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About this blog

the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

Monday 1st February

3.30-5.30pm WT and AT 4degC   Went to a chub swim on flowing canal to try out breadmash. Aaagh, sticky glutinous oranges! Threw them into the flow but l had little idea where they were coming to rest. Breadmash and I don't get on, next time I will try feeder with breadcrumb from the fishing shop. Magic bread on the hook was fine, but no bites in an hour.   Switched to maggot feeder. Immediate bite from something that felt very solid indeed, but it straightened the size 18 hook out. Hmm, su
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Monday 25 January

3pm to 5pm. Quite cold, AT 3degC. Decided to try and get another pound plus grayling from the Lambourn, concentrating on the swim where I caught one last week. Not to be: 4 grayling and 3 brownies, but none more than about 12oz.   Tried wading at one point, but discovered the 'gravel' was really silt, and I needed chest waders to give confidence.   Used a fixed spool reel for no very good reason. My best 2 fish have come on the two occasions when I used a 'pin'. A centrepin only seems to g
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Mon 18th Jan

The key question was where to go after the recent melting of the snow. I felt the Lambourn might have got rid of the salt etc by now, but another possibility was that there were static stretches of the canal where very little of the snow melt would have even got into the water, and with the very rapid rise in temperatures I thought Mrs Perch might be waiting for her dinner. Decided to play safe with the Lambourn.   Fished 2.30 - 4.45pm. Water temp amazingly 8degC. For the first 90 mins fished
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Mon 11th Jan

3.30- 4.30pm Thick snow. Decided to take a trip to the Lambourn, armed with sweetcorn and cryogenically frozen maggots. Maybe they weren't quite frozen in my garage, but their still state for some reason made me think of those who git themselves frozen in the hope of waking up feeling better in 2,000 years time!   Delayed, typically, so time very limited, though not too worried in this cold. The aim I guess was to catch anything at all, but particularly to try out the advice Chris P gave t
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Monday 4th Jan 2010

What a slob I am! Day off - FISHING DAY - But I lie in bed vaguely aware of mist and ice outside, and decide that it really isn't worth it, so get up even later than usual. Then I stagger downstairs and discover that all my concerns about fishing in sub-zero temps are answered on AN, and realise that I MUST BE OUT!   What to do? A trip will have to be very short to fit it in, and I'm still not too confident of catching. So, just as a chess player may have to satisfy himself with achieving min
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Mon 28th December 2.30 - 3.30pm

Temperature 2 degC. Where should I go? The prime aim was to find a stretch of river where the fish wouldn't be put off by salt from the recent melting snow. I thought it should have washed through from the Lambourn OK, but being a bank holiday I feared that other anglers would have had the same idea, so went to a similar sized stream where I caught a few roach last year. A passing dog-walker last year had assured me that this stream was full of the most enormous fish including roach to 1.5lbs, b
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Mon 21st Dec

Defeated by a snow shower! Would have been OK at the river, but my house is at the bottom of a hill etc etc. But I am still going to bore you with my blog FOR ONE REASON. I am one of 3 weekly blogs on this site, and they all come from Newbury and surrounding area! Well - need I say more? This is my main evidence that Newbury is the ANGLING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. Let's face it, the score says it all: NEWBURY 3, Rest of the World NIL! Hah! That's what I think of all the other places. Hah! It's tr
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Monday Dec 14th

2.45pm - 4.30pm. AT 5C, but felt quite mild with little wind.   Today I had an assignation with the Lambourn ladies, though I was a little nervous how they would greet me as I have ignored them for the last year. I have also largely ignored my AN 'pin since Santa brought it last Christmas - at least, I have never used it on a pacey water, which the Lambourn is in parts. So this was an attempt to put both omissions right. It was also the first time I have used my Greys rod with its extension
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Wednesday Dec 9th

2pm - 4.30pm   Very mild day, and a few days leave left so took a few hours to go perching. Went to a tree swim on the canal where a friend bagged up a few days ago using the pole. Had thought the colour would have dropped out sufficiently to make jigging a plastic worm a good option, aiming for my first perch on a plastic. But the canal was more coloured than I expected so I decided to try lobworm on a straight lead, with maggots sprayed over the top. But I would use a long-drop bobbin, whic
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Monday December 7th

10am to 12 noon. As a result of yesterday's recce and 20 mph winds forecast I decided to miss the river for once and fish Dixons for roach in a sheltered spot. Air temp forecast 9deg C, though I didn't have a water thermometer, seemed mild enough for it not to be too hard. Started with float, but switched to maggot feeder when the wind moved round a bit to the west. 14 foot deep. Tried two swims on Dixons plus a few minutes on the Moor Ditch. Not a touch. Had fished the morning as Metcheck fore
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Sunday 6th Dec

Unusually had a free Sunday evening and decided to have a short recce (plus wetting a line) for tomorrow's outing. I couldn't decide (for tomorrow) whether to fish a swim on the free stretch which is generally supposed to be good when there is a fair flow, or to fish one of the lakes. One problem with the Kennet free stretch swim is that the car parking charges now are horrendous, so fishing after dark when you can park for a pound is one option. So I set out at 5.30pm for a swim where West Berk
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The story so far

Well here goes with a new blog. I fish the same waters around Newbury to a degee as Chris Plumb and Rusty, so it'll be interesting if it reads like that to anyone else! For various reasons I often only manage to fish short sessions. I'm really a 'pleasure angler' who still likes to catch the occasional pb, even if they are not specimens as such. I fish once a week, normally, on Mondays, and aim to post each week for a while to see how it goes.   After a couple of years with no pbs (beyond a g
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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