Len Arbery caught this excellent chub weighing 7lb 5oz just over a week ago from the Thames. The former Drennan Cup winner and well respected big fish specialist explains how he caught it: 

After the weekend’s rain I was quite surprised to see the middle Thames in perfect chub fishing condition. That is, with a bottle-green colour and having little flow. My usual touch-legering tactics accounted for a 4lb 2oz chub after about an hour spent in the first swim. That was the only bite, so I moved farther downstream to large slack area.

After noticing a couple of ‘unhittable’ small indications on the quiver I changed tactics to a coil of silver-paper as a bite indicator. I then missed the first bite, but made no mistake with the second!

This hooked fish took quite some line off the clutch, more like a carp than a chub but, after a tremendous tussle, a chub it proved. And what a chub at 7lb 5oz! It was 23 inches long with a 16 inch girth.

I had two further bites here before ‘drawing stumps’ – one from a 3lber, the other a very pleasing specimen weighing 5lb 2oz.

My tackle included an original Drennan Bomb Rod, Drennan Feeder, a fixed-spool reel, loaded with Whiplash braid. A short link leger stopped 3ft from a size 6 T6 Raptor hook, completed the outfit. Bait was plain old-fashioned cheese paste.

This 7lb 5oz chub is my second biggest ever (the best being last season’s 7lb 8oz). It is also my second ‘seven’ this winter, which has also seen me land fish of 6lb 5oz and two 6lb 12oz specimens.