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Spinning for perch 8.7.13

A hot, sunny, clear day. Not exactly a day for perch you might say, except I once read something by Archie Braddock which claimed the opposite. He claimed that in summer the best approach was to go out in the middle of a hot day and trot worm at half depth. Phew! I tried it once a few years ago on the Kennet at Speen Moor. I only had an hour but, to my astonishment, I had a two pound perch! Admittedly I fished in shadow.   Today it was so hot and humid I just didn't feel like fishing till the

The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

A few off the top

Had a couple of short sessions surface fishing for carp over the weekend, the fishing was slow with many fish just cruising around, not interested in feeding and generally avoiding areas with lots of freebies. After watching their behavior I changed tactics to a BIG lump of bread flake(around half a slice) as a single bait and cast out allowing the wind to push it around, as the fish were patrolling in small groups the big bait worked well, one would take a chunk off it causing the rest to hamme

viney

viney

5 July

K&A Canal - Enborne   2000 - 0000   Hot and sultry - shirtsleeves all evening - still 16ºc when I packed up   3 Perch; a tiddler and a couple of 'nice ones' best circa 1lb. 7 dace and 2 chublets.   Had a notion and a plan to try and get a canal tench or two from here - thinking that if Paul can get one in January - July should be doddle! Wrong! Only gratifying thing was the number of fingerling dace and chublets - which IS good to see (there were loads and was quite difficult NOT to

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

Oh so close

Kennet near Newbury 17:30-21:30   Spent a few hours trotting what is one of my favorite stretches of the Kennet but rather than moving around a lot I concentrated on one swim and tried to get my feeding regular and accurate as I am hopeless at it!   The bites came steadily, I rested the swim for a minute or 2 after each fish (bar the 3 trout I left it 10 minutes while still feeding) a pretty even mix of dace, gudgeon, chublets and roach all mainly small with the odd bigger fish and a surpris

viney

viney

1 July

River Kennet - Newbury   2045 - 0000   Warm and overcast - river still has good flow though a little turbid.   2 Dace & a spottie.   Planned to be bankside way earlier - but was seriously delayed getting home. Quick 20 mins trotting followed by 3 hours looking at a mainly stationary rod tip. Had a couple of promising rattles but nothing that developed into anything 'hittable.'

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

30 June

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   0430 - 1030   Overcast clearing to bright sunshine - quite breezy.   1 Carp 5lb 15oz, 1roach, 1perch, dozen+ rudd.   Fruitless morning after crucians. At least I wasn't plagued by nuisance carp - the only one I caught was deliberate - off the top on bread. Rudd were a bit of a menace - especially as they gave very crucian-like bites at times.....!

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

Finally a little success

Visited the same venue my 3lb chub came from last week, we had a look at the main river first of all but only a few swims are reachable due to thick stinging nettle and brambles so we opted to fish the backstream again.   I knew before I arrived which swim I was going to fish, for some reason it had been in my head since my last visit, it just had to produce a fish or two! Now, I am no good at the whole 'put some bait in and sit there for an hour then cast in' so I took a risk and baited it th

viney

viney

Speen Moor 24.6.13

6.30-9.45pm   The aim of the trip was a general recce as to how SM was looking, and also to try and catch a decent dace as I had heard some had come out recently. And my pb is a mingy 6.5 oz!   The first swim was challenging with a swift flow, and as I was trotting and feeding maggots by hand the bites were all about 20 yds away. First trot down I though I had achieved my objective but, alas, the convex anal fin showed it to be a small chub of about 12oz. It was enjoyable fishing. I caught a

The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

Bent Double: Monday 17th June

With the start of the new season I was able to have a look at some new water. I joined a new club in april and I was dying to get on to one of their river stretches to see what it was like. It was a place I had wanted to fish for a long time but never had the chance. Finally I have the stretch on my card so off I went.   I arrived at the river around 5pm hoping to get a couple of hours in but it was mainly to be a recce to see what the water was like. I hiked through the fields and arrived at

AddictedToScopex

AddictedToScopex

20/21 June

Harris Lake, Marsh Farm Fishery, Nr Godalming.   1530 - 0930   Overcast and muggy becoming cooler am. (And DRY despite the forecasts for days beforehand forecasting rain!)   14 Tench; 7 over 4lb, best 3 - 6lb 2oz, 5lb 7oz, 5lb 5oz. 6 Crucians; 3lb 1oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 3oz*, 2lb 1oz*, 1lb 15oz, 1lb 10oz. 4 Roach - 3 over 1lb (!) best 1lb 6oz. 3 Rudd - all 10-12oz.   3rd time Paul and I have done a night here and this cracking session was following on from las

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

19 June part 2

River Kennet, Padworth   1530 - 2230   Hot, overcast and sultry - still 21ºC when we packed up.   4 brownies - a couple circa 1¼lb (possibly the same one!)   Reports from the river suggested barbel fishing would be a bit of a struggle - so the trotting rod was added to the quiver in the hope of a few dace - but yet again one of my favoured trotting swims here was occupied with troot and not a lot else!   As expected the barbelling was hard going - not helped by tonnes of pussy willow f

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

parts 2&3

Part two of my day was a small back stream, worked my way down trotting every swim for 10 minutes or so, had a handfull of dace, a few roach, plenty of minnows and a 3lb2 chub which did an amazing impression of a barbel just hugging the bottom and using the flow.   Part 3 a stretch of the kennet past Thatcham, used the last of my maggots catching minnows and trout then blanked feeder fishing for the last 6 hours

viney

viney

19 June part 1

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham   0430 - 1030   Sultry!   4 Carp (3½ - 4½lb), 12 Roach, 2 Perch.   Merest hint of a rumour that crucians had been coming out of this small club pond had me setting up at dawn, though more in hope than expectation. A pity, as just a few seasons ago it was a prolific crucian water. Today there was not a sign of one so had to make do with the occasional muscular common putting in an appearance to put a bend in the rod and lead me a merry dance on a light bottom!

