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.
A satisfactory season despite (yet again) not a barbel on the bank.
Best Carp: 23lb 10oz. 21 June Ledgered Pellet - method feeder Jubilee Lake - Thatcham. Biggest carp for 10 years and my biggest ever Common.
Best Bream; 7lb 14oz. 17 Nov, Trotted corn, River Frome - Wool. Something of a surprise capture as I was after Grayling - my biggest ever river Bream.
Best Chub; 6lb 4oz. 9 Dec, Trotted maggot, River Kennet - Brimpton. First 6lb+ chub for 7 s
Middle Kennet Estate Water - Kintbury
0700 - 1815
Mild,damp start, VERY windy with some further lumpy showers (hail), brighter by the afternoon. River with a bit of water in it at last!
21 Chub; Biggest 3 - 5lb 6oz, 5lb 3oz & 4lb 9oz - with nearly all the rest in the 2½ - 3½lb class, a couple of pounders and one just under turned up in my dace swims at last knockings. 12 Dace - best 10oz, 6 Roach - all 'hand-sized', 1 Perch <1lb & around a dozen+ brownies.
A chub fest
River Kennet (& carrier) Marsh Benham
0900 - 1530
Bright and breezy (very breezy at times in the morning!) Mild-ish but didn't feel that way in the wind. River up an inch or two on last visit here (3 weeks ago).
7 Chub; Best 5lb 2oz - all the rest between 2½ - 3¾lb. 3 Bream: between 2¾ - 4lb. 15 Roach, 5 Dace & 5 Trout (3 browns & 2 rainbows all between 2½-3½lbs).
Pleasant days trotting despite the wind - spent most of my time on the main river and weirpool which prod
Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton
1330 - 1700
Still mild with milky sunshine - clouding over and quite breezy.
9 Perch; 5 over 1lb - 2lb 1oz, 2lb 0oz, 1lb 13oz, 1lb 12oz, 1lb 3oz with a couple more just shy of 1lb. 1 Chub 3lb 1oz, 1 Roach; 14oz. 3 Pike - all between 2-3lb
Can't get enough of a good thing at this water atm! Pike were a bit of a pain forcing me eventually to move swims - which resulted in the chub and the roach - both caught on whole lobs.
River Kennet - Brimpton
0745 - 1200
Quite mild, dry and cloudy with sunny spells - river up to near normal winter levels with a tinge of colour.
1 Chub; 2lb 13oz. 2 Grayling, 4 Brownies to 2½lb
Was hoping to re-acquaint my self with some of the big chub I had from here at the start of winter (see; http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-1572-9-december/ ) but, alas the trout were rather to eager, trashing swim after swim. Eventually had a chub from the 5th swi
River Frome - Wool
0800 - 1530
Bright and sunny - quite warm (16ºC) for Feb despite a frosty start. River quite full (1.06m at E stoke) and a little coloured.
7 Grayling - 4 over 1lb best 2lb 1oz & 1lb 11oz. 2 Trout (both sub 1lb) and a Salmon Parr.
Sparkly day in Dorset with bites at a premium - especially in the morning - when I broke for lunch I had just 3 modest sized grayling to my name - but returning to the 2 swims that produced them resulted in better sport in the aft
K&A Canal - Woolhampton
1500 - 1730
Bright and sunny. Mild - 16ºC
4 Perch; 3 over 1lb - biggest 1lb 14oz
Another successful dusk session for stripeys - though the biggest one was caught well before the sun had sank below the trees....
K&A Canal, Woolhampton
1500 - 1715.
Mild and mainly cloudy.
3 Perch: 2lb 4oz, 2lb 1oz, 1lb 7oz.
Had to make the most of this mild spell with a dusk session for stripeys. Thankfully they'd read the script and whilst bites were at a premium every one resulted in a nice perch.
River Kennet (& carrier) Marsh Benham
0930 - 1400
Mild and bright, clouding over by the time I left. River still not very high for mid Feb.
3 Chub; all 2lbers. A dozen roach, biggest 1lb exactly with nothing else remotely close to that!. Half dozen dace, 3 Brownies between 2-3lb & 4lb+ Rainbow.
Most fish from the weirpool - though started with a 2½lb chub from 'Chub Corner' first cast - turned out to be the biggest of the day!
