My 7-Day Search For A 7-Pounder

You’ll always learn loads and be inspired by this vastly experienced traditional angler, who also relishes exploring the latest coarse techniques…

- John Bailey

WHEN I’m guiding, one of the most asked questions that I receive is: do I ever fish for myself? There are lots of answers to this question, one being that my guiding often leads me onto a campaign of my own, just as it did last week.

My real joy these days is helping others realise their dreams, but I still have targets of my own, and a 7 lb chub is high on my list. Autumn is a great season for a great fish, so that target was at the forefront of my mind.

There are two ways to catch a 7. One is luck, something that you rely heavily on when winter comes. Once the water rises and colours, you have to be ‘the ambusher’. You are forced to sit it out in a ‘going’ swim on a river with a track record of producing chub. There’s no way that you can tell if the next bite is going to be from a midget or a monster, so you just have to hit them all and hope for the best.

Autumn offers you a different approach. While there is still low water, clarity and a reasonably high sun on all of our smaller rivers, from the Avon to the Yare, you can be ‘the hunter’. You can see, stalk and catch a 7 by judgment, instead of relying on luck.

Three days out with Ian and Andy set the scene. They both wanted to fish a river, and we all wanted to see big chub.

“Wouldn’t a 7 be nice,” said Andy. My question was: which river? Big mate Robbie Northman seems to be capable of catching them off every river in Norfolk, but in the end I settled on a four-mile, largely day ticket stretch of the Wensum, where I knew there would be some monsters lurking. Exciting stuff!

These are guys after my own heart, both happy to wander, travel light and play the hunting game all day long.

The sunny weather was a vital part of our quest, and the river was still at a low, summer level, as I guess it will be well into October. The question is: what did we see, learn and catch?