Brian Hankin’s PB chub of 7 lb 10 oz caught from the upper Witham on Friday 6th December…

‘It was my first visit to the venue since March as constant high water had left the river unfishable for many weeks. After getting odd knocks in one swim I rebaited it with mashed bread and minced beef and moved upstream for a few hours’

‘A gut feeling found me moving back to the original swim with a slight change of tactics using a cage feeder with a longer hook link and using a maggot and flake cocktail on a size 6 hook’

‘I eventually managed to convert a bite to a hooked fish that stayed deep and felt very heavy in the strong flow. First I thought I’d hooked one of the rivers rare barbel but when the fish surfaced I realised it was a massive chub and after a bit of to and throw I managed to steer it into the landing net’