THE Warwickshire Avon has produced a monstrous chub of 8lb 1oz, which is easily the biggest ever reported from the venue.

The specimen (pictured below) was caught by Tom McLoughlin, who lived in Hollywood in Birmingham until recently but now resides in the village of Wyre Piddle near Pershore, Worcs.

Tom had been keeping the venue quiet in the angling weeklies, but revealed to Total Fishing that the fish came from the Fox AC controlled stretch near his home.

Two years ago a fish of 7lb 6oz was weighed in after a match and a handful of 5lb fish are reported each season.

The 38-year-old was targeting the bream with a groundbait feeder and a worm hook bait when the chub struck at a peg with an overhanging tree on the far side.

He weighed the huge chub on calibrated Weighmaster scales and measured it at 25 inches long, 6.75inches deep with a 16 inch girth. The weighing was witnessed by three people and there is no doubt at all about the authenticity of the catch, making his fish one of the biggest river chub ever caught in the UK. The Chub Study Group has confirmed that Tom’s fish is a new record from the river.

For the full story see next month’s Midland Angler