Jump to content

Blogs

Chris Plumb's Blog

21 June

River Kennet - Hambridge 1000 - 1300 Rain (again!?) steady and persistent but never particularly heavy - thankfully, as I was standing out in it for 3 hours. Cool (only 11ºC), quite calm. River was in great nick - higher than normal for June and with a little less colour than last Thursday. 2 Chub; 5lb 2oz and one of around a pound (unweighed). 18 Dace & 9 Roach - nothing to warrant weighing. 1 Grayling c10oz, 2 Gudgeon (hooray!) & 2 Brownies both over 1lb but under 2lb.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

7
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

19.06.21 - Willows

A slow day. At least it was dry after yesterday's torrents, but thirteen degrees was less than half of what it was on Wednesday and the ten days or so previously, which shut the fish up. It seemed a struggle for everyone around the lake. I had some occasional bites of float-fished sweetcorn and bread, but my only two successes in the whole day were both on the method feeder in the margins: a beautiful little 3lb 8oz Common and then on the last cast of the day, a 3lb-er that I didn't bother weigh
Chris Plumb's Blog

18 June (6th Paul Goulbourn Memorial Fish-in)

Harris Lake - Marsh Farm, Milford. 0645 - 2345. RAIN, Rain, continuous, unrelenting, nonstop RAIN! Heavy at times, slight, moderate, torrential, tropical, cloud bursts at other times. Over a month's worth in a day! Drove over in the rain, set up in the rain, fished all day in the rain. Rain eventually stopped as it got dark - so escaped packing up in the rain - though everything was pretty sodden. Thankfully my day shelter was up to the task - alas the banks weren't, so during the heav
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

6
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

18.6.21 - Willows

Ah, a British midsummer. It rained, hard and solidly from 7am until 2 as I huddled under my brolly, clasping my lunch and other perishables around me. After 10 days or so of solid heat, I anticipated that today's mere 13 degrees and northerly breeze would turn the fish off, and so it did. With the water still warm, I suspected the fish would still be off the bottom, but also driven from the surface, so kept to the shallows and varied the depths I fished.  I managed two of the recently-stocked 3l
Chris Plumb's Blog

17 June

River Kennet - Hambridge (CSAS Stretch) 0800 - 1300 Warm, overcast & sultry. River at normal summer levels and carrying a bit of colour. 5 Chub; All 'schooly' sized (1-2lbs) - biggest 2lb 13oz. 11 Dace; a couple of 'good-uns' which went 9oz each. 1 Brownie c10oz. Failed plan to try and repeat my success here last Sep of getting some float caught barbel. I did actually see a few on the shallows and they were showing more interest in each other that what was for brunch. So
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

0
Chris Plumb's Blog

16 June 2021

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0430 - 1230 Warm and sunny (though very misty at 0430!). River at normal early summer levels and clearer than below Newbury. 6 Chub: 4lb4oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 10oz, 3lb 5oz & 2 'pounders'. 40 Roach & Dace in roughly equal nos - slightly more dace. A few chunky ones but nothing to worry the scales! 3 Bleak. Lovely to be back on the river on a glorious summer's morning. Great sport trotting  my 'base camp' swim too. I fished around dozen swims in
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

2
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

15.6.21 - Willows

I've never seen so many fish. With the temperature soaring to thirty degrees, the surface was alive with cruising carp.  Out came the dog biscuits, with the plop-plip of every cast bringing surface attention. Gobbling down every freebie, the canny fish  could tell if there was a hook/line involved, mouthing then instantly spitting my otherwise identical bait out time and time again. Commons of 5lb 15 and 6lb 4 came when I increased their urgency by catapulting in freebies, but the bloody du
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

12.6.21 - Dobsons

I rang the changes and tried a different NAA lake for a change, mainly as Dobsons has many more bankside trees and vegetation to provide shade on what threatened to be a hot day. Another benefit is the ability to fish with two rods (it's one only at my usual Willows and Alders), meaning I could toss a method feeder out to my right, and float fish near the overhanging willow to my right. I opted for the shallower end (my swim was around 8ft deep one rod length out,  anticipated fewer bites a
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

11.6.21 - Alders

At 57, I am surely too old to be having sleepless nights over fishing, but the worry over which lake, which swim, kept me awake and anxious into the small hours. In the end, I went for the less popular Alders, which became a good decision. While spawning carp crashed in the middle of the lilies, I kept to the edge, method feeding a variety of hook baits before finding one that worked for today - double hair-rigged artificial corn. Having lost a good tench in the snags near my feet, I was happy t
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

8.6.21 - Willows

The hot weather continues, though with a warm southerly breeze rippling the surface, there was hardly a carp to be seen, My attempts to loose feed doggy bikkies to see who was around proved futile, as within seconds I had terns diving hard into my swim and those bloody ducks from Saturday swimming down for their tea.  So I switched to plan B, the method feeder, thinking that my swim was shallow enough for the wafter to be spotted wherever the fish were,  and soon lost a good fish, it fallin
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

5.6.21 - Willows

A scorching day, and my strategy was sound: (1) Until the sun climbed above the trees, I would fish the shady, shallow north corner,  upagainst the lilies and winkle out some tench. (2) Once the sun hit the water, I would switch to the method feeder in the remaining shade of the shallow end to my left and (3) when the carp started to rise I would switch to surface-fished dog biscuits. What could go wrong? I had to admire my own watercraft and cunning. (1) No bits in 1.5 hours agai
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

