Specialist Maestro lands a festive Kennet cracker

Team U.K specialist anglers Alan Stagg has been out on the bank at it again but this time he’s been focusing his efforts on the magnificent river Kennet in search of big river chub. Alan landed this 7lbs 6oz Kennet beauty to take his 7lbs plus tally to two in less than a year with his previous fish coming from the River Loddon and that weighed in at a massive 8lbs 5oz. This latest addition to his exceptional catch CV  fell to mag-aligner tactics using an Enterprise Tackle mag-aligner grub slid over the shank of the hook, with two white maggots nicked onto a size 12 Mugga hook tied to a 14 inch braided hooklength. The rig was then folded into a large PVA bag along with half a pint of maggots. 

UKSA asked Alan how he prepared for the session, here’s what he had to say “I looked at the long range weather forecast as I had a few days off over the Christmas period and the conditions looked favourable with the weather improving as the week went on. Before the session I pre-baited a couple of swims for two days with a mixture of hemp and Sonubaits Elliptical pellets. I arrived at the river well after dark on Christmas day evening with the plan of doing the night on the river, hoping that the pre-bait had done its job. The conditions were good and the water temperature had risen steadily throughout the week”. 

He continued “Soon after casting a good fish rolled downstream and after a succession of line bites the upstream rod pulled over. The fish fell four hours into the session and put up a typical big chub fight. When it eventually slid over the net, I didn’t think it was a particularly large fish but once it was on the un-hooking mat this was when I realise how fat the fish actually was”. 

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