Chris Plumb's Blog

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham

0430 - 1030

Sultry!

4 Carp (3½ - 4½lb), 12 Roach, 2 Perch.

Merest hint of a rumour that crucians had been coming out of this small club pond had me setting up at dawn, though more in hope than expectation. A pity, as just a few seasons ago it was a prolific crucian water. Today there was not a sign of one so had to...

River Kennet - Nr Newbury

1145 - 1530

Warm, overcast and very muggy - lovely to be standing IN the river.

2 Chub; both around 1¼lb, 20 Dace, 4 Roach, 8 Gudgeon and 4 spotties - all small apart form one which might have scrapped a pound.

Quick return to the venue I spent 2 hours at on the opening morning - reasoning that at least I should have the...

River Kennet - Thatcham

0645 - 1045

Warm and overcast - river in good nick with good weed growth this year.

2 Chub; 3lb 11oz & 1lb 14oz. 1 Barbel; 2lb 5oz. 7 spotties - all small except for 1 'pounder'.

Fished a number of swims in rotation - number one banker swim produced just trout (all of them bar 1!) but dropping downstream produced the 3lb ch...

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham

2000 - 0900

Mild and overcast with showery rain at dawn.

1 carp 12lb 14oz, 3 perch and err that's it!

Annual crucian hunt gets off to an inauspicious start and whilst they can be picky at the best of times at least we had some 'easy' carp to go at to keep us amused if they didn't come out to play - at least that was the plan....

River Kennet - Newbury
 
0415 - 0615
 
Mild, overcast morning - river at or slightly above normal summer levels - with a bit of colour.
 
1 chub 4lb 9oz, 11 dace, (3 really chunky ones - would have weighed them had I not been standing mid-river), 1 roach, 2 gudgeon and a spottie.
 
Very quick trotting session to christen the seaso...

Another book review - and a bit of a minority interest methinks!
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Fish & Fishermen in English Medieval Church Wall Paintings
By Frederick Buller
 
A curious and rather unusual book that will fascinate anyone interested in Angling history – of which I thinks ther...

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I well remember as a youngster hunting for tiddlers in my local (then) River Witham. Sticklebacks were brought home in triumph and saw out the summer in a tin bath by the back door - this book brought back those childhood memories....
 
The Little Book of Little...

or Fate and the Fisherman. By John Aston.  
 
One of the best angling books to come out of 2012.  
 
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"Message for Chris Plumb ...
A Dream of Jewelled Fishes (recommended to me by C Yates) is not a little gem, but one of the finest angling books to have been wr...

My PB List.
Haven’t done one of these for a while and it seems an appropriate way to ‘celebrate’ my 400th  blog post.  And I’ve even dug out and scanned a few old photos (rather crappy ones I have to admit!) which are appearing on the WWW for the 1st  time.
 
Best Carp – 27lb 6oz . 15 August 2008. Blue Pool...

Plumby's Annual Round-up!
 
 
This time last year the word on everyone’s lips was drought. We’d had 3 dry winters on the trot – hosepipe bans were already being introduced and the chalkstreams of southern Britain were drying up. The springs feeding the Kennet didn’t ‘burst’ at all during the winter of 11/12,...