Alan tells the story of the capture:
“The river was exceptionally low and clear with an abundance of summer weed still present and I spent a good hour and a half flicking my link ledger across underneath a far bank willow experimenting with different hookbaits including: cheese paste, bread, meat, Neon Squidgees, pellet, worm and maggot but other than a few chublets I didn’t have a sniff.
My final bait choice and my last few casts were using small IC1 dumbell boilies that I took out of the freezer the night before and had laced with the new Fish Frenzy Magic Mix attractor.
On my second cast with the glugged boilie the tip slowly pulled round and I connected with a good fish and I had to really lock up as the fish tried to bury itself under the willow roots and even once I had got it away from them it was then a challenge to stop it from sticking its head into the mass of underwater cabbages. Once over the cabbages the fish stayed deep and it wasn’t until I got it to the near bank that I finally got its head up – and my heart missed a beat when I saw the size of it.
Typically, the landing net was attached to a mass of brambles and as the fish made another dive for the main current I found myself not only fighting with the fish but also my landing net with brambles attached! Eventually the net was free and the chub gracefully slid into the bottom of it.
I’ve had plenty of big 5lb chub but never a 6lb one and I knew that this fish was something very special and so it was as it weighed in at 7lb 14oz.
I spoke to the fishery boss, Jerry Hammond, about the fish and he recognised it due to the distinctive markings on one side where it had once been hit by a pike, leaving a marbled scale appearance. He confirmed it was one of the really big fish in the stretch and its last recorded capture was nearly 12 months ago at 8lb 4oz.
My tackle was an Avon rod with a 2 1/2oz tip, a Shimano 5010 Baitrunner Reel
loaded with 8lb Mainline and a 0.19mm hooklink with a size 12 prototype Peg One hook. The ledger set-up was simple with a 1.1 oz Nash lead.”
