Karl Glease enjoyed his first day back on the river this season, targeting chub on his local River Wear with Simon Ashton.

“The session started off quite frustratingly,” he admits. “I could see some big chub just under some overhanging trees and tried to tempt them out to no avail. The time was running out and I knew I had to just go for it, so I catapulted some small 4mm halibut pellets, which spooked them out of their safe haven. At this point, I cast my rig straight over to where I had seen them swimming around, as tight to the tree as possible.”

Karl used a running 1oz lead with a 2ft hooklink of 5lb 8oz Supplex to a size 12 Super Specialist hook. For his hook bait, he used a single Crab & Crayfish 15mm boilie attached via a short hair to ensure the boilie was tight up against the hook. Before casting, he also nicked a small PVA mesh bag of crushed boilies onto the hook.

“Once my rig was in place the chub took just under 30 minutes to return to the cover of the tree. Another 30 minutes passed without a single touch. I started to think about packing up and moving but, to my surprise, the rod tip arched over and I was into my first chub on the River Wear. After a few tense moments, it finally slid over the net. I gave it a few minutes to recover, before taking a few quick photographs and weighing it. The scales swung around to 5lb 4oz. My biggest fish from the Wear. What a start to my river season!”