Many anglers choose to target chub in the winter months as the fish are at their biggest weights and due to their greedy nature will still feed in the toughest of conditions.
One angler who has started his quest for the species early, however, is specialist Adrian Eves, who has enjoyed some spectacular early season sport on the Hampshire Avon, topped by two 7lb-plus specimens.
"For the first time in a long while I have just been summer fishing on a river, where it is possible to watch and learn from the fish," he told us.
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“The Avon is pretty weedy at this time of year but, having found an area of clean gravel between weed beds, I introduced a few handfuls of pellets and boilies and the fish were immediately on the bait.
“My opening gambit was to use a 3oz inline lead and a 15lb soft braided hooklink, both from Fox. My thinking behind these components was that they’d act as a bolt rig and stop the fish mouthing the bait and getting away with it. My hookbait, a 15mm Crab and Cray boilie from NX Baits, was fished alongside a small PVA bag containing just six of the same."
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Immediately Adrian's approach paid off, and on his first four casts he landed three good chub of 5lb exactly, 5lb 8oz and 6lb 1oz.
Resting the swim, he was able to catch a few more fish before he decided to venture off downstream where he thought the bigger and more cautious specimens would be hiding.
“On my first cast to the new area I had a violent take, and a heavy fish managed to get in under the nearside bank vegetation – a classic chub move," he said.
“At 7lb 5oz, it was my third-biggest chub ever and a summer PB. I was amazed to have one so large this early in the season."
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After a quite spectacular day of fishing he returned the following morning to pick up where he left off...
“Casting to the very end of the swim, I connected with a heavy fish that put up an uneventful fight but turned out to be a giant at 7lb 7oz. It was another summer PB, and my second-biggest chub of all time.
“So, my advice is, don’t wait till winter to start your chub campaign – sneak out for an earlier session or three.
"Granted, the fish won’t be at their peak weights, but you can learn lessons about your quarry that’ll serve you well for the rest of the season.”
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