Jump to content

Rusty's Blog

A blog by Rusty in General

  • entries
    150
  • comments
    245
  • views
    440707

Entries in this blog

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

Canal Antics

Kennet & Avon Canal, Newbury, Friday 12th March 2010   A strange day today, in some ways in might have been better if I hadn’t gone.   The original plan was to have an early start on the canal tomorrow in pursuit of Perch. Unexpectedly, I was able to take today off so I thought a dry run might be a good idea to give me a head start tomorrow.   I haven’t fished this bit before but I knew there was next to no flow so the centrepin was packed away and the fixed spool reel dusted off, t
Rusty

Rusty

0

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
Rusty

Rusty

2

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

Blanked!

Knotts Lake, Friday 29th April 2011   Not much to report I’m afraid. Same swim, same method and similar conditions, maybe more overcast and slightly lower air/water temps than Wednesday but not too much difference and certainly not a rapid change.   I fished from 11:00am to 6:00pm with just one line bite and I think that was caused by a shoal of small rudd which spent the day doing circuits in my swim. Some carp were caught by other anglers but no reports of any tench. I’m wondering whethe
Rusty

Rusty

0

Birthday bash

River Lambourn, Newbury, Wednesday 13th January 2016   ”Hello mate, happy birthday, I hope you’re out fishing somewhere, I would be”. I wasn’t out fishing, I was at work at 9:00am trying to figure out why I was listening to Steve’s voicemail message and had missed the original call. My Windows phone has a mind of its own.   Steve had made a good point and after a quick conversation with my boss I was heading back down the M4 towards London wondering where to fish (I hadn’t been sacked). The
Rusty

Rusty

1

Better Weather This Time

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 7th March 2010   A second opportunity to fish some of the most beautiful stretches of the Kennet.   The day didn’t start well, jumping into the car the thermometer read -7 degrees, good job I’d put the bait in the car boot last night and covered it then. Lobs and Maggots were lethargic but still alive.   The first dilemma of the day was whether to wake the neighbours with the sound of me scraping ice or the sound of a Fiesta idling. It was too cold to scrap
Rusty

Rusty

0

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

0

Barton Court Trip

River Kennet, Barton Court, Friday 13th January 2012   My annual pilgrimage to the venue where I first used a ‘pin and where I first untangled a birdsnest, the two events occurred within seconds of each other if I remember correctly. That was about three years ago and at that time the fishery was still producing a good selection of coarse fish but since then most of my visits have resulted in trout getting to the bait first. When booking the day I was told that the grayling and roach were mak
Rusty

Rusty

0

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
Rusty

Rusty

1

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

Back to what's important

Rivers Lambourn & Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 17th January 2010   Well what a brilliant day, not for the fish caught but for the whole fishing experience.   I started at the Lambourn Shaw stretch at about 10:00am, the river was still a bit high but a lot less coloured than yesterday underpinning the reliable nature of this venue. A Grayling was tempted first cast. I say first cast but it was actually just a dob in the water while I lit a ciggie, thereafter not much happened but the sun was
Rusty

Rusty

0

Back in business

River Kennet, August Bank Holiday Weekend   Friday 26th August 2011   Well I’m mobile again, on doctor’s orders I can drive provided I wear a patch over my left eye, it was very strange at first but I am getting used to it. Great care is needed on roundabouts with filter lanes, I can’t turn my head far enough to look behind me with my right eye (try it) so I rely on my mirrors and having a good look at the other traffic before I enter the roundabout. Anyway all this means I can get to the
Rusty

Rusty

4

At least I've seen a 'four'

River Kennet and K&A Canal, Newbury, Saturday 16th February 2013   Quite a contrast to last week’s weather, not exactly balmy but no sleet, no rain and air temps threatening double figures…bliss. The venue(s) were to be different as well, not quite as secluded and maybe less exclusive than last week’s but in terms of fish potential the club stretches I was heading for were just as good, perhaps with the exception of dace and roach.   The initial plan was to meet up with Steve on the Lamb
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

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
Rusty

Rusty

1

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

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
Rusty

Rusty

2

Another Drive Past Waitrose

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 27th February 2010   A follow up visit to Tuesday when I was beaten by the weather and had to abandon some co-operative Chub.   The plan was to buy bait for tomorrow and see how the weather faired on the way to the shop, the rod was in the back of the car just in case. It was very changeable but at the point when the decision had to be made (i.e. buying an extra pint of maggots) there was no wind and the sun was out so off I went.   It was a similar story
Rusty

Rusty

0

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
Rusty

Rusty

0

Anglersnet Fish-in

River Itchen, Lower Itchen Fishery, Monday 22nd February 2010   Well I had to tempt fate didn’t I, after predicting that I couldn’t blank at this venue that’s exactly what happened. To be fair the return from most anglers was pretty sparce with a few small roach to Will Wilkinson, a Chub to Budgie and a handful of Grayling distributed amongst the other members of the group.   After Sunday’s rain the river was very high and a sort of mud brown colour, we thought it would be difficult but as
Rusty

Rusty

0

An unexpected treat

River Kennet, Sunday 6th March 2011   I thought I’d seen the last of this venue for a while, the plan was for Steve to take my place on the final visit of the season but with a couple of days to go I learned that Chris Plumb’s fishing partner wasn’t able to make it (thanks Chris) so that meant we could both go.   We were on a bit of a mission, firstly to visit a special swim and then to catch a pike from it. Steve was going all out; there was no trotting kit in his hands as we yomped from
Rusty

Rusty

5

Always Worth Braving the Weather

River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 28th February 2010   This trip was in some doubt up until….oh hang on, no it was never in doubt. Whatever the skies dumped on the venue I was going to be there, roaming and trotting if at all possible but pitched up under shelter if absolutely necessary. Thankfully plan B wasn’t implemented, although rain and wind were present for most of the day neither were hostile enough to inhibit my favoured method.   Parking up at about 8:30am it was pleasing to see nobo
Rusty

Rusty

0

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

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

Rusty

2
×
×
  • 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