TOP CATCHES

Your best fish revealed, including a giant chub from the River Severn

“I’VE CAUGHT chub to 6lb 15oz from the River Severn before, but the one I landed on a recent session was in an altogether different league.

“I was fishing at Coalport, a Rowley and District Angling Society water, and had been loosefeeding boilies for a while before casting out in a bid to get the fish competing. A short while later I had a few bangs on the tip and then the rod hooped over. Straight away the fish snagged me.

“It wouldn’t budge, so I slackened off the line and eventually it moved back out into the main flow.

“I could feel a heavy weight plodding around, but then it snagged me again, so I gave it more slack line, which did the trick once more. Suddenly, it leapt out of the water and I thought I was attached to a salmon – it had such a big tail. Once I’d eased the fish towards me and into the net I stood there shaking. It was a chub, and a huge one at that.

“I calmed myself down, and after weighing the fish on my digital scales they registered 12lb 2oz. I thought ‘that’s not right’ so I weighed it again.

In total, it was weighed six times, and on each occasion the scales showed 12lb 2oz. I released the chub and then weighed the net, which I knew weighed 1lb 7oz, and the scales registered this exactly, which means my fish weighed 10lb 11oz.

“I’m going to apply for the British record, but whatever the outcome, to me it’s one very special chub.”

Kam’s top tip: Use a mix of baits to keep the fish guessing. I used Dynamite’s The Source, The Crave and Complex-T boilies.