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Rusty's Blog

A blog by Rusty in General

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Entries in this blog

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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Two men (and two dogs) in a boat

River Thames, 6th - 9th October 2011   A bit of a long blog entry this but the trip was such an eventful one I don’t want to miss anything out.   The plan was leave the mooring on the K&A canal at about 9:00am, head towards Reading and turn left onto the Thames at the confluence. Our goal for Thursday was to moor up at Goring-on-Thames some 6 boating hours away, ironically I can drive to Goring in about 45 minutes from my house but that would have been missing the point. We were pretty
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Gave the 'pins a rest today

Speen Moors, Monday 5th December 2011   Today was probably the best days chubbing I’ve had at this venue, I only caught three fish so that’ll tell you how difficult I’ve found it in the past. Generally I trot maggot but today I thought a static approach might be more productive so it was out with the avon quiver tip rod, bread flake for hookbait and mashed bread as feed.   Three swims were targeted, all were quite a walk apart so pre-baiting wasn’t really possible and as usual I started la
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The Lythe begins to earn its keep

Speen Moors, Thursday 22nd December 2011   Third visit in as many weeks, my obsession with this venue continues.   I had a bit of a plan today, the session ledgering bread on the 5th December was quite successful so I thought I’d try trotting bread. I hadn’t prepared any mash so would have to use some old maggots as loose feed but on the hook was going to be a large lump of flake. What is rapidly becoming my first port of call at Speen would be the ideal swim to try the new bait. Some of t
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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
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
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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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Worth the soaking

River Kennet and K&A Canal, Sunday 20th December 2015   Today’s itinerary consisted of three venues all fairly close together so travelling between each on foot was the order of the day (I was to regret that decision). The high temperature felt at odds with the low sun and although there seemed little need for waterproofs I donned them anyway, the stiff breeze would’ve cooled things down bankside.   The first venue may not be available to me for much longer, it’s one of two up for re-con
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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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Would Sir Like his Hat Well Done or Medium?

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 25th July 2010   My first session in exactly 4 weeks so Saturday evening was spent preparing kit, lubing ’pins, buying bait, making sarnies and all the other stuff which would never get done if left until the last minute. It was to be a dawn raid, I was fishing with Mike (Arbocop) and he would have to work Sunday afternoon so the only way to get a decent session in was to start early. That meant a 3:30am alarm.   The venue was the CSAS stretch of the Kennet av
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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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A day paddling

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 18th September 2010   Today would be a new experience, a short stretch of the Kennet which I’ve previously only fished from the club bank. The number of these dry land swims is limited, getting in the water opens up more opportunities but I’ve only ever fished there during a strong Winter flow when wading wasn’t that appealing. On one of those occasions JV44 suggested that I came back in Summer to familiarise myself with river bed conditions, that way if the wa
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Back to work tomorrow, but I don't care

River Kennet, Newbury, Tuesday 16th November 2010   Again the day started foggy so I was in no rush to get anywhere and there was plenty of time for a couple of bacon butties before lift off. Wherever I fish on the NAA or TAA tickets my journey starts on the same road so I can afford to be undecided about the venue until I get to Newbury. I suppose that’s a ‘benefit’ of my favoured method, I can fish for chub, barbel, dace or grayling and the only thing that changes is the hooklength and hoo
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Another soaking!

River Kennet, loads of places, weekend of 26th & 27th February 2011   Saturday 26th   With the season coming to an end far too quickly Steve and I decided to implement a plan that we’d been talking about for a while. NAA have an exchange ticket arrangement with Wasing Estates, it allows access to the Kennet upstream of the NAA Aldermarston stretch. Apparently this is predominantly a barbel section but that didn’t stop me figuring that there’s bound to be chub and perch there too. Steve
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End of Season Countdown - Day 1

River Kennet, Newbury, Wednesday 9th March 2011   The start of my end of season finale was to be at a Kennet venue which has reliably produced chub for me in the past, in fact my PB of 5lb 8oz has come from this place so it seemed an ideal venue to try out the cheap Shadowlanda centrepin. Hopefully it would have to deal with more than a few minnows and small grayling.   I wasn’t prepared for what I saw on arrival, I know we’ve had some rain recently but the high water level and fast flow s
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Pre-season recce

River Kennet, Sunday 8th May 2011   No fishing today but instead I spent a very pleasant morning walking a stretch that I intend to fish once the new season starts. Today re-affirmed my thoughts that I’m a river fisherman at heart, closed season tenching has been great fun and watching a bobbin twitch will always be entertaining but in my mind nothing can beat the sheer pleasure of trotting a float.     Quite a lot was going on when I arrived, damsels were distressed and bees were indu
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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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