Iain Nairn did me the honour of becoming my very first consultant way back in 2008 and has been instrumental in promoting the effectiveness of 3-B with his jaw-dropping run of big chub and specimen barbel from his beloved Dorset Stour. ‘Chub God’ has kindly penned a few lines about his early chub years.
My early years chub fishing on the upper Dorset Stour were a hit and miss affair to say the least, usually ledgering bread with a cage feeder. Then one day I hooked and landed a chub 19” long which was a big fish for me in those days. It was from that point on my passion for chub fishing was ignited and I knew I just had to catch more chub, and bigger ones at that. I turned my attention to the free stretches of the river, and with some success my ambition grew and Throop was next on my hit list.
Throop gave me my first ‘six’ and after a couple of years I met a guy called Rupert Morrell who was as keen as I was and had a passion for the Hampshire Avon. A partnership was formed and we have remained friends for many years. Throop was the starting point, fishing mainly maggot feeder or float, and after sorting the feeder rig it became a devastating tool. We also fished the Avon of which Ruperts’ knowledge was boundless. Some huge chub were being caught from the middle reaches of the Stour so this was the next focus of our next challenge.
Using mainly boilies and paste as chub baits we caught some huge fish, giving us both personal bests with Rupert bagging a chub of 7lb 11oz and me not far behind with one of 7lb 10oz. Great times indeed. I joined the chub study group and became club secretary after a few seasons. Not long after, Darren McCann joined the group and he also used boilies for chub and I found out he was manufacturing them.
Darren asked me if I wanted to field test his baits but Trigga boilies from Nutrabaits were my preferred choice. I was reluctant to change for fear my catch rate would suffer, how wrong could I have been! Initially starting with River Secret the big chub took a liking for them from the off, but after a year or so Darren developed 3-B. This bait now forms the mainstay of my chub fishing, switching to matching paste come autumn and winter. The only times these are not used is in prolonged cold spells, such as the arctic conditions we have experienced in recent winters, when trotted maggots are my choice of bait.
When the river is in full flood and coloured then my cheese paste is used, although 3-B paste will work as well but I love trotting and making my own cheese paste.
