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Chris Plumb's Blog

27 August

Harris Lake - Marsh Farm, Milford. 1500 - 0000 Cool, calm and clear evening. Lovely evening for star (and planet) gazing - Jupiter is in oppostion at the moment so is particularly bright.  AT a chilly 9ºC when I packed up - felt a little autumnal! 9 Crucians; All bar one over 2lb (and even that one was only 2oz shy). Best 3: 3lb, 2lb 12oz, 2lb 9oz. 2 Tench; 4lb 9oz & 3lb 13oz. 4 Rudd. Five hours without a bite (save for the micro rudd which annoyingly kept attacking a bar
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

3
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

24.8.21 - Willows

Willows was busy as ever, and I chatted to a number of anglers on my way to one of the remaining swims. A few had come out, but one guy had been there since 8am and had not caught a thing - and now it was early 4. I chucked in a few balls of breadcrumbs mixed with pellets in the far margin opposite my narrowish swim then set up and cast out. Before I'd even got my seat set up,  the rod was dragged across the bank and I held on for a 7lb 9 mirror - wow! Tonight was going to be the night. I had
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

23.8.21 - Willows

I'm sorry readers, but it's Willows again. A rare Monday morning session, but took the day off for a funeral so sneaked in a 4-hour stint. Dull, overcast (the weather, not me) with a chill northerly breeze that had me running back to the car for a jacket - it could only be summer 2021. Despite the drop in air temp - or perhaps because of the drop in air temp?) the fish were quite active throughout. I had lots of liners, lots of jerky hits that came to nowt, and somehow missed some unmissable
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

0
The Flying Tench's Blog

Thames lock cut roach 23.8.21

4-5pm. I had two false starts in other swims so only left myself an hour in bright sunlight. Pleasantly surprised, though. About 10 roach up to half a pound up in the water on hemp and tares. To me it's a slight puzzle. My general impression is that the lock cuts are pretty well devoid of fish in the summer. Why is Sandford an exception? Maybe I'm wrong and there are more fish in the others than I suppose. I must give a couple of the ones nearer my home another try. To be fair, the only one I've
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

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The Flying Tench's Blog

Grove pond 20.8.21

2.30 - 5.15pm I started off 'up in the water' with hemp and tares and casters hoping for some of the quality roach and rudd I've had in the last couple of months here. I had 6 roach in the first hour, but none were over about 5 ounces, so I switched to fishing on the deck practising the lift method. One nice bream about 3lbs, and 3 crucians all about 8 oz. Enjoyable fishing. 
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

2
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

20 & 21.8.21 - Willows

Two long stints at my favourite lake (when it's playing ball) to test my theory that the carp swim round the central island in the morning, move to open waters in the afternoon and slink out to the margins for their tea. Friday: dry and with the lake to myself at 6:30am pinged the method feeder out towards the island. By 9. I'd had visits from commons of 7lb, 4lb 10 and 9lb 12, all on the same orange wafter. It was set to be a fab day and I held my smile even when fourteen Canada geese splash
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

2
Chris Plumb's Blog

20 August

Willows Lake - Thatcham 1800 - 0000 Warm and overcast with a gentle southerly breeze. 19ºC -> 16ºC. Lovely evening to be out - no dew and no shelter required. 5 Carp; 10lb 13oz, 8lb 14oz, 8lb 10oz, 6lb 5oz (& one of around a pound - unweighed!). 1 Tench 1¼lb. 3 Bream (all skimmers). 1 Perch. 1 Rudd. (Both quite small) This was meant to be an evening fishing the margins for tench (or crucians, roach, bream, perch, rudd - anything but carp!) However the bully boy commons
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Chris Plumb's Blog

18 August

River Kennet - Padworth 1800 - 2200 Warm and overcast. River quite low and quite coloured up (usual late summer conditions!) 3 Chub; all ¾-1lb. 11 Roach - 4 in the 8-10oz class - all the others less that half this. 1 Dace; 6oz (looked bigger!) 3 Gudgeon. Moderately successful trotting sesh (and always nice to see a few gobio gobios turn up) to precede the expected blank on the lead once it got dark. Only 'rattles' were as a result of the signals!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

