Bucklebury Ponds
1500 - 1730
Bright, warm and sunny.
A doz roach tp ¾lb. 5 Perch. 4 Skimmers.
No fishing this weekend - upto Birmingham to watch the athletics - so a snatched couple of hours at my nearest venue to home - most of the roach were a 'nice' size.
Warwicks Water
1800 - 2230
Warm evening - especially under the trees.
1 Tench; 2lb 7oz. 1 Roach - small. Circa 2 doz perch.
Quick return here after the success of a fortnight ago - perch were even more insatiable - but thankfully quitened down when it got dark. Still no crucians - but a nice plump tench will do nicely!
7 - 8.30pm
For the first time in the Thames I used bait-dropper. I cast out 10 bait-droppers full of 3mm pellets, and then fished feeder with 6mm halibut pellet about 5 rods out. At first it was bite-a-chuck, and very positive bites, too. Within 5 minutes I had a 12oz roach, which is actually my pb for the Thames. Then they got a bit cagey, and I missed a lot of bites. I wondered if the hair was too long and they were sucking the bait and not really having the hook in their mouth? Next time I m
River Kennet - Newbury
0900 - 1400
Bright and breezy - river up an inch or so after yesterday's heavy rain with its usual summer tinge of colour.
18 Chub: Most around 6-8oz, with 5 over a lb, biggest went 4lb 7oz with the others between 1¼ - 2¼lb., 2 doz+ Dace, 1 doz Roach, 2 Grayling, 2 Bleak and 3 Brownies.
Lovely morning's trotting - great to see so many silvers in the river - especially the young chub.
Alders Lake - Thatcham
1800 - 2230
Cool clear evening - with a breeze falling off. AT down to 10ºC when I packed up - felt quite chilly!
1 Tench - 2lb 3oz. 14 Roach - all small.
Another blackberry picking and tench evening! Roach were a bit of a pain but once it got dark the bites from them subsided and just like last time my solitary tench came at around 2130. Shortly after was then connected to one of the lakes rogue carp which I played for several minutes and was just entertai
River Kennet - Widmead
0900 - 1200
Bright and breezy. River at 'normal' summer levels.
1 Chub: unweighed but needed the net! 1 Grayling 1lb 1oz. 2 Doz Dace & a bleak.
Swim I've not fished for 35 years! (last time was Sep 1985 - and I had stacks of dace then too!). Grayling was first cast which was unexpected thereafter it fish a chuck for the first 45 mins.
Warwicks Water
1830 - 2230
Warm and breezy evening (kept the dew and the mozzies away!
2 Tench; 3lb 2oz & 1lb 9oz. 8 Perch ( all small).
Annual trip to check on how this lovely little pond is progressing after being remodelled and restocked (with tench and crucians) a few years back. Surprised on 2 counts; firstly to find two other anglers on the water (one of whom had caught a pound+ roach) - and to get a tinca over 3lb - wasn't expecting anything that big. No sign of any cr
River Kennet - Brimpton.
0500 - 0930
Lovely summer's morning - sun rising therough the valley mist - temps a warm15º - rising to a muggy 21ºC when I packed up. River a little on the low side as is usual at this time of year.
2 Chub; 5lb 4oz & 1½lb. 11 Dace - with half a dozen over 8oz (!!) best went 10oz. 4 Brownies - all over 1lb - biggest 2lb 10oz.
Cracking morning's trotting - nice to find a pod of big dace - or rather 2 pods as the fish cam
Alders Lake - Thatcham
1800 - 2230
Bright and breezy evening - temps down to 15ºC
1 Tench 1½lb, 2 roach.
Strange little session - lake seemed pretty lifeless and spent the first 3 hours or so looking at a stationary float - then had a 10 minute flurry of activity at around 2115 half a dozen bites and all 3 fish followed by another hour of nothing! Still, managed to pick nearly 3lb of blackberries which Mrs P has already converted into bramble jelly - yum!
River Kennet - Thatcham
1500 - 1600
Warm and sunny - river quite low
3 Chub; one might have made a pound the others no where near that size!. 4 Roach - all a 6-8oz (good to see). 1 Dace and 3 brownies to 1½lb.
I left work early to go home and watch the cricket only to find Ireland had been bowled out for 38 in under 16overs - so a snatched hour on the river before a weekend spent in Manchester watch athletics (England AAA champs).
Harris Lake - Milford
1430 - 0430
Warm and muggy with a gentle breeze - clearing ovenight with temps down to 12ºC at dawn.
18 Crucians; 10 over 2lb - biggest 2lb 11oz. 11 Tench; 5 over 5lb - biggest 5lb 12oz. 6 Perch, 6 Roach, 1 Rudd.
Very busy session with over half the fish caught in daylight (for a change). Everyting caught under my rod tips - float fishing with prawn and maggot weighing in equally with fish. Fed much more sparingly than usual which seemed to stop the tench ar
Johnsons Lake - Milford
1530 - 2315
Warm and sunny with quite a stiff breeze until dusk.
2 Crucians; 3lb 3oz, 2lb 15oz. 6 Tench - all over 3½lb - best 2; 5-12 & 5-02. 2 Carp (very small - one may have scrapped a pound the other less than half that!). 3 Rudd - all small.