4.6.21 - Willows

After recent excesses, today was pretty quiet for me and the four other anglers on the lake. one who spent more time spodding than fishing. I scaled down to a single grain of corn after initial inaction to stimulate  a 2oz and then a a spunky 6oz roach. There was no future in this tiddler-bashing so I switched swims to throw a method feeder at the reliability of the island.  With still nothing more than the very occasional  indistinct line bite, I chopped and changed 'twixt float and feeder tryi
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

01.06.21 - Willows

It started off as one of those evenings. Firstly, the thread seems to have worn on my landing net meaning it wouldn't attach to the pole without lashings of gaffer tape. Though gloriously warm,  a strong easterly wind soon got up, causing a strong undertow which carried vast amounts of floating debris through my swim and dragging the float. It's blowing in my face also contributed to two birdnests around my reel in the first half hour, both unsolvable and requiring breaking and tackling up ag
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

31.05.21 - Willows

More experimentation and some lessons learned in my first session on hair-rigged sweetcorn, hoping to reduce the number of bites not connected to, or just dropping off. A new swim for me, and in the first hour I lost five fish. Big ones too. One snapped me up, the hook falling out of the others, two being large Commons that I reckon were around the 20lb mark. One of these took me from the bite, 15 yards to my left, straight past me and sped against the clutch 25 more towards the island. Hav
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

28.05.21 - Alders & Willows

My close-season concentration on these two adjacent lakes continues and went with a plan. I followed perceived wisdom and  fished 6 - 8am at Alders. I had line bites and knocks every cast, but nothing took it properly. So as per schedule, I crossed the causeway to Willows and alternated between 2 hours method feeder then 2 hours float-fished corn. The feeder accounted for three hard-fighting carp - maybe the warming water has pumped them up, as they all put up a show worth more than th
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

25.5.21 - Willows

My weekly evening session and a chance to see if the fish will be where I found them in last weeks sun. Today though, despite fair forecast, there was a steady cool wind from the south, putting a chop on the water and having me grabbing my coat to go over my thick jumper as early as 5pm. It was a much slower start, though I did pick up a hard fighting Common of 8lb 7 and one of the newly stocked Mirrors of 2lb 2. Then it all went quiet. I switched to a float with sweetcorn around the emerging li
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

22.05.21 - Willows

Woe betide my landing net of shame. More a different world than a different weather system as the previous days stormy winds have died away and the morning session starts still and clear. Alders does its best to lure me with a shoal of fish bubbling the surface, but I walk my tackle by, as today is a Willows day, And so it should be, as I soon have a Mirror in at 5lb 9. But having lost another when a Drennan hook-link, brand new on this morning, snaps as the loop, it goes quiet. M
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

21.5.21 - Alders/Willows

What a day. The back end of May, and I'm in thick jumper, gilet and coat as the lakes are once again buffeted with 40mph winds the whole day, flipping the lilies up off the water while with on/off (mainly on) rain flattened them down again.  My plan to fish Willows was blasted away by the sou'westers, as all I could do was huddle under my brolly, which I'd had to lash to the otter fencing behind me for fear of it ending up in Slough.  With the incessant lowing flipping the lilies and cre
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

18.05.21 - Willows

A Tuesday evening with Willows to myself, others put off no doubt by the forecast of yet more heavy showers. Despite a chop on the water, the fish were jumping, first time I've seen them this year, so I switched from my initial plan. An hour later, I'd banked three carp, and felt it was going to be a best-ever evening. I would have done it for sure, but was snapped twice on 8lb line before it started to slow down - it had to really, and I had just(!) two more for an evening's total of over
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

15.5.21 - Willows

OK, so I went for an experiment today. I've fished Willows a lot this closed season and have sort of got the hang of chucking a leger up against the island, but have also looked at the margins and just wondered... So, with the lilies starting to emerge at the bankside I stuck on a float, far more interesting to star at than a bobbin, chucked in some balls of mashed bread and cast a rod length out. After a couple of missed bites, in true Mr Crabtree style, the float zipped away and I was into a g
The Flying Tench's Blog

1lb Rudd 14.5.21

Grove Pond 3.30-5.30pm My original plan was to catch roach on meat up in the water, but the roach weren't in evidence, except a few very small ones, and for a time the rudd were. My rudd pb is a hefty 2lb 2oz, but after that I think my best was a mere 9oz. So I was very pleased to catch a second best rudd at 1lb 0 oz. I had 5 rudd in all, a couple in the 6-7oz mark.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

1
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

14.05.21 - Willows/Alders

So the plan was to spend half of the session at Willows, then cross the 10-yard causeway to Alders for the rest. But an hour in, with a 3lb 7 tench under my belt, I looked at myself in thick jumper, gilet and coat in mid-May and decided the cold north breeze in my face would be slightly less uncomfortable on my back and crossed the Rubicon early for slightly   The decision was soon justified when my shivering stopped and out came a 4lb 1 tench.  I calculated that after Tuesday's carp any by t
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

11.5.21 - Willows

There was a repellent south wind when I arrived, creating quite a chop, and with anglers on my fave sheltered swims on Alders, I went for Willows, with the wind on my back casting at the island. A good evening. Commons of 9lb 7, 8lb 6, 10lb 14 all in beautiful condition, and a tiddler Mirror of 3lb 8. 30lb+ of fish is always a good day. I hit every bite too, for a change, albeit I lost two more fish. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We and our partners use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences, repeat visits and to show you personalised advertisements. By clicking “I Agree”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent.

  I accept