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About this blog

I started this blog in March 2021, having blanked in over half of my fifteen winter trips to various waters of Newbury Angling Association. The rivers, canals and lakes are fine, I'm just not very good at catching the fish in them. Oddly, i seemed to get a bit better for a while, but 2023 has undone all that. In July I moved to South Wales, not entirely for the weather, but to enforce a change in my fishing luck.

Entries in this blog

Kennet & Avon Canal

1.9.23 - Treoes Lake

A fun, par day in Bridgend. Float fished Mirrors of 9lb 6 and 6lb 2, Commons of 8lb and 5lb 2, Tench of 3lb and 3lb 6 and Bream of 2lb 14, 1lb 5 and 3 half pound skimmers. All went quite for the last hour around lunch time, during which the highlight was one of the two resident kingfishers making a dive across my swim and extracting a small roach in the blink of any eye. Stunning.
Kennet & Avon Canal

15.1.23 - Marsh Benham

Back fro a few days away, I walked around the NAA lakes yesterday at dusk to find the Kennet raging through Bulls Lock and the carparks/banks of the lakes submerged. At risk of typecasting myself, I bought a loaf of bread and headed to the syndicate for a bonus 2.5 hour stint. The bread that I didn't nibble at, or mashed up, I legered in the coloured flow for the usual two trout between 2lb 2 and 3lb 10 plus two spiffing chub of 3lb 6 and 3lb 7. Lovely!
Kennet & Avon Canal

01.01.2023 - NAA New Years Day Match - K&A Canal Enborne

Last Sunday, after the rain crashing against the bedroom window rudely woke me at 8am, I took my hangover and New Years jadedness to the match on the K&A. Remarkably the rain held off for the rest of the day after yesterdays deluge had left the water the colour and texture of mulligatawny soup.  I started on the quivertip but after a biteless first hour, I switched to a 6m pole and fished the middle channel on a light float. I had many bites, missed a lot, bumped many, but landed maybe
Kennet & Avon Canal

28.10.22 - Marsh Benham

After Tuesday afternoon/evening where the only bite came just before 9pm for a 5lb 4 mirror, I've changed my daytime fishing routine from the lakes to predominantly rivers and canals. My trip to the Marsh Benham syndicate on Friday turned out to be great trotting fun after an annoying morning. Fishing by a weir pool, the first bite came after about an hour, a decent fish which bored upstream as I speculated whether it would be a chub or maybe a perch. Turned out it was a 3lb 5 bream, and so
Kennet & Avon Canal

15.10.22 - Enborne

With the rivers running low and the temperatures up and down for the lakes, I stuck to the canals. Last night was warmer than of late, and with it overcast with no wind, I fancied a crack at the perch. I set up in the coloured water below Guyers Bridge for a second session on the recently built platforms. 5 seconds into the first cast of the day, something grabbed the worm and took the pole tip round hard. It was on for 30 seconds or so before the 4lb hooklength snapped. I'd seen a big flash of
Kennet & Avon Canal

2.10.22 - Help for Heroes match - Enborne

Despite pouring Sunday morning rain, 31 turned up for the NAA's annual charity match. That was a good turn out, especially as only 30 bacon rolls had been ordered for the pub meet beforehand, and guess who missed out? What's more, I managed to leave the slice of bread pudding baked and wrapped by the lovely Mrs S at home on the kitchen worktop.  No food, unless I fancied worms or casters, at least I'd picked up my bottle of water to enjoy in the rain. I drew one of the new platforms below G
Kennet & Avon Canal

16.7.22 - Newbury Angling Association v Shipston Angling Club - Enborne Canal

My first time representing NAA with a match against one of its friendly rivals. Apparently this home-and-away competition has been running for nearly 10 years. We fished the unfish-friendly 10am til 3 on one of the brightest and hottest days of the year so far (not much of a brag, it's been over 25 degrees every day for what feels like weeks).  . Combined with the regular boat traffic, which regularly interrupted the fishing and ensured any loosefeed was washed away to other swims, sport wa
Kennet & Avon Canal

16 - 23.2 - Willows & the Kennet

My last couple of weeks of Feb were blown off-track by the storm winds of Eunice and her pals, and by a trip to Wales that usurped a booked trip to the famed river Itchen. (hope it went well for you, fellers). Pre-storm, I'd had a weekday afternoon where threatened rain had me at Willows, where a brolly is better suited than my planned trip back to Speen. The weather kept others away, apart from a very friendly fully-kitted out chap just along from me who with bait boat assistance, already
Kennet & Avon Canal

12.1.22 - K&A Canal - Hambridge

Well, that was a fun afternoon. The plan always was to spend the first half of it with stick float and single maggot on the canal. Despite the morning frost, it was beautiful in the sun, and with no wind or boat traffic, it was like a millpond. Once the fish picked up on the gentle loose feeding and occasional conker of groundbait, the roach came in thick and fast. I stopped when I got to 50 (in less than 2½ hours) , supplemented by six bleak (not dace). Curiously, the roach started small,
Kennet & Avon Canal

30.12.21 - K&C Canal - Hambridge

A last chance for a fish in 2021 and a zip down to 'my' swim on the canal, 3 minutes drive from home. With the wind gusting, float presentation wasn't the easiest, and while the roach weren't there in such quantities, the ones that came seemed to have grown. Among the 21 I caught, more than half were over 2 ounces and two were netters (only  around half a pound, but I didn't want to lose them). The perch were back too, well, two of them, the larger being 12 oz, and also I was visited by a N
Kennet & Avon Canal

27.12.21 - K&A Canal - Enborne

Nothing to mention on my first hour on the weir at Speen Moors. The rain was distinctly unpleasant, and though my waterproof suit made me look like a terrorist Michelin man,  I was cosy and dry, which I could not say for my maggots, who, lubricated, were soon climbing out of their pot and I spent more time fielding them than watching my float. Note to self: don't forget bait apron next time. Having suffered several tangles due to the wind persistently wrapping it around the rod tip, three hook l
Kennet & Avon Canal

15.9.21 - Newbury Town Centre Canal

Having been a good boy and taken Mrs S to Ikea on our day off, I was allowed an hour-and-a-half fish, so off I went to the town and set up by the library. When the vast population of angry swans allowed, I trotted bread then corn through the slow moving water. With no fishy interest at all, I scaled down and fished a single maggot, which claimed two small roach and two large bleak quite close in. At that point a flat-bottomed barge launched from the other side of the A339 bridge about 50 yards t
Kennet & Avon Canal

9.8.21 - K&A - Hambridge

With an afternoon off and a pint of maggots bored in the fridge, I took them to Hambridge for a quick session. Having been dry and sunny all day, the heavens opened as soon as I got bankside and left me soaked, making every bend down to toss in a few maggots in the swim an exercise in soggy bottomed unpleasantness. It got the fish feeding in order with a 1lb 2 brownie sandwiched between 4 small roach and 7 dace to a hunky 7 ounces. The last of the maggots coincided with a final la
Kennet & Avon Canal

2.3.21 - Kennet & Avon Canal - Hambridge

Had a couple of hours to fish until sunset this afternoon. Blue sky, glorious early spring feel, but high air pressure and chilly later on. The canal is maybe 30ft wide and 3.5 ft deep in the centre. No boat traffic. Slow flow. Tackle: Waggler float -slightly heavier than I thought when I tackled up - shotted 'shirt button style' (4BBs, 3 no6's), 4lb mainline, 2lb hook length, size 18 hook. Tactics: Fished mainly central channel to two thirds across. Mixed up fishing overdepth, just above
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