Very pleasant evening's float fishing the margins - as usual not a lot until dusk (just the rudd) - first fish (the 2-15 cru) at around 1930 - thereafter steady sport until 2300. All fish on prawn (apart from
River Kennet - Newbury
0430 - 0800
Clear and sunny. River at near normal summer levels and carrying its usual summer colour...
11 Chub; All quite small with a couple slightly bigger (just over 1lb). 3 Doz+ Dace, 1 Roach. 4 Brownies to 1lb.
Lovely morning's trotting and home in time for brekfast. Really nice to see some juvenile chub in the river - augur's well for the future....
River Kennet - Brimpton
1800 - 2045 - Warm, with sunny spells. River at normal early summer levels.
1 Chub; 4lb 14oz, 3 Dace, 3 Brownies to 1½lb.
Pleasant evening's trotting - pleased to get such a nice chub so early in the season - was in surprsingly good condition too.
Jubilee Lake - Thatcham
1900 - 0430
Glorious might to be out - warm (min 15ºC) with a balmy southerly breeze to keep the dew off - fantastic view of Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky too!
7 Carp; 15lb 8oz, 9lb 14oz, 9lb 3oz, 8lb 7oz, 8lb 2oz, 6lb 15oz, 5lb 8oz.
Not one of my favourite venues - too busy and noisy - which probable explains why I struggled to get a single bite in the margins. All fish during darkness on the feeder - the biggest two
Willows Lake - Thatcham
1500 - 0500
Cool clear night - down to 7ºC by dawn.
3 Carp; 12lb 11oz, 7lb 9oz, 4lb 6oz. 2 Perch.
I last took my brother, Colin, fishing on 26/1/91 - when he caught a brace of 13lb pike from the Kennet at Padworth - so was somewhat surprised to be asked at a family gathering last Christmas to come fishing with me again - ' I'll take you carp fishing' I says - expecting to hear no more about it! But he was serious so a plan w
7.30 - 9.30pm
During the last 2 years I did some fishing with 8mm pellet. It worked well in the lake, but was pretty dead in the river. So I decided to try 6mm pellet to see if that would be more to the taste of the quality roach which are my main target. I used 3mm pellet in the feeder.
Just one skimmer bream, plus a number of bites including a couple which got off. I would say mostly skimmers. Maybe the roach were up in the water?
At the start of a new season, in case it's of any interest to anyone, here are my pbs so far. The question is, how to improve at least one of them this season given that I'm a bit of a cushy 'pleasure angler', not into all night stints and with health issues hindering also:
roach 1lb 9oz River Farm Lake, Fareham Oct 2009 float single caster
rudd 2lb 2oz Aquatek Lake, Woolhampton May 2009 float single maggot
dace 7oz River Kennet,
Johnsons Lake - Marsh Farm
1600 - 2315 & 0245 - 0500 (with 3 hours kip in the car)
Warm, muggy overcast with showery rain all evening. Bright an breezy in the morning.
11 Tench; 5 over 5lb, best 3 - 7lb 7oz, 6lb 7oz, 6lb 4oz. 3 Crucians; 3lb 14oz (new PB), 3lb 2oz, 2lb 10oz. 2 Rudd to 10oz.
Another cracking June trip here - 4th season in a row - though this one was definitely more eventful! My hopes weren't high to start with as reports from th
Harris Lake - Marsh Farm, Milford
0700 - 0400
Bright and breezy, mainly sunny. Lovely clear night with some high cloud and a gorgeous full moon.
9 Tench; best 5lb5oz with 6 of the rest over 4½lb. 2 Crucians; 2lb 0oz & 1lb 11oz. 2 Perch.
4th IAC Paul Goulbourn memorial fish-in. Yet again 20 of Paul's friends came together to honour his memory and try (and mainly fail!) to catch a crucian! Bites were at a premium all day though I think most angle
River Kennet - Marsh Benham
0500 - 1400
Bright and breezy with heavy showers. River with good flow and a tinge of usual summer colour.
4 Chub to 3lb, 1 Bream; 4lb 3oz, 5 Dace, 4 Roach & a Perch.
And so another season begins - a nice quiet secluded start on my syndicate stretch. All fish on trotted maggot despite ledgering for several hours (during the rain) with meat - which didn't produce a jot of interest - not even from the cray fish!
4-6.30pm at the Club Lake, Orchid Lakes, Dorchester
I left myself too little time, mainly because the forecast had been showers, and I decided to wait till the weather was better. But then the forecast changed, so I had a quick session.
Fished 8mm halibut pellet, with 3mm pellets in the feeder. Had carp of approx. 11lb plus bream of 6lb 6oz and 4lb 7oz. The bigger bream was a pb. I realise many anglers, specially carpers, have had much bigger bream than this, but I was still very pleased
My PB List.
Haven’t done one of these for a while (though it hasn't changed much in the last 5 years!) and as I had a query about my PBs I thought I'd put an updated list on here...
Best Carp – 27lb 6oz. 15 August 2008. Blue Pool – Burghfield. Method feeder – hair-rigged hemp bogey.
Blog Entry: http://www.anglersne...63-1415-august/
Best Pike – 18lb 10oz. 10 February 2001. River Lambourn – Newbury. Free-lined Lamprey section.
.jpg.3b6537bcdb548868bd86f8bb32dabbff.jpg)
