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Rusty's Blog

A blog by Rusty in General

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Entries in this blog

Couldn't have blanked at a nicer place

River Kennet, Aldermaston Mill, Tuesday 8th March 2016   The clue’s in the title, a blank of biblical proportions with not a single bite coming to the four anglers on the river. The background to this trip was curiosity, I’d read about Aldermaston Mill on the web and seen a few YouTube videos but most of the information I had was quite old. I knew the venue used to be very good for barbel & chub with queues at the gates before opening time being the norm (as was the mad dash to grab a prim
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Recent activities

Rivers Thames and Kennet, Friday 26th to Sunday 28th February 2016   Three consecutive days fishing, each with a different reason for going.   The first day out was Friday, it’d been a chaotic week at work so I took the day off and headed to the Thames for some casual roach fishing. I didn’t want to think about it too much, just take the float rod and fish where I knew they’d be. Water levels were falling and the colour was dropping out so it wouldn’t be long before the roach left the sanctu
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Birthday bash

River Lambourn, Newbury, Wednesday 13th January 2016   ”Hello mate, happy birthday, I hope you’re out fishing somewhere, I would be”. I wasn’t out fishing, I was at work at 9:00am trying to figure out why I was listening to Steve’s voicemail message and had missed the original call. My Windows phone has a mind of its own.   Steve had made a good point and after a quick conversation with my boss I was heading back down the M4 towards London wondering where to fish (I hadn’t been sacked). The
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Finishing unfinished business

Kennet & Avon Canal, Tuesday 29th December 2015   Today’s session was just to round off Sunday’s trip when I didn’t make the planned dusk perch assault. With the forecast looking a bit wet for the next couple of days I thought I’d better get on the bank while I could do so dry and relatively warm, a bonus was that the recent strong winds had abated so I was looking forward to a flat calm canal and easy casting. 90 minutes fishing may not seem very long when it involves a 30 mile round trip
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Worth the soaking

River Kennet and K&A Canal, Sunday 20th December 2015   Today’s itinerary consisted of three venues all fairly close together so travelling between each on foot was the order of the day (I was to regret that decision). The high temperature felt at odds with the low sun and although there seemed little need for waterproofs I donned them anyway, the stiff breeze would’ve cooled things down bankside.   The first venue may not be available to me for much longer, it’s one of two up for re-con
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A Barbel at last!

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 11th October 2015   Following on from what was a very successful social event at Rutland (but somewhat lacking in terms of my Zander return) I wanted to get back into familiar territory so with bleary eyes after a long Saturday morning journey back from Oakham I dragged myself off to the tackle shop for maggots and lobworms. The plan was to fully explore the Newbury town centre stretch on Sunday.   I’d tried some of it the weekend before with some success, a chu
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A Red Letter ten minutes

River Thames, Sunday 30th August 2015.   What a strange day this was. It started with a chub quest and ended with three perch for 9lb 7oz. Not all of them were mine though and I have to congratulate Steve on taking the laurels today. But first my plan…mashed bread for feed and flake on the hook, arrive sometime between dawn and 10:00am, bag a couple of seven pounders and celebrate with lunch in the pub.   Everything went to plan for once, right up until the point where I got a glimpse of whi
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First time livebaiting

River Thames, Saturday 4th July 2015   This a was an experimental day, another trip to the ‘Drive In’ fishery to try out Kappa’s CD rig or at least my interpretation of it given what I had to hand (see here http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/7445162-perch-livebaiting-rig/).   The paternoster link to the weight sets the presentation depth so I though two feet off bottom in ten feet of water would be a good starting point, no real logic to this just a gut feeling that the nume
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A new season is upon us

A bit of a marathon blog entry this but I always forget how much planning and organisation is needed when you intend to fish several different venues in a short space of time. I haven’t had time to write individual entries. One venue would need a bivvy and the kitchen sink, one would need waders, one maggots, one lobs, one trotting gear, one quivertip rods etc etc. and I still haven’t managed to squeeze in a tenching trip to Marsh Farm or a visit to Speen Moors.   Monday 15th June - River Tham
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Different lake same result....

NAA Stillwater, Pallets, Monday 25th May 2015.   …….no silvers! Is it really too much to ask to spend a day fishing just catching small fish on a club water? It seems so because today I tried a previously unfished venue known to contain lots of small rudd. My plan was to fish maggot on the float and see if any reasonable examples came along, nothing too scientific or ambitious. Clearly the angling gods frowned upon my idea for despite being reassured by a couple of anglers I spoke to yesterday
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A bamboo PB!

NAA Stillwater, Warwicks, Sunday 17th May 2015.   Another foray into fishing lakes. I had planned to visit the vintage tackle fair at Redditch today but a change of plan meant that I was in Devon over the weekend and couldn’t really arrange things to be at the fair early. Probably just as well, last time I went to one of these events (my first) I took plastic naively thinking that I’d be able to buy stuff, no chance, it was cash or no sale. So this time I had cash and it was burning a big hole
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I couldn't help it, the temptation was too strong.

