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tomhaggett's Blog

2nd carp of the year

7-8th March - Berkshire Stillwater   After my success last week I'd well and truly got my carp head back on and was gagging to get back at them.   Tuesday morning bought good news in the way of 2/3 interviews. It's taken me 2 months of unemployment and 20+ applications just to get an interview so I decided to celebrate with a night on the bank.   I arrived at 4.30ish and had a walk around but saw nothing. One lad had managed a 25lb common on a day session and was due to leave that e
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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The Flying Tench's Blog

Chub attack - failed 5.3.12

5.30-7pm   WT lower than I expected at 6degC. AT also 6degC at start, but getting colder, and the wind was biting.   Tried 3 swims in town centre where the sun, or rather West Berks Council, always shines, but never felt I was going to catch. Wasn't enjoying it, so cut my losses and went home earlier than planned.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Rusty's Blog

Sorry it's a bit late

River Kennet, Sunday 26th February 2012.   My second visit to this auspicious location in as many weeks, it gets better, the final visit of the season is next Sunday. I really hope that the 2011/12 finale proves to be a better day than this one because on this occasion a combination of bad luck and ill considered plans (on my part) conspired to make it a bit of a shambles.   The day started well enough, we met up with Paul (Chris P’s fishing buddy) at the chosen parking spot. The unloading
Rusty

Rusty

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Chris Plumb's Blog

3 March

K&A Canal - Thatcham   0700 - 1000   Overcast with rain/drizzle for ¾hr from 0830. AT & WT 48ºF.   2 Perch; 3lb 2oz & 2lb 7oz.   Unexpectedly had a free morning due to Sam deciding on a lay in after partying last night rather than go training. Dad's taxi still had to take Matt to work for 0630 which was the time I'd have rather have been making my first cast. So I arrived 30 or so minutes later than I would have liked to get a couple of nasty s
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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tomhaggett's Blog

First carp of the year :).

27th-28th Feb - Berkshire Stillwater   I decided against the nights carping last week but after a short, biteless trip on the river last week I decided to have a look at one of the lakes on the way back to the car. Stopped off in a mates swim and chatted away for a couple of hours before deciding I was extremely keen to get the carp gear back out.   After a few texts I arranged to meet a mate down at the lake on Monday morning for a quick 24 hour session. I'd heard that one swim produced
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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The Flying Tench's Blog

Different weirpool 27.2.12

3.30-6.10pm   A nice grey day, and after such a warm week I thought it would be a great day for perch. But the news in the tackle shop was that the fishing was still hard, and my back was playing up which limited where I could get to. So I went to a free weirpool which I used to fish a few years ago.   First thing I did was to check the WT. At 8DegC it was a rise of 3degC in just a week. My spirits rose and I thought the perch would be going wild, but it soon became apparent that things we
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Chris Plumb's Blog

26 February

River Frome Worgret 0800 - 1130 Wool 1200 - 1600   Bright and sunny after a foggy start - felt positively warm in the sun - had far too much on! River clear and low.   11 Grayling: 10 over 1lb (9 over 1½!). Best 5, 2lb 14oz, 2lb 5oz, 2lb 2oz & 2 at 1lb 14oz.   Last trip down to Dorset this winter as the water closes to coarse anglers at the end of Feb. I wanted to give Worgret a proper go this time as it was the colour of milky tea when I came here in
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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tomhaggett's Blog

A slow day

21st Feb - Speen Moors and K&A canal   After hearing that Speen had done 3 5lb+ chub in the weekend match I decided to have a rove around for a few hours. Baited and fished a number of swims without a bite.   Gave up at about 2pm and decided to have a wander along a bit of the K&A I'd been told had done a few good weights of perch. Found the going swims but unfortunately they were occupied so I ended up at my usual stretch for the last couple of hours. Managed a handful of perch
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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tomhaggett's Blog

They're playing hard to get today..

16th Feb - Canalised stretch of the Kennet and K&A canal   Back to the same stretch again, this time for a day with my Dad as we don't get the chance to fish together as much as we used to. Still fishing on the exchange permit as he's a member of the club controlling the opposite bank to the one I normally fish.   Same routine once again, bait a number of swims and fish them in rotation. Fished all of the swims that have produced up until now without so much as a sniff between us. R
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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tomhaggett's Blog

3 in a day

Feb 15th - Canalised section of the Kennet.   Another trip to the same stretch today, although I'd got an exchange ticket and fished it from the opposite bank.   Followed the same routine of walking to the boundary and baiting swims with mash, but this time I fancied giving it a go on the float. I decided against using my pin as the lack of flow would make things difficult, so I set up with a small fixed spool and a loafer to fish a large chunk of flake, just tripping bottom.   As
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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tomhaggett's Blog

Biggest of the season so far

Feb 3rd - Canalised section of the Kennet   Thought I'd have another go at the chub on this stretch of the Kennet, hoping to achieve my target of a 6lb'er before the end of the season.   Once again I walked to the fishery limit and baited a number of swims with mash before fishing them in rotation. I was slightly disapointed to find someone fishing one of my preferred swims from the opposite bank, but a quick chat revealed he hadn't had anything as yet. The weather was seriously cold,
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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tomhaggett's Blog

Should have stayed at home.

