Neil Wayte got agonisingly close to his angling holy grail of catching an 8lb chub with this clonking 7lb 12oz Thames fish.

The fish was the last bite of a night that saw Neil catch 5 chub in total from a spot in the middle of the river. Neil told Angling Times: “This is the second 7lb chub I’ve had in the last two weeks. With the fish being this size in July, who knows how big some of them could be in the winter”.

Neil caught all his fish on Mad Baits Pandemic dumbbell boilies fished on a size 8 hook. He baited the spot consistently with hemp and presented a large PVA bag filled with 8mm pellets and crushed boilies over the top on each cast.