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

19th June part 1

Speen moors 05:00-10:00   Spent the morning trotting, never had much luck here but had a chunky dace first trot and continued to catch at least one dace from every swim I fished with a few roach here and there. The dace were mainly small but around 10 warranted a net, the only one I weighed out of curiosity came in at 10oz .   Really nice morning although very muggy, about to have a quick shower then see where the next part of my day takes me....

viney

viney

18 June part 2

River Kennet - Nr Newbury   1145 - 1530   Warm, overcast and very muggy - lovely to be standing IN the river.   2 Chub; both around 1¼lb, 20 Dace, 4 Roach, 8 Gudgeon and 4 spotties - all small apart form one which might have scrapped a pound.   Quick return to the venue I spent 2 hours at on the opening morning - reasoning that at least I should have the place to myself - wrong as it turned out - 3 other anglers already here. So whilst I had intended to fish a different swim the waders w

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

18 June part 1

River Kennet - Thatcham   0645 - 1045   Warm and overcast - river in good nick with good weed growth this year.   2 Chub; 3lb 11oz & 1lb 14oz. 1 Barbel; 2lb 5oz. 7 spotties - all small except for 1 'pounder'.   Fished a number of swims in rotation - number one banker swim produced just trout (all of them bar 1!) but dropping downstream produced the 3lb chub. Other 2 fish up in the fast shallows. No sign of any dace which is a shame!    

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

I've lost my hat!

River Kennet, Monday 17th June 2013   My seasoned old Barbour Bushman lovingly waxed over the past three years has gone. It usually lives in the boot of my car but because I haven’t been fishing for a while I hadn’t noticed that it had vanished. A new one is on its way to me but it won’t be the same…sniff sniff.   So [hatless] my plan was implemented, Speen Moors for chub then further downstream for trotting and if energy permitted the day would end on the canal for perch.   As expected Sp

Rusty

Rusty

The times are a' changin' 17.6.13

Not much to report on the fishing. Yesterday, the glorious 16th, I just had time to check out a couple of swims - and discovered that they are unfishable unless I bring gardening implements. Worth knowing, at least. Then I spent an hour spinning for perch in what I thought was a banker area where the river meets the canal. To give me confidence I started with a small orange spinner, certain that I'd catch a few small ones and could then switch to a bigger lure, but even the tinies weren't inter

The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

16/17 June

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham   2000 - 0900   Mild and overcast with showery rain at dawn.   1 carp 12lb 14oz, 3 perch and err that's it!   Annual crucian hunt gets off to an inauspicious start and whilst they can be picky at the best of times at least we had some 'easy' carp to go at to keep us amused if they didn't come out to play - at least that was the plan. What wasn't in the script was the carp being as choosy as the crus. We saw loads of them swimming

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

16 June 2013

River Kennet - Newbury   0415 - 0615   Mild, overcast morning - river at or slightly above normal summer levels - with a bit of colour.   1 chub 4lb 9oz, 11 dace, (3 really chunky ones - would have weighed them had I not been standing mid-river), 1 roach, 2 gudgeon and a spottie.   Very quick trotting session to christen the season before dashing off to watch Sam in his first AAAs final at Bedford this morning. Nice to see a decent chub turn up in this swi

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

VAC Champion of Champions Match - How End-26th May 2013

This match was scheduled to take place at the club's Bellows Mill lake but due to it being very clear and weedy the match was switched to How End Fishery.   We were to be on Yasi's Lake which I have fished once before in March last year. I started by feeding chop worm and caster at the bottom of the far shelf which was around 11m and the same at the bottom of the near shelf at around 4m. First go with a bait I shipped tight over to the far bank to see if there was any quick carp to be had, no

Maddog

Maddog

Fish & Fishermen in English Medieval Church Wall Paintings

Another book review - and a bit of a minority interest methinks! Fish & Fishermen in English Medieval Church Wall Paintings By Frederick Buller   A curious and rather unusual book that will fascinate anyone interested in Angling history – of which I thinks there’s a few on Anglersnet (well maybe just me and Vagabond!). The scope of this research is, however, rather narrow and I was amused by a line in the frontispiece which described the book as ‘a definitive text f

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

The Little Book of Little Fishes

I well remember as a youngster hunting for tiddlers in my local (then) River Witham. Sticklebacks were brought home in triumph and saw out the summer in a tin bath by the back door - this book brought back those childhood memories....   The Little Book of Little Fishes An Anglers Guide to Britain’s Smallest Fishes by Mark Everard   If, like me, your formative fishing years were spent catching sticklebacks (usually with the same worm) or splashing through the gravels turn

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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