River Lambourn - Shaw
1130 - 1400
Cold, and sunny. -2ºC -> 1ºC. River at normal levels - crystal clear as ever!
13 Grayling: best 2, 1lb 7oz & 1lb 1oz. 1 brown trout parr.
Lovely afternoon in the cold! Fish were quite spooky - never caught more than 2 from any one spot. Experiment with pomergranate seeds a failure - skins are too thin for a good hook hold!
River Kennet, Newbury, Thursday 17th December 2009
Today I was able to make an early start and so armed with lobs and maggots I arrived well before dawn (and questioned the wisdom of not having a head torch). The plan was to fish for Perch where I’d previously caught and when light levels increased I’d head off and search for Chub. Of course if the Perch continued to feed as it got lighter I’d continue to fish for them. Sadly this wasn’t the case, in fact they didn’t even start feeding wher
2.45pm - 4.30pm. AT 5C, but felt quite mild with little wind.
Today I had an assignation with the Lambourn ladies, though I was a little nervous how they would greet me as I have ignored them for the last year. I have also largely ignored my AN 'pin since Santa brought it last Christmas - at least, I have never used it on a pacey water, which the Lambourn is in parts. So this was an attempt to put both omissions right. It was also the first time I have used my Greys rod with its extension
River Kennet - Speen Moors
0830 - 1330
Cool and mainly overcast - some 'milky' sunshine at times. AT 3º -> 6ºC. WT 45ºF (7ºC). River just about up to 'normal' levels - carrying a tinge of colour.
9 Perch (in order of capture): 2lb 11oz, tiddler, 2lb 8oz, 2lb 4oz, 2lb 3oz, 2lb 9oz, 2lb 15oz, 1lb 10oz, 2lb 9oz. 1 Pike 5lb 5oz, 1 Brown Trout, 2lb, 5 gudgeon.
Cracking session (nearly 20lb of perch!) after an early morning change of plan due to not reading the match bookings! Had p
2pm - 4.30pm
Very mild day, and a few days leave left so took a few hours to go perching. Went to a tree swim on the canal where a friend bagged up a few days ago using the pole. Had thought the colour would have dropped out sufficiently to make jigging a plastic worm a good option, aiming for my first perch on a plastic. But the canal was more coloured than I expected so I decided to try lobworm on a straight lead, with maggots sprayed over the top. But I would use a long-drop bobbin, whic
10am to 12 noon. As a result of yesterday's recce and 20 mph winds forecast I decided to miss the river for once and fish Dixons for roach in a sheltered spot. Air temp forecast 9deg C, though I didn't have a water thermometer, seemed mild enough for it not to be too hard. Started with float, but switched to maggot feeder when the wind moved round a bit to the west. 14 foot deep. Tried two swims on Dixons plus a few minutes on the Moor Ditch. Not a touch. Had fished the morning as Metcheck fore
Unusually had a free Sunday evening and decided to have a short recce (plus wetting a line) for tomorrow's outing. I couldn't decide (for tomorrow) whether to fish a swim on the free stretch which is generally supposed to be good when there is a fair flow, or to fish one of the lakes. One problem with the Kennet free stretch swim is that the car parking charges now are horrendous, so fishing after dark when you can park for a pound is one option. So I set out at 5.30pm for a swim where West Berk
Middle Kennet Estate Water
0830 - 1630
Bright and breezey after heavy morning rain (we sat in the car waiting for it to stop). River coloured up in the morning but was fining down again by the time we packed up. Levels still quite low.
9 Chub - all quite small - biggest 2lb 7oz, 1 Perch 1lb 7oz, 13 Roach - best 2, 1lb 6oz & 1lb (just!) - most others around 6-8oz, 3 dozen Dace, ½ doz gudgeon, 2 Brownies - best 3½lb, 2 Rainbows - best 2¾lb.
Pleasant day's trotting (once the
Well here goes with a new blog. I fish the same waters around Newbury to a degee as Chris Plumb and Rusty, so it'll be interesting if it reads like that to anyone else! For various reasons I often only manage to fish short sessions. I'm really a 'pleasure angler' who still likes to catch the occasional pb, even if they are not specimens as such. I fish once a week, normally, on Mondays, and aim to post each week for a while to see how it goes.
After a couple of years with no pbs (beyond a g
River Kennet, Newbury, Monday 30th November 2009
This venue continues to deny me a chub and today it almost denied me any fish (again).
I couldn’t make an early start today and arrived at the venue at about 10:00am. Too late for perch really (and I was after chub) but it was overcast and so I thought it was worth a try before the chub search. A big lob was dangled into a close swim that had produced last time out, this time though a couple of missed bites and that was it. An hour later
River Test, Timsbury, Sunday 29th November 2009
The annual Anglersnet visit to Timsbury stayed true to form, it rained frequently and heavily at times. My plan of stuffing everything into pockets and carrying only a rod & net worked a treat, my kit and bait remained dry throughout the day. It's surprising how little you really need to take with you for a days fishing.
