deliberately left alone until dusk.
“I started to get tiny indications on the tip and then missed a couple of shy bites,” Tony revealed, “but I finally hit into a heavy fish that turned out to be a new PB Chub of 7 lbs 2 oz.”
Tony added a fish of 6lb 5oz afterwards, both of which fell to breadflake fished beneath a cage feeder filled with liquidised bread.
Floods see side stream throw up monster chevin
THIS CLONKING 7lb chub nearly took Mark Austin through every snag in the swim but with a bit of force and determination he finally steered it into his net!
It proved to be Mark’s second 7lb chub of the season which also came from a stretch of the River Great Ouse near Milton Keynes, although the fish were in a different area this time around…
“All the recent floods had moved the chub into a side stream of the main river, which is normally overlooked as it’s shallow and narrow,” Mark said.
“I legered some meat paste under a sunken tree and I soon hooked this chub, which powered off downstream through lots of snags, and I had to really put the pressure on land it.”
Magic ten minutes for 13lb chub brace
HOLDING two fish up for the camera can be a bit of a balancing act but Rich Brown managed to display these fantastic 6lb and 7lb 6oz chub with ease!
Both came within a magic ten-minute window during a session on the River Great Ouse and each found Rich’s cheese paste-wrapped cork balls too good to resist.
“After the ‘6’ my rig went straight back out and the tip started thumping again,” he said.
“My mate came over, grabbed the net and shouted, ‘That’s special’ – he was certainly right!”
'Gut feeling' results in massive Witham chub
Chub don’t come much better-looking than this pristine 7lb 10oz example landed by plastic factory worker Bryan Hankins.
Targeting a remote stretch of the upper River Witham, Bryan managed to get on its banks for the first time since March due to high water levels that had left it unfishable.
It wasn’t long before he was into a large fish, that at first, he believed to be one of the venue’s elusive barbel…
“When I hooked the fish, it stayed deep in the powerful flow and felt very heavy.
“I thought I was a barbel but when the fish surfaced, I realised it was a massive chub.“After a bit of to-and-froing I managed to steer it into the landing net before peeling back the mesh to reveal a scale-perfect fish in immaculate condition.
“It is certainly one of the biggest chub the river has ever produced and is a new PB for me. It’s blown me away” Bryan said.
And Bryan may have missed out on the fish, had he not followed to an instinct to return to a swim he’d tried earlier in the day.
“I had odd knocks in one swim that didn’t materialise, so I rebaited it with mashed bread and minced beef and headed upstream for a few hours.
“A gut feeling pulled me back to the original spot, and with a slight change of tactics, using a cage feeder, a longer hook link and a maggot and flake cocktail on a size 6 hook, I managed to connect with the fish.”
Rolled cheese banks massive Ouse chevin
CHEESE is a bait often overlooked by anglers but when Vito Napoli legered a cube of cheddar during his latest trip he didn’t wait long before it was devoured by this cracking 7lb 3oz chub!
The Bedfordshire rod, who is a member of the Chub Study Group, hooked into the powerful fish during a visit to a flooded River Great Ouse but had to squeeze into a narrow swim to ensure he could fish an area of slack water.
He said: “I decided to go fishing without checking the river levels and soon found myself on a raging OXO-coloured Great Ouse…I was half expecting Augustus Gloop to float past!
“I persevered however and quickly found a tight swim with a nice slack thanks to two hawthorn bushes either side.
“I rolled the cheese right under one of the hawthornes and within minutes my rod tip twitched a couple of times.
“I honestly thought it was debris, so I lifted the rod then bang! – the cane hooped over in half!”
What followed next was one of the greatest fights of Vito’s fishing career as this powerful fish tried to shake the hook in the fast current…
“It was a tremendous fight in such a tight area,” Vito said.
“It lasted for five or so minutes and just hugged the bottom – trying to headbang its way to cover under the other hawthorn bush.
“Eventually I saw my lead appear from beneath the murky water followed by a flash of silver, but she bolted into the net.
“I knew I’d caught a real zoo creature!”
At 7lb 3oz the fine chub beat Vito’s previous best of 6lb 6oz, which he caught just a week prior.