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Entries in this blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Rusty

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

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

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

'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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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