The main river was well up and a sort of watery coffee colour, not good. The fast carrier looked perfect and the sl
River Lambourn - Shaw
0830 - 1230
Bright and breezey. 2º -> 8ºc. River still low - this wet November's rains haven't percolated through the chalk yet!
22 Grayling - 4 over 1lb, best 1lb 6oz. A dozen brownies - all small.
Pleasant morning's trotting.
River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 22nd November 2009.
Having tried twice in the past two weeks without success on this particular stretch I've finally managed to catch something.
A dawn raid saw me poised at a likely looking Perch swim waiting for sufficient light to see the float. Lowering in the lob about a rod length out produced a beautiful Perch of 1lb 5oz. A couple of smaller Perch followed until the sun came out about 08:45 at which point bites stopped.
Next to the Perch swim w
Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham
0700 - 1100
Overcast, mild and drizzly. AT 57ºF. WT 52ºF
4 Perch: 3lb 5oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 5oz and a tiddler.
All fish in first couple of hours (3lber first cast!). Spent last hour exploring so probably did more walking than fishing.....Float fished lobs as per usual.
Welcome, thought I'd give this blog thing a try for the 2009/10 winter season. I have high hopes having joined a couple of associations with access to some of the best river fishing in the area (the country?). We'll see how that pans out but first I need to sort out a very lightweight and portable means of cooking hot food, over the coming months I'll be spending a lot of time roving in the cold.
Middle Kennet - Nr Newbury.
0715 - 1630
Bright and sunny. 6º -> 13ºC. River still quite low and carrying a little colour after 3 days of rain.
6 Chub: Biggest 4lb 1oz, 1 Perch 1lb 5oz, 1 doz Rainbows to 4¼lb, 3 Brownies to 2½lb, 3doz dace, 2 doz roach, ½ doz gudgeon and a skimmer bream.
A day spent chub hunting - and trying (unsuccesfully) to avoid the trout. Most fish on trotted maggot - spent the last hour quiver tipping bread flake hoping for a decent roach but all I accoun
River Kennet Estate Water - Nr Hungerford
0645 - 1615
Bright sunny start, showers then HEAVY rain after 1500. AT 5º -> 11ºC. Water VERY low.
44 Grayling, 18 over 1lb, best 2 - 2lb 0oz, 1lb 14oz, 21 Dace, best 2 - 13oz & 12oz - also weighed another at 10 oz and had quite a few of similar size - unweighed, 5 Rainbow Trout - to 2½lb, 3 Brown Trout - to 2¾lb.
Surprisingly good day given the very low water conditions. Best return of 1lb+ grayling from this venue in a day (by a
River Kennet - Nr Thatcham
0830 - 1115
Bright and sunny. AT 3º -> 9ºC. River still low & clear though up an inch or so. WT 49ºF.
7 Dace, 4 Brownies to 1½lb.
A morning's trotting - playing hunt the chub - and failing to find any. All dace were a nice size though (6-8oz).
River Kennet, Nr Newbury.
0700 - 1100
Torrential rain at dawn (I waited for it to clear! ), brigthening up. 15ºC. River low with LOTS of leaf litter - coloured up AND fined down in the time I was there!
7 Chub: 5lb 5oz, 4lb 7oz, 3lb 11oz, 3lb 0oz, 2lb 10oz, 2lb 7oz & a chublet. 1 Barbel 4lb 1oz, 1 Perch c¾lb, 4 doz roach dace & gudgeon in roughly equal nos.
A pleasant morning's trotting (once the rain had stopped). All the big chub & the barbel caught in the last ¾
River Kennet - Nr Thatcham
1830 - 0100
Calm and mild with high cloud. AT 52ºF, WT 54ºF.
2 Barbel 4lb 15oz, 4lb 3oz.
A very pleasnt evening by the river. Fished with Paul who packed up at 2230 having had 1 fish just under 6lb. My first fish came at 2350 and the 2nd 20 minutes later!
Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham
1300 - 1800
Drizzly start becoming bright and sunny - mild 16ºC.
9 Perch; 3lb 12oz, 1lb 11oz & 7 tiddlers, 1 chublet.
Planned to go in the morning but the wimped out because of the promised downpour which never really arrived. Should have stuck to my guns as the barge traffic was a nightmare. Biggy early in the session - but after that there was far too much boat traffic for the swim to 'settle' down - poo!
20 July - Ilfracombe, Devon. Chucking gripper leads into the surf.
I had a single morning of the second part of the family holiday visting friends in which I decided I would try and catch a bass or a thornback. The nearby beach was good for both apparently, and I had caught bass and doggies here before on the rising tide. This was a two centre holiday visiting friends and I decided to have a go at 'bay slinging' as it would probably be my one and only chance this year. Dug out the Shake
13th July - Fly Fishing for Bass. Pembrokeshire.
The Family holiday. An early morning attempt at catching bass on the fly. Despite a rising tide, and loads of sandeels around, I managed to catch nowt. I spotted a pollack and what looked like a sea trout leaping from the waves around 50 yards out - well out of range. A beautiful spot though, good for wildlife spotting.
Tried again the following day on a different beach. Very fishy looking but still no joy.
The followi