Jan 30th - Speen Moors   Decided to have a days piking, and chose Speen as the location due to its fairly good reputation as a pike water and as I wanted to explore a bit more of the stretch.   Fished a number of swims throughout the day but didn't receive any action other than a crayfish that had obviously forgotten how cold it was and decided to come out of his slumber. Ashamed to say I also left early due to the biting wind.. I don't normally feel the cold but this was beyond ridiculou
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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tomhaggett's Blog

Another surprise

22nd Jan - Kennet and K&A canal.   Got back out for a short stint on the river before going home via the canal for a couple of hours perching at dusk.   Visited another new stretch to me, just upstream of one that I'd fished previously, with the boundaries separated by a busy road bridge.   I walked the short stretch with the intention of fishing as I have been recently... baiting a number of swims with mashed bread and fishing for 15mins with either a feeder or light link-ledger ov
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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tomhaggett's Blog

A chub on the bank, but a loss that will haunt me.

20th Jan - Canalised section of the Kennet   So after exploring new beats ended in disaster a couple of days ago, I thought it best to stick to a stretch of river that I knew for today.   Visited a canalised section that I used to fish a good few years ago, albeit from the opposite bank. Baited a number of swims with mashed bread and fished them in rotation for 15 minutes each. By the time I reached my final baited swim I hadn't had so much as a touch, and had rather lost confidence, i
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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The Flying Tench's Blog

Kennet weirpool 20.2.12

3.30-5.30pm   The plan was to fish with maggots and lobs for perch, chub and maybe trout. From which locals may be able to deduce the weirpool! But when I arrived, although the AT was 9degC, I was shocked to see the WT was still only 5degC, which I feared might not be to the liking of sergeant stripey.   So it turned out. I started with trotted maggot to try and find out where the fish were, but didn't get a touch. Switched to lobworm with maggot feeder, and chose to try a number of places
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Rusty's Blog

A grand day out

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 19th February 2012   If you haven’t yet read Chris Plumb’s account of his fantastic day I suggest you do before you read this somewhat more humble tale.   A couple of mere mortals presented with an entire lower beat of an iconic fishery with nobody else there, blimey this was a bit daunting. I‘ve been on a few of these days out now and whilst I have some [limited] knowledge of the upper beat I’ve never fished downstream. I was in two minds about it to be hones
Rusty

Rusty

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Chris Plumb's Blog

19 February

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury   0830 - 1730   Cool and Sunny with broken cloud 2ºC->7ºC->2ºC. River very low.   9 Chub; 6lb 7oz (new PB ), 5-2, 3-15, 2-13, 2-10, 1-10 and 3 chublets. 47 Dace, of which less than a dozen were under 8oz!!!! 2 fish of 13oz, 3 fish weighed at 12oz but probably had a load more that were close,10 Roach; 4 of which were over 10oz - best 14oz. 10 Brownies and a Rainbow.   This was supposed to be a club day on this lovely e
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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AddictedToScopex's Blog

Friday 17th February, 1....2.....THUMP!

Well today saw me very busy and finding the time to get out was fairly difficult. We had to go to the hospital to get a scan on the baby. Thankfully all was well. I spoke to a friend and we agreed that if we had the time we would get down to the canal for a few hours.   By the time everything had been sorted out and I had left the hospital it was quite late and I knew that if I got down to the canal it would only be for the last 2 hours of light. My favourite time and one that has proven succ
AddictedToScopex

AddictedToScopex

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Rusty's Blog

Internet Angling Club Fish-In

Lower Itchen Fishery, Thursday 16th February 2012   The origins of The Internet Angling Club (IAC) are difficult to establish, there’s little recorded history of the club’s activities and it’s not possible to pin down a ‘base’ on the internet. You might be forgiven for thinking that this is a deliberate ploy in order to hide all sorts of sinister rituals and ceremonies but I’m afraid the truth is a little more mundane, websites need more attention & maintenance than mailing lists do.  
Rusty

Rusty

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The Flying Tench's Blog

Lambourn 13.2.12

3.45-5.15pm A welcome relatively mild day, with AT 6degC. My original plan was to go for perch on the canal, but in the end I decided the water temperature might still be too low, and went trotting on the Lambourn.   There were a lot of people around, including some youngsters, being half-term. A couple of boys aged about 11 were fishing. One combined a 5ft float rod with waders to be an effective grayling catcher. The other, amazingly, was trying to fly fish with proper fly line but only a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Chris Plumb's Blog

12 February

Middle Kennet - Nr Newbury.   0730 - 1700   Cool and overcast. -2º ->5ºC Positively balmy compared to recent arctic conditions - WT was a chilly 39ºF though.   8 Chub; 4 'pounders' to 2¼lb and 4 chublets. 19 Dace; most a 'nice' size - only one warranted the scales though; a lovely fish of 11oz. 6 Roach, 8 Brownies to 2½lb.   Plan for today was to catch some chub in the morning and then move up to where we'd caught all those roach earlier in the winter.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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Rusty's Blog

Frome Trip

River Frome, Friday 10th February 2012   At the risk of repeating the content of Chris Plumb’s blog here’s an account of our day out from my persepective.   The venue was to be a stretch of the Dorset Frome on the DDAS book, according to their website a total of 1600 yards in length. Apparently the river colours up very quickly after rain so whilst we had agreed on the 10th for the trip it was very much dependant on the weather during the preceding week. The weather gods were undecided; th
Rusty

Rusty

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Chris Plumb's Blog

10 February

River Frome - Wool   0830 - 1700   Cool and overcast. AT 1ºC -> 5ºC. River clear with normal flow and levels.   5 Grayling; 2lb 12oz, 2lb0oz and 3 tiddlers. 2 Brownies; 1 parr and a ¾lber.   A day in Dorset with Rusty. This was another 'delayed decision' trip firstly because the forecast kept changing and secondly because of the forecast snow overnight potentially making the drive down problematic. However I judged that the river would be OK and this wa
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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