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Entries in this blog

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

A quickie session

River Kennet, Thatcham, 13th November 2010   A last minute trip this one, I had to buy bait for Monday’s Barton Court visit so I thought I’d combine that with a quick couple of hours on the CSAS stretch of the Kennet. Mild overcast weather after a cold snap looked promising so with permits exchanged off I went to a swim that Arbocop had shown me during the Summer.   I haven’t actually caught any chub from this spot yet and that miserable record continued today, however, I did catch this ma

Rusty

Rusty

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

Another catch-up entry

River Thames, everywhere, Sunday 24th October 2010.   Well it seemed like everywhere, fishing from a boat gives you so much freedom that it’s easy to spend a whole day just trundling up and down a river looking for likely spots. That’s how I spent the 24th, I’d snapped up an invitation from Steve to provide Portabote pointy end ballast before he could finish saying ‘Pangbourne’.   We were going to be trolling lures. I’ve never used a lure, I have one in my tackle box but it’s not been in t

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Rusty

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

A Bittersweet day (more bitter than sweet)

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 23rd October 2010   What could have been a brilliant session today actually turned out to be a bit of a disaster.   I met up with Steve at a civilised 10:30 for a spot of chub trotting. Steve waded and I stayed on the bank further upstream where I put a concerted effort into a swim which should produce but hasn’t for me yet. It’s where the barbellers fish but it’s also a nice near bank trot for maybe 30 yards until a fallen tree blocks the way. I’ve never re

Rusty

Rusty

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

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

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

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

Rusty

Rusty

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

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Rusty

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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Rusty

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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Rusty

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

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

The Best Laid Plans etc

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 5th September 2010   Having found a couple of decent perch swims and fished them out of ‘prime time’ I decided to see how they faired during the productive dawn/dusk times of day. My wife was visiting friends during Saturday and staying over so Sunday at dawn was the preferred option.   Two swims were to be fished, the first where I’d caught a 2lb 8oz perch last week and the second where a 2lb 12oz specimen had graced may landing net a couple of weeks earlier.

Rusty

Rusty

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

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

Rusty

Rusty

Worst day so far this season

River Kennet, Newbury, Friday 13th August 2010   This was a just a short session of a couple of late afternoon hours at the swim where I caught perch last weekend, I was keen to give it another try to see if anything bigger was lurking under the trees.   Not much to report I’m afraid because I blanked, the only thing lurking was a load of signals which took great delight in devouring my lobworms. I even tried the nearby canal lock cut where small perch are guaranteed but it was the same st

Rusty

Rusty

Best day so far this season

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 8th August 2010   Nemesis is too strong a word but if there’s one NAA venue where I’ve always felt a little disappointed with the results it’s this one. I’ve fished it in prime condition during the Autumn/Winter and had some enjoyable days but I haven’t really found the chub & perch it’s known for. The logical thing to do then was fish for those species in the middle of summer wasn’t it?   Flawed logic maybe but the day felt perfect as I was making sarnies

Rusty

Rusty

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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Rusty

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

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

Rusty

Rusty

Variety is the Spice of Life

River Kennet, below Thatcham, Friday 18th June 2010   Another day and another venue, this time probably the most easterly stretch of the Kennet that TAA & NAA books allow me to fish.   A lot of work has gone into this venue during the close season, death trap styles have been replaced with something more capable of supporting a gear laden angler and the stretch has been extended by about a hundred and fifty yards, the extension provides another ten swims and some great wading opportuni

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Rusty

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

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