NAA Stillwater, Warwicks, May Bank Holiday Weekend.   Sunday 3rd May 2015   I don’t often fish during the closed season but there are times when I fancy going back to basics with just a pot of maggots a float rod and a lethargic chill by a lake, just as I used to when I was a teenager. These days I’m lucky enough to be doing that with a rather nice split cane rod and since said rod has proven to be not ideal for trotting I needed to find out what it was good at. With Steve Walker’s wise word
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The Merlin sees action

River Kennet, Monday 9th February 2015   A day spent on a stretch of the Kennet which sees a little less pressure than other venues on my club books. It has everything from fast raging pools to quiet sidestreams which would barely pull the line off the most free running of centrepins, the perfect location for testing the rod’s capabilities.   The morning was spent trotting in the slower water, the overcast conditions were encouraging but that wasn’t to last, early afternoon the sun came out
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Closing week

What an end to the season! The opening day was pleasant enough but between then and now there really hasn’t been much to say about my fishing trips. Blank after blank had me wondering whether the angling gods had got it in for me or whether I’d just got myself in a rut fishing known swims and taking success for granted.   When the reliable swims eventually failed to produce (as they often do) I had no plan B and just kept on flogging the same dead horses. Eventually I got fed up with that but
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I've lost my hat!

River Kennet, Monday 17th June 2013   My seasoned old Barbour Bushman lovingly waxed over the past three years has gone. It usually lives in the boot of my car but because I haven’t been fishing for a while I hadn’t noticed that it had vanished. A new one is on its way to me but it won’t be the same…sniff sniff.   So [hatless] my plan was implemented, Speen Moors for chub then further downstream for trotting and if energy permitted the day would end on the canal for perch.   As expected Sp
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Rusty's retrospective

Disruption is the word that springs to mind when I look back over the past season. After a bone dry winter relief (from an angling point of view) came in the form of heavy rain leading up to June 2012, as you would expect this bolstered levels and provided some temporary respite for the struggling Kennet. Only the respite didn’t turn out to be temporary, I kept expecting to see the water drop back during the dry spells but there weren’t many of those for the rest of the season. As a consequence
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That's more like it

The penultimate blog entry for this season recounting two trips to the Kennet, one venue a day ticket water between the months of October and March the other a last minute invitation to fish a Middle Kennet Estate.   Barton Court, Tuesday 12th March 2013   A long arranged trip with Paul, a work colleague who’s just bought himself an Okuma Sheffield and he was keen to try it out. Although we both had the week off Paul was limited to the day he could fish, Tuesday it was come rain or shine. We
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Dumbfounded

K&A Canal, River Kennet and then back to the canal, Saturday 9th March 2013   This is why I don’t gamble, I would’ve bet every item of fishing tackle I own on today’s session being successful. If you could order perfect perching conditions from a menu what greeted me on arrival is exactly what you would’ve ordered, I was that confident that even on the journey to the venue I was compiling witty PB blog narrative in my head.   Setting up did nothing to dispel my confidence, the ledgered l
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Left it a bit late

Kennet & Avon Canal, Thatcham, Wednesday 6th March 2013   A short bonus trip courtesy of my boss and the need to use up annual leave before the end of March.   I’m still trying to work out this stretch of the canal. Early January I had a couple of great back to back sessions which produced six perch at an average weight of just under 3lbs. That success was followed by a blank and then a couple of weeks later Chris Plumb caught a monstrous ‘four’ with a 2-15 cameo from me, our only perch
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I thought my plan was infallible

River Kennet and K&A Canal, Newbury, Saturday 2nd March 2013   You’d be forgiven for think that some of these blogs are getting a bit ‘samey’. You’d be right too, one of reasons is that the two venues I’m fishing are quite close together and spending a couple of hours trotting the river before targeting perch prevents me from arriving at the canal too early. Another reason is that the river venue is producing some very nice grayling and dace, I haven’t got the scales or camera out for them
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A wee dram or two

K&A Canal, Newbury, Sunday 17th February 2013   After Saturday’s drama how could I not revisit the scene? I had plenty of lobs and although the weather wasn’t quite as conducive to perch fishing it was pleasant enough and dusk was sure to come. I was chasing…chasing the fraction of an ounce which prevented Saturday's fish reaching the 3lb mark.   On arrival I met a young lad who told me about a canoe race which had taken place earlier, this might have scattered the fish for a time but I
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At least I've seen a 'four'

River Kennet and K&A Canal, Newbury, Saturday 16th February 2013   Quite a contrast to last week’s weather, not exactly balmy but no sleet, no rain and air temps threatening double figures…bliss. The venue(s) were to be different as well, not quite as secluded and maybe less exclusive than last week’s but in terms of fish potential the club stretches I was heading for were just as good, perhaps with the exception of dace and roach.   The initial plan was to meet up with Steve on the Lamb
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Got there in the end!

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 9th February 2013   One of three accounts of the trip   A long awaited visit to this Middle Kennet estate water. Most of the ‘official’ days have been cancelled due to high water levels and I was beginning to wonder whether this season was going to be a total blank as far as this venue is concerned. Paul Goulbourn and Chris Plumb came to the rescue with an invitation via another route (thank you gentlemen), we just had to pray for a relatively dry week. Any ot
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Goodbye snow!

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 26th January 2013.   It was nice to get out after a week of me working from home and a boiler working overtime to keep me warm. The said heating device caused a mild panic attack when it failed to do its job one morning. Only after I'd phoned British Gas and several other unavailable heating specialists did I discover that there'd been a power cut overnight and I simply needed to re-set the heating timer. Ever felt stupid?   The venue was a short club stretch
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Zero perch....0lb 0oz

Saturday 12th January, K&A Canal, Thatcham   That’s the thing about my AN blog, it’s a record of my angling trips so if I shout about the good days I suppose I’ve got to shout about the bad ones too. That’s what I’m doing now.   This early doors trip was always going to be touch and go, I’d guessed that Thursday would be the last day for mild conditions and hoped that the water would still be warm enough through Friday to this morning. To be honest it was just about, at 6 degrees I was g
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