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Rusty's Blog

A blog by Rusty in General

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Entries in this blog

My drop shotting experience

River Kennet, Sunday 3rd July 2011   This weekend I tried a new method of drop shotting for perch and thought you might be interested in how it went. What follows is an account of my first attempt, it is absolutely not a guide so please don’t take this as how it should be done, it’s just my take on things and I had to make some compromises.   From what I’ve read on the forum the theory is that the line is ‘anchored’ to the river bed and the lure is suspended above the lead, a bit like a pa
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More paddling

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 19th September 2010   After Saturday’s mouth watering discoveries I re-visited the venue where chub and barbel could be observed taking cover in their sanctuary.   I was hoping that Saturday night’s curry, merlot and mindless X Factor entertainment would shed some light on the best way to get to them but sadly inspiration wasn’t to be found in a chicken madras. The Merlot was a different matter, halfway through the bottle I was convinced that I possessed the
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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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More Frustration

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
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Mission Accomplished

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 31st July 2010   A quick return trip to the CSAS stretch of the Kennet ostensibly to hand back my exchange permit ‘borrowed’ last Sunday but in truth I wanted another crack at a couple of swims Mike had shown me last weekend.   I had to buy bait and that meant a quick stop by Thatcham Angling. The proprietor is also the custodian of the exchange permits so I hoped that he didn’t recognise me and demand the permit back there and then. All was well so within 1
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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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Lost for words

River Thames, Thursday 26th January 2012   A short late afternoon session only possible because the training I’d undertaken earlier in the day had finished sooner than anticipated. The course content was learning how to drive a 4x4 vehicle off road and the venue was Salisbury Plain so you can imagine that it had already been a really enjoyable day.   The plan was to ledger breadflake into dark for chub but I could get to the river with an hour of light left and so I decided to take the tro
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Looks like I need to find them (again)

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 15th August 2010   A second attempt to repeat the perch success of last week met with similar results to Friday 13th. The favoured swim again produced only crays, no sign of stripeys large or small.   I suppose it was expecting a bit much to simply turn up and catch again, it is a large water and there will be loads of potential places for them to hide. It’s just case of more exploring until I find other swims where they’re comfortable, obviously I was lucky t
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Left it a bit late

Kennet & Avon Canal, Thatcham, Wednesday 6th March 2013   A short bonus trip courtesy of my boss and the need to use up annual leave before the end of March.   I’m still trying to work out this stretch of the canal. Early January I had a couple of great back to back sessions which produced six perch at an average weight of just under 3lbs. That success was followed by a blank and then a couple of weeks later Chris Plumb caught a monstrous ‘four’ with a 2-15 cameo from me, our only perch
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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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Keeping things in perspective

River Kennet, Newbury, Thursday 30th September 2010   Today was a last minute opportunistic session prompted by the fact that I’d been working from home during a nice sunny afternoon. As I was about to turn off the laptop I wondered whether 2 hours fishing was worth a 40 mile round trip. I always get the same answer to that question so I threw a minimal amount gear in the car and set off for Speen Moors via the bait shop. ½ a pint of maggots, a small pot of small lobs and a leisurely trundle
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Just a bit more time would've been good

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 10th October 2010   A bonus trip this one, a change of plans yesterday meant a mad dash to the tackle shop for bait but with maggots and lobs secured thoughts of which venue ensued. It didn’t take long to decide and with that a leisurely start of 9:00am saw me arriving full of confidence, I had three pints of maggots and the entire day to trickle them in the river.   Target species where chub and perch, the latter being quite partial to maggots at this venue.
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It's true, fishing isn't only about catching fish

River Thames, Abingdon, Saturday 23rd July 2011   About two weeks ago I awoke to find that I’d developed double vision. At first I thought that I’d slept strangely and that it would go away by the time I left for work. It didn’t go away and I had to turn back as driving was out of the question.   A visit to my GP saw me looking at waving fingers, smiling, winking and poking my tongue out to make sure may facial expressions were balanced. My blood pressure was through the roof and before I
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It's been a while but re-aquainted at last

