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A blog by Rusty in General

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Entries in this blog

Six perch....17lb 12oz

Ok a bit of a cheat title because it was over two sessions but it was from one swim during consecutive dusk/dawn periods. I had no intention of spending a night by the K&A Canal.   Saturday 5th January, River Kennet, Newbury and the K&A Canal, Thatcham   At last an opportunity to get on the river trotting. The Kennet has been pretty inaccessible with all the rain so the few short sessions I've had have been on the Lambourn catching grayling, nice but I was beginning to miss catching
Rusty

Rusty

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No grayling, one roach

River Lambourn, Saturday 1st December 2012   The second visit in a week to this venue, I’m getting a bit fanatical about the roach. Last Sunday was a waste of time with the river being very coloured and flowing like I’ve never seen it before, by Wednesday however the colour had reportedly dropped out and it was fishing very well.   It took a bit of a walk to find them this time but with polaroids donned and the water crystal clear it wasn’t too long before I came across a shoal of redfins.
Rusty

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Barton Court Trip

River Kennet, Barton Court, Wednesday 14th November 2012   My second trip this year, the last was in January when the water levels were very low and I was concerned about the fishery's future given that spring and summer were to follow. I needn’t have worried, levels are now at the highest I’ve ever seen (apart from when the fishery flooded) and it’s not a mud coloured mess either, it was in perfect condition. The sluices were sluicing and the network of carriers and side streams were all flo
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More grayling...and some roach.

River Lambourn, Saturday 10th November 2012   A short session on the Lambourn with Steve, we only fished from 10:00am to 3:00pm but in that time we tried most of the free section. We bumped into Mr Plumb at Shaw who was bemoaning the fact that he’d left his chest waders at home, not normally a problem on this river but the level was up five or six inches so his thigh waders were in danger of not coping…we offered sympathy….and then sniggered a lot when he’d left.   We caught our usual morn
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Prospecting

Kennet & Avon Canal, Newbury, Saturday 3rd November 2012   A day out looking for perch along a stretch of the canal which has received zero fishing attention from me so far. Having seen elsewhere what constitutes a good perch swim (and what it can hold) and then seen it destroyed I like to think that I’m a bit more clued up on what to look for. The weather forecast suggested I might get a morning of overcast conditions, it’d be cold and breezy but the sun might stay in for a bit....it di
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Lots of Grayling

River Lambourn, Saturday 13th October 2012.   One of those days when you wonder why the whole world doesn’t take up angling as a pastime, we didn’t break any records but had such an enjoyable day fishing it almost seemed unfair.   The venue was the Lambourn our local grayling river, the anglers were myself, Steve and Keith. We met Keith at Goring (his chosen place of retirement) about a year ago. He’s a Yorkshireman and likes catching bream but despite that he’s an all round good bloke and
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No holiday snaps, just fishing and eating

River Kennet, Speen Moors, Monday 1st October 2012   Eager to continue the chubbing theme I thought I‘d have a good crack at the Kelly Kettle swim today. It’s on my usual circuit at this venue but I don’t often sit it out there for any length of time, today though a concerted effort was in order. Two loaves of bread were stashed in the airing cupboard overnight and in the morning they were suitably dried out for bread mash making.   I won’t dwell on the fishing too much because you’ve read
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No fishing, just some holiday snaps

Some pics of a recent holiday which unfortunately turned out to be rather shorter than I’d planned. Nevertheless the time I spent there was very relaxing and the truncation just means I’ll have to go back in the not too distant future.   Port Isaac, North Cornwall;                 Doc Martin’s cottage;     Arty farty shots;         And a fitting end......the best restaurant in town;  
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A day chubbing

River Kennet, Speen Moors, Saturday 22nd September 2012 (afternoon shift)   It struck me recently that I hadn’t caught a decent chub for a good while. In such circumstances I generally fall back to quivertipping bread flake in a couple of reliable swims, on this occasion though I wanted to try somewhere I’d been thinking about for some time. The back end of Speen Moors fishery is a slow stretch, it’s full of fallen trees and looks very chubby but it’s not fished very much probably because it
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Predator 2

Kennet & Avon Canal, Sunday 2nd September 2012   Even I can take a hint, for the second day running the weather screamed perch and although I realised this a bit too late for the dawn session (as usual) I had lobs in the fridge and I was in the mood for a walk. Time to explore the canal.   The objective was to try and find a perch swim to replace one that had been decimated by ‘canal improvement’ works earlier in the year. It wasn’t my swim mind, another AN’er had kindly put me onto i
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Predator Surprise

