Jump to content

Rusty's Blog

A blog by Rusty in General

  • entries
    150
  • comments
    245
  • views
    440714

Entries in this blog

Blimey, bread does work!

River Kennet, Newbury, Friday 21st January 2011   One of the benefits of working for the same employer for 33 years is that you tend to accrue a fair amount of annual leave, 33 days in my case. I’ve only had one holiday this year so I’ve got some days to use before the end of March, today was one of them.   A complete change for me with a new bait and an unfamiliar method. I’ve not had much success with bread but it’s such a cheap and convenient bait to use I was determined to give it ano
Rusty

Rusty

2

Signing off

Well it's been 12 months to the day that I started this blog and I think I've achieved what I set out to do, i.e. provide an insight into the ups and downs of an angler who just enjoys being out and about fishing. Looking back it's interesting to see that this season has been my most successful by far, the biggest chub, perch, barbel, dace and grayling that I've ever caught have all been netted this year. Not too shabby but size of fish caught is only half the story.   Thanks to;   Chris P
Rusty

Rusty

4

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
Rusty

Rusty

1

Not quite what I expected

River Kennet, Barton Court, Monday 15th November 2010   I feel cheated, for the first time ever I’ve failed to catch a trout at this venue. Towards the end of the day I was trotting weirpools in a desperate attempt to justify my view that they’re a nuisance and easy to catch on anything but a fly, all to no avail. Trout blanking at Barton Court is unforgivable and I hang my head in shame.   The freezing foggy day which greeted me matched the forecast that had suddenly changed from a warm s
Rusty

Rusty

5

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
Rusty

Rusty

5

All up to date now

River Kennet, Thatcham/Newbury, Sunday 7th November 2010   The more I fish this river, the more I learn about it and the more confident I can be about where the fish are hiding. All sounds jolly logical doesn’t it but today I went back to a where I’d caught a barbel last weekend knowing that conditions would be completely different this time…so much for the learning then. I had another venue in mind just in case but was keen to try the Colthrop stretch again purely because it’s so secluded, y
Rusty

Rusty

2

Eden Trip

River Eden, Cumbria, weekend of 16th & 17th October 2010.   A change of scenery for me with a long arranged trip to Cumbria to meet Tigger (Ian) and to fish the River Eden at Wawrick-on-Eden. I’d read Ian’s previous posts on his expeditions and fancied broadening my horizons a little so with B&B booked for Friday, Saturday and Sunday the long haul ooop north started Friday morning, all 285 miles of it! The slog up the M6 was straightforward enough, counting up the junctions and passin
Rusty

Rusty

3

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.
Rusty

Rusty

3

Couldn't keep this in perspective

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 2nd October 2010   After last night’s great little session I couldn’t help but head for Speen Moors again. I wasn’t planning to wade but took the chesties just in case and thought I’d take a look further down first to see if the well protected chub were still in residence. The water was more coloured than last time and I couldn’t see them but I did spy a certain Mr. Plumb preparing to empty the river of anything worth catching. It would’ve been rude not to say
Rusty

Rusty

4

One more time (but that's it for a while)

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 26th September 2010   Another exasperating day after the chub that appear to be poking their tongues out at me. Well perhaps today wasn’t quite as bad because this time I didn’t see any sign of them in their usual haunt, I’d hatched a plan to get to them as well!   So, enthused by the thought that they must have moved upstream, or at least somewhere more accessible, I headed towards the top of the stretch and got in again. I tried all of the places where I’d e
Rusty

Rusty

2

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
Rusty

Rusty

1

A chance to try some new kit

River Kennet, Thatcham, Friday 10th September 2010   I’d been mulling over the idea of an evening session all week. I don’t generally fish evenings because there always seems to be stuff to do in the house after work, dinner, chores etc. Today was different though, I was working from home and my evening was free so it was an ideal opportunity to try out a couple of recent acquisitions, a new reel and some Power Pro braid.   The venue was carefully selected, I’d be wading mid river and trot
Rusty

Rusty

4

Another potential swim (I'm getting the hang of this)