River Kennet, Thatcham, Sunday 27th June 2010   Well this was an unexpected bonus, I didn’t think I’d be able to fish for at least a month but circumstances conspired to make this short session available to me.   The problem was of course deciding on whether to watch the footie or go fishing, I’m not really a footie fan but I do tend to watch significant England games. On this occasion, however, they were going to have to do without my support, I’d bought maggots yesterday just in case and
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It's a good job size doesn't matter

River Kennet, Speen Moors, Thursday 16th June 2011   It makes a nice change for the opening day not to end in an anti-climax particularly at a venue which has provided me with so many blank days in the two years that I’ve been a member of NAA. Speen was chosen because of its location and the fact that it was very unlikely to be busy, my plan was to fish six specific swims in rotation all of which had been recce’d the week before, if they didn’t produce I could either wander off to other parts
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It was a nice walk I suppose

Kennet & Avon Canal (felt like most of it), Saturday 29th October 2011   Well that was a bit of a disappointment, having convinced myself of the merits of dropshotting I felt pretty certain that the method fished with lobs would be a killer for perch on the canal. The forecast was perfect and, crucially, I’d managed to get up early enough to be at my parking spot before first light, well before as it happened.   I sat in the car wondering what to do, it was too dark to fish but I didn’
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It just wasn't meant to be

River Thames, Saturday 5th February 2011   Today could certainly be described as “a game of two halves”. The first half punctuated by bizarre circumstances which lead to a lost fish and the second by unfortunate circumstances with the same outcome.   We were on the Thames in Steve’s Portabote, the plan for the day was to troll lures along a pretty reliable pike stretch but if that didn’t work out we had lobs, maggots and a float rod to pitch up somewhere and trot baits. An assortment of ve
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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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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
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I thought my plan was infallible

River Kennet and K&A Canal, Newbury, Saturday 2nd March 2013   You’d be forgiven for think that some of these blogs are getting a bit ‘samey’. You’d be right too, one of reasons is that the two venues I’m fishing are quite close together and spending a couple of hours trotting the river before targeting perch prevents me from arriving at the canal too early. Another reason is that the river venue is producing some very nice grayling and dace, I haven’t got the scales or camera out for them
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I know, I've been slacking

River Kennet, Weekend of 30th & 31st October 2010   I seem to have got a little behind with my blog, probably because I’m spending too much time fishing to write about it all so the next two entries will be out of sync I’m afraid.   Speen Moors 30th October   A gentle day out with Steve & Robbie, perch being the target species. Conditions were bright & sunny (not ideal then) and we didn’t fish either dawn or dusk so you could say that we didn’t give ourselves much of a chanc
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I found them!

River Kennet, Newbury, Monday 30th August 2010   The plan today was to fish some of the stretches of this huge venue that I haven’t tried before. As always there was expectation on my part but it was moderated by the fact that most swims would be new to me and I’d have to employ my decidedly wobbly watercraft skills. Still if you don’t put in the legwork any number of hot spots may go begging so with that thought in mind I packed as light as I could (no chesties) and set off fairly early arri
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I couldn't help it, the temptation was too strong.

NAA Stillwater, Warwicks, May Bank Holiday Weekend.   Sunday 3rd May 2015   I don’t often fish during the closed season but there are times when I fancy going back to basics with just a pot of maggots a float rod and a lethargic chill by a lake, just as I used to when I was a teenager. These days I’m lucky enough to be doing that with a rather nice split cane rod and since said rod has proven to be not ideal for trotting I needed to find out what it was good at. With Steve Walker’s wise word
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Haven't Blanked this Season

River Kennet, Thatcham, Thursday 17th June 2010   Second day out today but with a later start. I don’t think I can cope with two consecutive dawn raids, particularly when dawn occurs so early at this time of year. So today it was brownie point earning first thing and off to the river mid morning, the venue being one of my favourite trotting swims and the only place where I’ve caught Barbel (only three and tiddlers at that).     Armed with plenty of bait this time the plan was to sit it
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Got there in the end!

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 9th February 2013   One of three accounts of the trip   A long awaited visit to this Middle Kennet estate water. Most of the ‘official’ days have been cancelled due to high water levels and I was beginning to wonder whether this season was going to be a total blank as far as this venue is concerned. Paul Goulbourn and Chris Plumb came to the rescue with an invitation via another route (thank you gentlemen), we just had to pray for a relatively dry week. Any ot
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