Drennan’s Stewart Moss caught this handsome chub recently while actually fishing for barbel on the River Nene.

The chub weighed just under 5lb and was one of several that could not resist a CC Moore’s Meteor boilie hair-rigged to a Drennan Super Specialist Barbel  hook and a standard leger setup. Despite using ‘over-gunned’ tackle, the chub were so ravenous a number were hooked by accident – a slight problem for the specialist angler in that each one causes unwelcome disturbance in a swim. This is generally undesirable when large, wary barbel are the quarry! However, with care on the part of the angler this can also be a plus, since the feeding activity of several, hungry competing chub can actually attract barbel into the swim.

Stew wished to point out that the slightly blurred red hawthorn berries and leaves etc are due to the high gusting Autumnal winds on the day, causing movement of both the trees and the camera (mounted on a bankstick)! High winds apart, Autumn is a really excellent time to fish for both chub and barbel – which are generally feeding hard in readiness for Winter to kick in.

The Drennan Super Specialist Barbel pattern is excellent for both barbel and specimen chub – the strong, heavily forged wire and needle sharp straight point help convert more pick-ups into bites, and are robust enough to land seriously big fish, eliminating the need to resort to even heavier hooks often designed for carp fishing.