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 12th September 2010   Another trip to the venue that was the reason for my joining NAA and the reason for being so disappointed last Autumn. Sorry if this is getting a bit boring but I’m fishing it a lot during the warmer months so that I can explore as much as possible in friendly weather conditions. They’re not always ideal fishing conditions, the fish don’t seem to be taking any notice of that though. My success has been modest in terms of fish caught , howeve
Rusty

Rusty

2

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
Rusty

Rusty

1

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
Rusty

Rusty

1

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
Rusty

Rusty

1

First Entry

Welcome, thought I'd give this blog thing a try for the 2009/10 winter season. I have high hopes having joined a couple of associations with access to some of the best river fishing in the area (the country?). We'll see how that pans out but first I need to sort out a very lightweight and portable means of cooking hot food, over the coming months I'll be spending a lot of time roving in the cold.
Rusty

Rusty

0

Third Time Lucky

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 22nd November 2009.   Having tried twice in the past two weeks without success on this particular stretch I've finally managed to catch something.   A dawn raid saw me poised at a likely looking Perch swim waiting for sufficient light to see the float. Lowering in the lob about a rod length out produced a beautiful Perch of 1lb 5oz. A couple of smaller Perch followed until the sun came out about 08:45 at which point bites stopped.   Next to the Perch swim w
Rusty

Rusty

0

At Least I Stayed Dry

River Test, Timsbury, Sunday 29th November 2009   The annual Anglersnet visit to Timsbury stayed true to form, it rained frequently and heavily at times. My plan of stuffing everything into pockets and carrying only a rod & net worked a treat, my kit and bait remained dry throughout the day. It's surprising how little you really need to take with you for a days fishing.   The main river was well up and a sort of watery coffee colour, not good. The fast carrier looked perfect and the sl
Rusty

Rusty

0

The Quest Continues

River Kennet, Newbury, Monday 30th November 2009   This venue continues to deny me a chub and today it almost denied me any fish (again).   I couldn’t make an early start today and arrived at the venue at about 10:00am. Too late for perch really (and I was after chub) but it was overcast and so I thought it was worth a try before the chub search. A big lob was dangled into a close swim that had produced last time out, this time though a couple of missed bites and that was it. An hour later
Rusty

Rusty

0

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
Rusty

Rusty

0

A Change of Scenery

River Lambourn, Newbury, Sunday 20 December 2009   Over confidence has a habit of slapping you in the face and today it did just that. I could only spare a few hours out on what was probably going to be my last trip this year, I wanted to catch something and the Lambourn Grayling have been kind to me in the past.   Generally I’ll trot red maggot but today I chose to try the killer bait (according to everybody else) sweetcorn. The EA are working on my favoured Swan stretch so off I went to
Rusty

Rusty

0

Fortune Favours the Stubborn

River Lambourn, Newbury, Monday 28 December 2009   A bonus trip out on account of brownie points gained (so far) over the Christmas period. Arrived about 10:00am so as to avoid rod rings icing, they still did though until about 10:30am when the sun got its act together.   Sweetcorn was the bait again but this time it was an altogether more successful session. This bait has at last proved to me that Grayling are fond of it, less pleasing is that Trout like it too but right now it’s a case o
Rusty

Rusty

0

Cheerio 2009

River Lambourn, Newbury, Thursday 31 December 2009   What with being off work this past week I’d actually forgotten that yesterday was New Year’s Eve so it was with some guilt that I set off for a few hours trotting. My heart wasn’t really in it so I didn’t bother to buy any maggots, just grabbed a can of sweetcorn and off I went.   Had the venue to myself and was able to roam searching out the Grayling. A couple of small ones obliged and a brownie of about ½ pound also found the corn hard
Rusty

Rusty

0

Wish I'd stuck to my original plan

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 2 January 2010   Today has been one of the most demoralising sessions I can remember. Not just because I blanked but because everything that could go wrong did.   Firstly my plan was to switch stretches of the Kennet. I haven’t fished any TAA waters since joining NAA and so I was going to rectify that on a nice bit of shallow river where I’ve had good days before. Maggots bought I changed the plan (heaven knows why) and headed off to an NAA stretch. On tryin
Rusty

Rusty

0
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We and our partners use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences, repeat visits and to show you personalised advertisements. By clicking “I Agree”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent.

  I accept