Jump to content

Rusty's Blog

A blog by Rusty in General

  • entries
    150
  • comments
    245
  • views
    440711

Entries in this blog

A Tale of Three Venues

Rivers Kennet & Lambourn, Newbury, Friday 15th January   A different NAA Kennet stretch today, one that I’ve only visited on a guest ticket at a time when the weather was just as bad. The river was running quite fast and being coloured (brown) by excavation works being carried out upstream on another river. This is one venue where wading would be extremely beneficial but as I’ve never seen the river bed let alone trodden on it I decided not to try. I had a couple of casts into the brown w
Rusty

Rusty

0

First Closed Face Reel Experiences

River Lambourn, Newbury, Saturday 16th January 2010   A short morning session planned with Steve (JV44), we weren’t going to be there for too long so the weather forecast wasn’t important, had we actually looked we may not have gone. I wonder how Mike (Arbocop) did on the Kennet.   I’ve never seen the Lambourn looking like this before, about four inches up and a colour which would be just short of perfect for other rivers. It was cold and windy so we only lasted a couple of hours but didn’
Rusty

Rusty

0

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

Re-acquaintance

Rivers Lambourn & Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 31st January 2010   Over the past couple of months I’ve been feeling a bit guilty. Since joining NAA I’ve mostly fished their waters whilst falling back on the Lambourn when Kennet conditions were tricky. Today was a similar story only this time I went to a TAA stretch of the Kennet to try a familiar trotting swim.   The snow melt would have been flushed through by now and I was hoping that the relatively light recent rainfall (apart from one n
Rusty

Rusty

0

First Aquaintence

K&A Canal & River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 7th February 2010   I’m not generally a fan of canal fishing, I tend to regard them as featureless arrow straight stretches of water devoid of all fish. Obviously this isn’t the case as my local tackle shop proprietor keeps telling that the K&A canal is fishing very well at the moment.   With an overcast & relatively mild day forecast for today I abandoned my Lambourn Roach expedition and bought a tub of lobs and a pint of red maggo
Rusty

Rusty

0

'Poaching' within the Law

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 13th February 2010   Spent a pleasant few hours on the CSAS stretch of the Kennet today. NAA do an exchange ticket and so with morning shopping quickly dispatched I thought I’d give it a try.   It was a bit of a last minute decision so I could only get there for 11 o’clock but what a wonderful stretch of the Kennet it is. Regular readers won’t be surprised to hear that I blanked (anyone see a pattern developing yet?) but it was great fun exploring a new bit
Rusty

Rusty

0

Generosity from a Venue (only a little bit mind)

River Kennet, Newbury, Saturday 20th February 2010   This was a sort of a pre fish-in day out hastily arranged given the nice weather forecast (and the crap one for Monday) and a call from Steve.   Not a dawn raid so again arrival at 11:00am found the river looking perfect and the sun doing its best to convince me that Spring had finally sprung. Steve had arrived earlier and was busy covering as much water as he could with his lure rod and pup German Shepherd in tow.   I chose ‘the’ ack
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

Using up the Leftovers

Rivers Lambourn & Kennet, Newbury, Tuesday 23rd February 2010   After yesterday’s difficult day I had plenty of maggots left over and so it seemed rude not to invest them in a couple of stretches of water which would possibly provide a better return.   No need to describe the Lambourn (but I will), it was the same as it always is at this time of year, a healthy flow and gin clear. The Grayling too were particularly friendly almost arguing over who was going to go for the bait. Apart fr
Rusty

Rusty

0

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

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

A Trip to Blenheim

Blenheim Palace, Friday 5th March 2010   Ok so let’s get the formalities out of the way first of all….we had one bite between us all day and blanked. Four rods were out, two deadbaiting and two float fishing lobs for about 7 hours so you could say that we spent a over a day’s bait time in the water without a fish. The temperature last night was -3 and today was cold and sunny, that’s not an excuse it’s just the reason we didn’t catch anything.   Without any fishy narrative to share I’ll ha
Rusty

Rusty

0

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

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

A Great Way to End This Season

River Kennet and K&A Canal, Newbury, Sunday 14th March 2010   Since Friday my plans had been a little uncertain, I was intending to solely target Perch but the recce trip to the chosen venue cast doubt on that plan. Then I thought I’d try chubbing on the CSAS stretch but I learned that a match was planned on that water for Sunday so that was out. What to do now?   A quick chat to Steve and the solution was obvious, the suggested venue benefits from being adjacent to a stretch of the K&
Rusty

Rusty

0

Chocks Away!

River Kennet, Thatcham, Wednesday 16th June 2010   Well here we are, first day of the 2010/11 season and I have to start with an admission. I did fish a stillwater a couple of weeks ago to test the rod that I refurbished during the close season so strictly speaking I didn’t quite make it. I can, however, categorically state that I haven’t used a centrepin for 3 months and so it was with some anticipation that I left home at 3:30 this morning and headed for the Kennet. This was a stretch I had
Rusty

Rusty

0

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
Rusty

Rusty

0

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

0

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
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

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

0

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

0

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

0

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
Rusty

Rusty

0

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

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