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 1st September 2012   What a strange day out this was, keen to get back into my normal fishing routine I decided to plan ahead and save Saturday for a session wading & trotting. The mild and overcast morning was perfect perch weather so as I tucked into a Sainsbury’s big breakfast I mulled over the options and decided to try for chub and/or barbel. The K&A canal would’ve been the best bet for perch but I didn’t really fancy competing with boats, cyclist
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Recruiting

River Kennet, Padworth, Friday 27th July 2012   Firstly apologies for not keeping the blog up to date but I’ve been a bit pre-occupied with motorcycling lately. The bike I have isn’t really designed for distance travelling so I’ve been buying panniers and other bits and pieces to try and make it more capable of touring. I’m off to Port Isaac for a week’s holiday shortly and if the weather’s ok I plan to take the bike, it’ll be the first proper tour I’ve done on two wheels despite being a moto
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Another one!

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 30th June 2012   This session was supposed to be a quick couple of hours relaxing in the afternoon sun so I could get back home to cook dinner, watch a movie and then enjoy the trauma of Andy Murray scraping through his tennis match (in typical Brit fashion). Two pints of maggots would be plenty, I’d even have some left for Sunday if the weather was going to hold up.   Same modus operandi as last Sunday, light end tackle for dace and if a barbel came along t
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Last knockings success!

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 24th June 2012   Well I’ve done it! This won’t be a big deal to most of you but to me it’s the culmination of one of the best opening weeks of the season I can remember, it’s been pure pleasure albeit interspersed with a fair bit of frustration and bemusement. Species caught on the float are: chub, perch, roach, dace, gudgeon and now…barbel.   I was down to my last pint of maggots and fancied an afternoon session at the venue where CP did well with dace on the
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Still barbelless

River Kennet, Thatcham, Tuesday/Wednesday 19th & 20th June 2012   A combined blog entry for these two trips because the days were remarkably similar, same weather, same swim, same method, same end result!   This is a Thatcham Angling Association venue and it’s the main the reason I joined up. It really is the club’s jewel in the crown and the relationship with the landowner and residents is managed very carefully in order to retain the fishing rights. There are strict rules governing i
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This was more like it

River Kennet, Speen Moors, Monday 18th June 2012   Well after the abject failure of the barbel hunt on Saturday it was nice to get back to a bit of general coarse fishing at a venue which has provided just that in the past. It was also nice to view the alarm clock somewhat later than 03:41 as I awoke and realised that I didn’t have to go to work on a Monday morning, what a great feeling that is.   So off to Didcot to buy bait…not quite. The traffic was unusually heavy and I soon discovered
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Blog entry by pictures

River Kennet, Saturday 16th June   As with many other opening days this one turned out to be a disappointment for me in terms of fish caught with only three brown trout taking the bait, the anticipation was still there though and the river was looking in fine fettle. I’ve not been a member of NAA or TAA for long enough to remember it looking this good, it did have a tad too much colour but that’ll drop out over the coming days with little rain being forecast.   So the story of the day in p
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Wingham 2012

Wingham Fish-in, 19th, 20th & 21st May 2012   Well here I am again, having speculatively put my name down for a place on this year’s event you could’ve blown me down with a feather when Steve replied in the affirmative.   My 2011 experience at Wingham was invaluable in deciding what to take this year, I was able to pare down the gear to the bare minimum and plan cooking activities a little better. My tactics would remain as last year with corn on the hook and a mixture of liquidised b
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Until next Winter

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 11th March 2012   Well this was it, our last chance to fish this estate water for some months. On previous visits we’d spent a lot of time roaming about exploring and (it has to be said) not doing an awful lot of fishing, this time we decided to pitch up in one spot and chill out for the day. Steve’s barrow proved invaluable as we loaded up enough gear to cover most options, the chairs, cooking facilities and food were all piled on before we then made our short w
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My new posh waders

River Kennet, Newbury, Thursday 8th March 2012   A day on the CSAS exchange section of the Kennet, the first time I’ve fished it since tree clearance works and an ideal venue to try out a new pair of waders.   I’ve pushed the boat out and bought a pair of Simms breathable stockingfoot waders and boots. Up until now I’ve been a neoprene chestie fan, they’re cheap and warm in winter so I’ve forgiven their usual limitations of universal sizing and crap wellies being fitted. Neither of the two
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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
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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
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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.  
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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
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After the Lord Mayor's Show

River Thames, Saturday 28th January 2012   “One bite is all it takes”; “I missed a couple of bites”   How often have you read those words in any angler’s account of his fishing day? I’ve written the latter a few times and glibly dismissed them as lost opportunities but driving home after today’s blank I thought about it a bit more. On Thursday I had just one bite and as a result I could take photos of a monstrous chub, everything was good in the world. Tonight I had two bites and didn’t c
Rusty

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