Kennet Carrier (& main river!) Marsh Benham
0900 - 1500
Cool, calm and mainly overcast. AT around 6ºC all day. River a couple of inches lower on my last visit over Christmas - with most of the colour dropped out.
8 Chub; 5 over 1lb - best 3lb 2oz, 2 doz+ Roach, 4 Dace - to 8oz & 4 Perch (all small). (NO trout - bit of a first for here!)
Birthday treat with Rusty as my guest. Low water meant chub were a little on the spooky side - only found one swim where I caught more th
River Lambourn - Newbury
0800 - 1400.
Cold and mainly cloudy. -1º -> 4ºC. River clear ( as always) and much lower than expected given we've had over 60mm of rain in the past fortnight.
50+ Grayling with around half over 12oz and a good few 'pounders'. Biggest 1lb 10oz. 1 Dace, 2 Brownies - a 2lber and a tiddler.
Cracking session - had planned a 2 venue day - a couple of hours here then a switch to the Kennet - but it took me 6 hours to work my way down the stretch such was the
River Kennet - Brimpton
1200 - 1545
Mild (10ºC) and overcast with drizzly rain for first hour or so. River up a touch and carrying a bit of colour.
5 Chub; 4lb 12oz. 4lb 10oz, 4lb 6oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 3oz.
Cracking afternoon's chubbing and a very satisfactory start to 2018. All fish in lovely winter condition and a superb average size ( 5 fish for over 20lb) though in truth I was hoping to re-acquainted myself with one (or both!) of the 5lbers I had from here back in the summer! F
Kennet Carrier (& main river!) Marsh Benham
0900 - 1600
Cold and sunny with snow on the ground from yesterday max temp 4ºC (briefly!). River up a couple of inches on last visit here (Nov) and carrying a little colour.
7 Chub: 4lb 5oz, 3lb 6ox, 2lb 11oz, 2lb 8oz, 2lb 0oz and 2 sub 1lbers. A dozen+ dace to 10oz, 4 dozen+ roach - most hand sized or bigger! 4 Brownies and a rainbow - all 2-3lb.
Chubbing in the snow - loverly! This venue really comes into its own in the winter mon
River Kennet - Newbury
0930 - 1245
Cool (3ºC) and bright. River still quite low despite yesterday's rain.
1 Chub c 1½lb, 14 Dace, 3 Roach, 3 Grayling & 5 Brownies - 3 of which ere over 1lb.
Quick sesh while Jaq hit the sales! Hoping for a few more ( and bigger) chub but their usual haunts seemed to have been taken over by trout!
Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton
1000 - 1600
Mild, overcast and calm - a benign winter's day. AT around 10ºC all day. Canal VERY low - around 18 inches below what it should be - over-wintering barges had slipped their anchorages - clearly someone's left a sluice open somewhere!
A dozen perch to 1¼lb (though most nowhere near that size!). 2 Chub; 2lb 9oz & a chublet.
Slow day - not helped by the low water and the only barge of the day coming through at 1515 just as bites
River Lambourn - Shaw
0900 - 1300
Frosty, bright start - clouding over. River low - 13cm on the EA Shaw gauge.
18 Grayling to just over 1lb - half were in the 10oz+ bracket the rest considerably smaller! 6 Brownies to 1½lb.
A morning's trotting - usual catch a couple and move tactics.
River Lambourn - Newbury
0745 - 1200
Overcast and quite mild. River very low.
4 Roach; 1lb 1oz, 1lb 0oz, 15oz, 13oz. 18 Grayling between 10-20oz (most at the lower end of that scale - but good sport none the less!) 5 Brownies; 3 parr fish and a couple of netters!
A morning trotting for grayling with some bonus roach for good measure! All roach in first half an hour or so and all on trotted caster - saw a couple of shapes in the water which looked even bigger than the ones landed!
River Frome - Wool
0745 - 1345
Cool and quite bright for most of the day. River at normal levels - 0.72cm at E Stoke.
9 Grayling; 7 over 1lb to 1lb 10oz. 2 Brownies to circa 1lb. 1 Salmon Parr.
Started with a bit of a grueller - no fish of note at all for the first 3 hours. Moved to some swims I'd never fished before at the venue and thankfully found a few ladies - nothing approaching 2lb alas - but quite a few in the 20oz class.
River Kennet - Brimpton
0730 - 1230
Cool, bright and breezy after a showery start. River low despite recent rains.
2 Chub: 5lb 1oz, 4lb 0oz. A dozen brownies to 2½lb. 1 bleak!
Lovely brace of chub caught from the same swim (the 2nd and bigger fish after resting it for 90 mins). Trout were a bit of a pain!
Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne *
Northcroft Stream^
0700 - 0945*
1000 - 1230^
Cold and bright start - clouding over by the time I left. 0ºC - 8ºC
7 Perch; 4 over 1lb, best 2 1lb 9oz & 2lb 0oz (hooray!)*
6 Dace, 4 Roach, 1 Gudgeon and a brownie.^
A lovely crisp morning - not the most ideal conditions for stripeys thankfully no one told the fish that. Had to contend with some really inconsiderate dog owners - one even threw a stick in for there dog right where I was fish
Kennet Carrier - Marsh Benham
1000 - 1400
Bright and sunny. River very low.
6 Chub; 2½lb, 1¼lb and 4 chublets. 4 Dozen roach - all hand sized or better! 8 Dace, 4 Bleak and a couple of 2lb brownies.
Started by stalking chub - freelining lumps of meat into various holes - usually had just one go at each before spooking the fish - and of course it was usually the smallest of the shoal that snaffled the meat first (or a trout)- still twas good fun! Then it was bite a chuck on maggot
Lower Itchen Fishery
0800 - 1700
Bright, mild and sunny. River low.
45 Grayling - with some 2 dozen over 1lb - most in the 20-24oz range. Biggest 2 went 1lb 11oz &1lb 12oz. A dozen+ brownies to 3½lb. 5 Salmon parr.
Lovely day's trotting. Alternated between maggot and red corn all day and caught roughly equal numbers on each bait.
Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton
0700 - 1200
Warm and overcast.
5 Perch; 3 over 1lb - best 1lb 11oz. 1 Pike; 3¼lb, a doz+ Roach, 1 Chublet, 1 Dace, 1 Rudd, 4 Gudgeon, 2 Bleak (8 different species!)
New venue for me and one which might be promising on the perch front! Boat traffic was a total PITA - way busier than I experience on other parts of the canal.... :-(
River Kennet - Newbury
1730 - 2200
Mild/warm evening 14ºC. River very low.
2 Chub; 2lb 13oz & 1lb 10oz, 9 Dace and a Brownie of around 1lb.
Still no barbel - but I did at least get a couple of chub this time. Yet again had an otter visit my swim!
Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne
0700 - 1300
Calm and overcast.
15 perch'; 3 over 1lb, best 1lb 9oz. 1 Pike 3lb 11oz.
A morning exploring likely spots along the length of the lower section - fished around half a dozen swims and had fish from most of them. All fish on lobs.
River Kennet - Speen Moors
0700 - 1300. Overcast but quite mild. River low.
4 Chub - all between ¾ - 1¼lb. 5 Roach - all small apart from one cracking looking fish of 12oz, 6 Gudgeon & a 1½lb brownie.
A morning spent doing nearly as much walking as fishing (covered 5.5km according to my pedometer!) Started out after perch in some favoured swims of old - but not so much as a bite (not even from a crayfish) - so it was then a hunt for some chub - eventually achieved in the last hou
River Kennet - Nr Thatcham
1800 - 2200
Cool and overcast - river up a tiny bit after recent rain and full of leaf litter.
4 Dace, 1 Roach & 2 Brownies
Another barbel blank (preceded by the usual 30 mins or so trotting!), didn't even have any crayfish worrying the baits. Had planned to stay longer - but 3 sightings of an otter in my swim - didn't exactly fill me with confidence!
K&A Canal - Thatcham
0700 - 1000
Warm, overcast and still - perfect perching conditions - shame no one told the fish!
2 perch; both 12oz(ish)
Slow morning in a favourite swim of old. Next perching trips will be exploring waters new!
Alders
1800 - 2200
Cool clear evening - temps down to 9ºC but felt much cooler with a very heavy dew.
1 Bream - 1½lb.
Last evening of the summer - and it was a slow one with the only bite resulting in a blank saving skimmer just as it got properly dark.
Kennet & Avon Canal - Avington
0645 - 1230
Bright start, rain from 1000.
6 Perch: 1¼lb & 5 small uns. 1 Chub - small. 7 Skimmers to 1lb, 2 doz roach - to 1lb, 2 Gudgeon and 3 Ruffe!
First autumn perching session - which whilst it got off to a good start with the pounder first cast - didn't get any better. Loads of pred activity too - think they were pre-occupied with fry and ignoring my lobs. First EVER ruffe from the Kennet system - only other time I've caught the speci
K&A Canal Colthrop
River Kennet Brimpton
0615 - 0815 - Canal
0830 - 1100 - River.
Sunny start quickly clouding over.
Canal - blanked
River; Chub 2lbish, 1 Grayling, 5 Brownies.
First time on this stretch of canal - part of a plan to find some new perch hotspots - alas this doesn't appear to be one of them - not a bite of lobs so switched to the river for a rather sratchy session in VERY low water.
My experience of sea fishing is limited, to say the least. The first fish I ever caught were in the sea, when I was about eight. My dad took my brother and me out in a rowing boat at Hastings for an hour. Hand lines and bait (lugworms) were supplied. From memory we only went out about 30 yards, but we had 27 small whiting and three dabs. It all seemed remarkably easy! But future attempts have normally resulted in failure, the main catch being seaweed!
The last week was a family holiday, but