3
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

17.8.21 - Willows

Not a great success. My three preferred swims were already taken, but that's OK, I've done well previously from the one I chose. Tossed out the method feeder at the island, and threw pellets out over it,  but though I had sporadic attention on the bobbin, nothing seemed to want to take it for real despite changing hook baits several times. Switched to and from float fished maggot over hemp and managed a meagre 1lb 4 tench, 5 bream around the 6-8oz mark and three roach. Nothing exciting until in
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

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Chris Plumb's Blog

13/14 August

Dobsons Lake - Thatcham 1900 - 0200 Warm and overcast with clearing skies after 2330 - which allowed for some good Perseid spotting! AT 20º - 15ºC. 1 Tench; 4lb 3oz. 2 Roach & a Perch - nothing particularly big! Well that was a VERY disappointing night - especially after such a promising start. Swim choice was dictated by a nice patch of bubbles around a rod length and a half out and casting into the area, I had the tench on the bank within 30 mins of starting (with the 2
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

13.8.21 - Willows

Regular readers will know that  a week ago at Willows I achieved:  (a) 6:45am til 11:30  - nothing (b) 11:30 - 2:30 - 5 carp.  (c)  2:30 - 4:45. - Not even a nudge Following this, a revered and sagely angling guru wisely ordained that 'the knack is to 'ONLY be on the bank for (b) ! 4 hours at the 'right' time is better than 10 hours at the wrong...' Seven days later, with different bait and tactics, though I spent the first two hours before crossing the causeway to Willows, the sc
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

2
Chris Plumb's Blog

11 August

Alders Lake - Thatcham 1830 - 2230 Warm, becoming overcast and quite breezy. 1 Tench; 2lb 7oz. 2 Perch - both 6-8oz. Slow evening with all the action (if you can call it that!) unusually coming in the first 90 mins. My worst return from Alders in a while. Only excitement as it got dark was connecting with one of the lake's rogue carp, for which I was totally out-gunned. I'm not sure it even realised it was even hooked at first as it plodded up the channel - before realising s
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

3
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

10.08.21 - Willows

Well, that was a strange evening. Only just got into the carpark at 3.30 and walking to one of the only one of my preferred swims left, people seemed to be catching. In 6 hours I caught just the 6 fish. But they were tench of 3lb and 1lb 3, mirrors of 8lb, 16lb 10 and 4lb 8, plus right at the end in the virtual dark, a common of 15lb 9. So though I struggled for bites, I ended up with just under 50lb of fish! Funny old world. BTW the larger tench gave no fight whatsoever despite h
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

0
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

9.8.21 - K&A - Hambridge

With an afternoon off and a pint of maggots bored in the fridge, I took them to Hambridge for a quick session. Having been dry and sunny all day, the heavens opened as soon as I got bankside and left me soaked, making every bend down to toss in a few maggots in the swim an exercise in soggy bottomed unpleasantness. It got the fish feeding in order with a 1lb 2 brownie sandwiched between 4 small roach and 7 dace to a hunky 7 ounces. The last of the maggots coincided with a final la
Chris Plumb's Blog

8 August

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0630 - 1230 Torrential rain for first 90 mins or so followed by showers (some quite lumpy!). Cool for August (13ºC) and quite breezy - sun eventually appeared for the last hour or so. 2 Chub: 3lb 13oz & a smallun. 1 Bream; 3lb 14oz. 4 Doz Roach & Dace (mainly roach - nothing of any size). 3 Bleak. 1 Rainbow Trout - 3½lb. I read 3 weather forecasts on Friday evening and whilst all predicted a showery weekend they all also said that Sunday wo
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

