QUICK-HIT sessions are one of the highlights of summer fishing, but the catch Sam Everist made in his lunch hour would be hard to beat in a whole season of trying!
Targeting a swim on the River Lea not far from work, he landed chub of 7lb 14oz, 7lb 8oz and 7lb 3oz, with another fish of 6lb 6oz thrown in for good measure.
The fishing was so hectic that Sam had all three ‘sevens’ resting in his landing net at once, with freelined slow-sinking bread flake doing the damage.
“The river had been quite high in the days before and had fined down nicely before my visit, so I was quite optimistic,”
said Sam, a supply chain manager from Hertfordshire.
“For the first 10 minutes I threw in plenty of flake freebies to get the fish competing, and first cast I was in. A passer-by saw the rod hooped over and offered to help net it. This swim is notoriously hard to land fish in, so I jumped at the opportunity and a lump of a chub was soon resting in the mesh.”
Leaving the fish to rest in the landing net, Sam then had another cast.
“The rod whacked round in no time, and yet another great chub lay in the net. I couldn’t believe my luck, and although I wanted to weigh them, I thought I’d chance another cast. Against all odds, the rod slammed round again, and another monster was squeezed into the net!”
At this point, the chub were running out of room, so he weighed and released his three seven-pounders.
“After returning the fish I still had around 10 minutes of my lunch break left so I decided to make one final cast. Going closer to the reeds, I had another bang on the rod and added a not-too-shabby fish of 6lb 6oz. I wonder what would’ve happened if I’d had a few more hours? Either way, I’m delighted with such a red-letter ‘hour’ of fishing!”