Kennet & Avon Canal, Newbury, Friday 12th March 2010
A strange day today, in some ways in might have been better if I hadn’t gone.
The original plan was to have an early start on the canal tomorrow in pursuit of Perch. Unexpectedly, I was able to take today off so I thought a dry run might be a good idea to give me a head start tomorrow.
I haven’t fished this bit before but I knew there was next to no flow so the centrepin was packed away and the fixed spool reel dusted off, t
River Lambourn - Newbury
0615 - 0900
Cold and overcast 2ºC. River clear as ever!
11 Grayling, 7 between 1lb 6oz - 1lb 12oz (most over 1½lb)
Day off work to take Matt to a University open day - so an excuse to sneak a couple of hours on the river. Real catch a couple and move on tactics and really good average size of fish.
Started off fishing a free stretch of the canal with a mate of mine who hasnt fished since he was 9!
Got off to a good start with my first ever bream in the first hour on a single red maggot with a cage feeder and groundbait shortly followed by this slab:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1131...mp;id=837105642
What a strong fighting fish! the day was looking good.... then came the F#####G canoers!
Most were fine and kept to the far side a few however thought it a good idea to
River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 7th March 2010
A second opportunity to fish some of the most beautiful stretches of the Kennet.
The day didn’t start well, jumping into the car the thermometer read -7 degrees, good job I’d put the bait in the car boot last night and covered it then. Lobs and Maggots were lethargic but still alive.
The first dilemma of the day was whether to wake the neighbours with the sound of me scraping ice or the sound of a Fiesta idling. It was too cold to scrap
River Kennet - Newbury
0630 - 0900
COLD, and clear. AT was 22ºF when I arrived WT a whole 20ºF warmer at 42ºF. River clear and quite 'full'.
13 (!) Chub: In order of capture; 3lb 1oz, 6lb 0oz, 2lb 14oz, 5lb 2oz, 3lb 10oz, 4lb 13oz, 4lb 3oz, 4lb 10oz, 3lb 7oz, 4lb 15oz, 1lb 11oz, 2lb 2oz, 3lb 6oz. 1 Barbel 3lb 4oz. 1 Dace.
Simply an awesome session!! All fish on trotted double red maggot (to a size 14). I seriously questioned the wisdom of this trip
Blenheim Palace, Friday 5th March 2010
Ok so let’s get the formalities out of the way first of all….we had one bite between us all day and blanked. Four rods were out, two deadbaiting and two float fishing lobs for about 7 hours so you could say that we spent a over a day’s bait time in the water without a fish. The temperature last night was -3 and today was cold and sunny, that’s not an excuse it’s just the reason we didn’t catch anything.
Without any fishy narrative to share I’ll ha
WT 6degC, AT 11degC. 3.30-6pm
Partly inspired by CP's recent success, decided to try for some perch. Thought of going to the stretch of canal I suspect CP may have been to, but decided to try and be original - which was a mistake! There had been a hard frost overnight, but it seemed like a summer's day, and I hoped the warmth of the air would waken Sargeant Stripey from her slumbers. But the combined cold water temp and bright sunlight seemed to have turned them off.
There was another
kennet- Brimpton 12-16:30
Arrived to find a very up and very fast kennet, found a few nice swims but couldnt hold bottom even with a 70g feeder in the slacks as the line in the fast current dragged it out of the slack
trotted lob and red maggot all afternoon and not a single bite, moving from one swim i did hook into a dead fox tho...nice!
kennet side stream- colthrop 16:45- 18:30
Arrived only to realise id left my pint of maggots at brimpton
so i quivered lobworms and spa
Middle Kennet Estate.
0845 - 1745
Heavy drizzle all morning, dry afternoon, temps around 4/5ºC all day. River carrying some colour - more than is usual for here.
3 Chub; 3lb 14oz, 3lb 12oz, 1½lb, 2 Perch; 2lb 14oz, 2lb 10oz. 1 Roach 1lb 2oz. 3 Grayling; biggest 14oz. 21 Dace - best 2 - 13oz & 12oz. 4 Brown Trout - biggest just on 4lb (caught twice!!)
A day on the river with Paul (& Rusty ) nearly didn't go - thankfully the predicted monsoo
River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 28th February 2010
This trip was in some doubt up until….oh hang on, no it was never in doubt. Whatever the skies dumped on the venue I was going to be there, roaming and trotting if at all possible but pitched up under shelter if absolutely necessary. Thankfully plan B wasn’t implemented, although rain and wind were present for most of the day neither were hostile enough to inhibit my favoured method.
Parking up at about 8:30am it was pleasing to see nobo
River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 27th February 2010
A follow up visit to Tuesday when I was beaten by the weather and had to abandon some co-operative Chub.
The plan was to buy bait for tomorrow and see how the weather faired on the way to the shop, the rod was in the back of the car just in case. It was very changeable but at the point when the decision had to be made (i.e. buying an extra pint of maggots) there was no wind and the sun was out so off I went.
It was a similar story
Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham
0645 - 0915
4 seasons in 2½hrs! Heavy rain stopped just as I arrived - followed by and hour of calm overcast conditions, then an hour of bright sunshine, with heavy rain/hail to finish off. AT dropped from 7ºC to 4.5ºC. WT 46ºF Water 'up' and carrying some colour.