06 08 21 - Willows

Ooh lovely - air pressure falling (just) below 1,000mb brought the prospect of hungry fish with easing stomachs. (a) 6:45am til 11:30  One bite. Missed it. Mixed it up - fished far, fished close, swapped baits, loose fed. Nothing. (b) 11:30 - 2:30 - 5 carp. All in pristine condition. 5lb, 7lb 8, 5lb 10, 5lb 2. 8lb 14 and a bream, 4oz. Could barely put the rod down without knocks or line bites. (c) 2:30 - 4:45. - Not even a nudge The knack of angling is catching in sessions (a
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Willows

2
Chris Plumb's Blog

4 August

Alders Lake - Thatcham 1830 - 2230 Warm, clear evening with a gentle southerly breeze wafting the aromas of Paul Newman's salad dressing from the factory at Greenham - but not strong enough to keep the mossies at bay! 3 Tench; 3lb 4oz, 2lb 11oz, 2lb 5oz. 2 Roach & a Perch - all handsized. Slightly sub par return by recent standards - waited 2 hours for a bite then all the fish, bar the smallest tench, came in a flurry between 8.30 and 9.00pm. By 10.30pm the crayfish had m
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

3
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

3.8.21 - Alders

Arrived at 3:30pm for my Tuesday evening fish to find the Willows/Alders carpark with just one space left. Willows was very busy, and though folk said they were catching, I opted for the always-quieter and beautiful looking Alders, which had just the two anglers fishing. As it was hot and sunny, I gave it a couple of hour on the method feeder (no bites) before switching to float and starting to ping in the maggots, as demonstrated to me by the Welshman last Saturday who I watched pull out tench
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Alders

0
The Flying Tench's Blog

Thames bream 2.8.21

Fished a new stretch of the Thames for a couple of hours this morning. Spent most of the time fishing feeder with double caster on  the hook, just 3 rod lengths out. Just caught gudgeon plus a couple of very small roach. Then I switched to 4mm carp pellet and, for the last 10 minutes or so, cast out into the flow and had a 3lb 7oz bream. Not big by Thames  standards, but it was actually the best Thames bream I have had, so I was very pleased.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

2
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

31.7.21 - Alders

I spent the first willing my rod tip to tremble while listening to fish after fish being pulled in at the next swim. I walked around to see if he was using magic beans for bait and met a charming Welshman who clearly knew his stuff. He told me there was little point legering against the central lily pads, no matter how accurate my casting had been to get it there, as these grew on a submerged island not far below the surface where as the fish were feeding at the bottom of the slope leading
Bayleaf the Gardener

Bayleaf the Gardener in Alders

0
Chris Plumb's Blog

30 July

Harris Lake, Marsh Farm - Milford 1600 - 0000 Cool (for late July!), 17ºC - 15ºC, very breezy (thanks to storm Evert) with a couple of brief flurries of rain - though precipitation had been much heavier prior to arrival. 23 (!!!?!!!) Crucians: 18 over 2lb (the other 5 all around 1¾lb - I had 2 @1-14). Best 5 went, 3lb 2oz, 2lb 15oz, 2lb 14oz, 2lb 12oz & 2lb 11oz. 7 Tench: best 4lb 2oz - the others all 2-3lbers. 1 Perch: unweighed but needed the net and easily ½lb. 2 Rudd (micr
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

2
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

2021 07 30 - Willows

Storm Evert? Pah! It was as still as can be when I arrived at 5:45am. But by 8, the aspen tree was shimmering its leaves in the increasing wind and by 11 I was struggling to lash the brolly to my seat as incoming rain hit me horizontally. With the air pressure falling below 1,000mb anticipation was higher than ever, and the fish pretty much obliged, in the morning anyway. Mirrors of 4lb 12 and 5lb 6, a 1lb tench and commons of 9lb 8, 7lb 12 and 6lb were all most welcome. Come  midday howeve
The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker

2021 07 27 - Willows

Lovely to sit in the southerly breeze after last weeks heatwave, and even better to completely miss all of the threatened showers that scudded by. I tackled up where I thought the wind would be blowing the fish towards me under the surface chop, but nobody sent them the memo. Nothing for over two hours, then in a millisecond, the world went from silence to chaos as the rod reared into the air and the tip bent round like an Allen key as the alarm screamed out in, erm, alarm. Whatever had tak
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