Thank you to Northampton’s Jamie Cartwright for this truly spectacular photo of his brace of 7lb+ Chub from the River Great Ouse taken in late October.
Jamie is a member of the Northampton Specimen Group and has a glittering angling CV studded with very big fish of various species – and incredibly, after spending some time Bream and then Barbel fishing this season, these fish came on his first Chub trip of the autumn!
Jamie tells us he visited Carpin Capers Tackle Shop in Northampton on the Friday late afternoon to stock up with necessary bits, and was on the river and ready at 6am on the Saturday morning! This effort paid off as he quickly bagged Chub of 5lb 6oz and 5lb 14oz, both on CC Moore’s Meteor Boilies.
On the Saturday evening it was pouring with rain and the planned Barbel trip next day got cancelled as Jamie’s mate didn’t fancy it! So Jamie switched gear and was up at the crack of dawn again for another Chub trip, only to fail to raise a bite in his first swim. However, his first cast in his 2nd swim produced a ‘clonking Chub’ of 7lb 4oz! Whilst resting the fish in the net and whilst readying his camera etc, he had another speculative cast, which soon resulted in the tip banging round!
“This fish thought it was a barbel and was without doubt the best fight I’ve ever had from a chub! I could see during the fight that it was another big fish but as it came up to the net it looked every bit as big as the first, which lay beside it in the net. It was in fact a younger looking fish weighing 7lb 1oz with a small head and huge belly full of Meteor boilies. Not a bad morning’s fishing and it was still only 9am!” said Jamie.
Jamie used his old faithful Drennan Super Specialist Duo 12ft 1½lb rod and CC Moore’s Meteor Boilie as both feed and hookbaits for all the Chub.