6 Perch - in order of capture: 2lb 13oz, 2lb 2oz, 1lb 10oz, 3lb 11oz, 3lb 4oz, 3lb 1oz. 6 fish for 16½lbs!
The plan for this morning was meant to be - a
Rivers Lambourn & Kennet, Newbury, Tuesday 23rd February 2010
After yesterday’s difficult day I had plenty of maggots left over and so it seemed rude not to invest them in a couple of stretches of water which would possibly provide a better return.
No need to describe the Lambourn (but I will), it was the same as it always is at this time of year, a healthy flow and gin clear. The Grayling too were particularly friendly almost arguing over who was going to go for the bait. Apart fr
River Itchen, Lower Itchen Fishery, Monday 22nd February 2010
Well I had to tempt fate didn’t I, after predicting that I couldn’t blank at this venue that’s exactly what happened. To be fair the return from most anglers was pretty sparce with a few small roach to Will Wilkinson, a Chub to Budgie and a handful of Grayling distributed amongst the other members of the group.
After Sunday’s rain the river was very high and a sort of mud brown colour, we thought it would be difficult but as
3.30-5pm
Had 1.4cm of ice cold rain and snow overnight, so I knew it would be hard. Tried maggot feeder and 2 dedrobaenas with maggot feed at a chub swim on the flowing canal for an hour, but no luck. So went to a private weirpool I'm allowed to fish where I've never known it to take longer than 5 mins to get a first bite from a chub, but was surprised to see a torrent running through the pool in a way I've never seen before. Mrs Chevin seemed to have moved on, so went home for tea!
Fished two waters today:
River kennet- Thatcham
07:30-10:30
Trotted lobs and maggots past and under every tree and bush possible to no avail, wasnt too fussed as i got to grips with casting properly with the 'pin
Switched to magic bread at around 10am and trotted up to an over hanging tree on the far bank, had a bite but the hook pulled, had another half hour on that swim then gave up.
Lambourn- Shaw
10:45- 13:00
Trotted single red maggot on a size 16 hook, 1
River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 20th February 2010
This was a sort of a pre fish-in day out hastily arranged given the nice weather forecast (and the crap one for Monday) and a call from Steve.
Not a dawn raid so again arrival at 11:00am found the river looking perfect and the sun doing its best to convince me that Spring had finally sprung. Steve had arrived earlier and was busy covering as much water as he could with his lure rod and pup German Shepherd in tow.
I chose ‘the’ ack
Lower Itchen Fishery
0830 - 1730
Bright and cool with sunny intervals. River high and carrying quite a bit of colour (alas).
8 Grayling - 3 over 1lb - 2lb 4oz, 1lb 15oz, 1lb 12oz, 2 Chub 4lb 1oz, 2lb 13oz, 1 Rainbow trout 1½lb, 1 Brownie, 1 Parr (Salmon or trout - hopefully the former as it will mean another point for the species race - pic to be submitted for adjudication!!!)
IAC day on the Itchen - and a bit of a grueller with bites at a premium
4.30-5.30pm AT approx 4degC.
Did my back in slightly a week or so ago, hence no fish and no blog last week.
Was planning to hunt a monster croc this week, but the back was still a little dicey and, as ever, other events conspired to leave too little time, so had a very short go on the Lambourn - the stretch where they've taken down a lot of trees. Actually I didn't really have time to give it a proper go as I found it was getting tricky to see the float as early as 5pm. For some reason
River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 13th February 2010
Spent a pleasant few hours on the CSAS stretch of the Kennet today. NAA do an exchange ticket and so with morning shopping quickly dispatched I thought I’d give it a try.
It was a bit of a last minute decision so I could only get there for 11 o’clock but what a wonderful stretch of the Kennet it is. Regular readers won’t be surprised to hear that I blanked (anyone see a pattern developing yet?) but it was great fun exploring a new bit
Middle Kennet Estate - Nr Hungerford
0730 - 1730
Cool and overcast with afternoon showery rain. AT 1º -> 5ºC. WT 44ºF river carrying a slight tinge of colour.
33 Grayling; 13 over 1lb (7 over 1½lb) - best 1lb 14oz, 2 Dace (small), 5 Rainbows to 2¾lb, 3 Brownies to 1¾lb
A fruitless search for those elusive big Kennet dace. Fished with Paul who had a very similar return (36 ladies and 3 small dace). Thankfully the grayling are showing well
Well I thought I would start a blog as i tend to fish at least once a week! Not going to be anywhere near up to scratch as other blogs on here but oh well!
Managed to get a short session in after work (3:15pm to 5:30) for some reason decided to fish a lake rather than the canal as it was closer to my car (in the thatcham lakes.
Having never fished a lake before I used the same tactics i was planning for the canal (open ended feeder with a plug of dynamite black groundbait at either end
K&A Canal & River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 7th February 2010
I’m not generally a fan of canal fishing, I tend to regard them as featureless arrow straight stretches of water devoid of all fish. Obviously this isn’t the case as my local tackle shop proprietor keeps telling that the K&A canal is fishing very well at the moment.
With an overcast & relatively mild day forecast for today I abandoned my Lambourn Roach expedition and bought a tub of lobs and a pint of red maggo
