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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

Updated PB List

My PB List. Haven’t done one of these for a while (though it hasn't changed much in the last 5 years!) and as I had a query about my PBs I thought I'd put an updated list on here...   Best Carp – 27lb 6oz. 15 August 2008. Blue Pool – Burghfield. Method feeder – hair-rigged hemp bogey.   Blog Entry: http://www.anglersne...63-1415-august/   Best Pike – 18lb 10oz. 10 February 2001. River Lambourn – Newbury. Free-lined Lamprey section.    
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

The River Prince

Close season is the time for me to catch up on my other angling passion - books. Reading them and looking out for a bargain or two on ebay - oh, and banging out the odd review for Elton. This is a book I''ve wanted to read for some time so was pleased when Medlar re-issued it last October....     The River Prince - ed. by Chris Yates   Any readers of my previous book reviews on Anglersnet will know that it is now a well established fact that I like my angling anthologies
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

The Little Book of Little Fishes

I well remember as a youngster hunting for tiddlers in my local (then) River Witham. Sticklebacks were brought home in triumph and saw out the summer in a tin bath by the back door - this book brought back those childhood memories....   The Little Book of Little Fishes An Anglers Guide to Britain’s Smallest Fishes by Mark Everard   If, like me, your formative fishing years were spent catching sticklebacks (usually with the same worm) or splashing through the gravels turn
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

The Glorious Uncertainty

or Fate and the Fisherman. By John Aston.   One of the best angling books to come out of 2012.     "Message for Chris Plumb ... A Dream of Jewelled Fishes (recommended to me by C Yates) is not a little gem, but one of the finest angling books to have been written in modern times. A very BIG gem … Christ, wish I was on commission - have sold at least 30 of these in the past month. A wonderful book. Love his politics AND his views on 'modern carp fishing/carp an
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

The Gigantic Book of Fishing Stories

The Gigantic Book of Fishing Stories - Edited and Introduced by Nick Lyons, Foreword by David Halberstam.   OK, I admit I'm a bit of a 'sucker' for angling anthologies - in fact I've just counted up the number of such volumes in my modest angling library and realise I already have 10 such books, not counting this one. Of these, my favourite 3 - and most comprehensive - are BB's, Fisherman's Bedside Book, The Magic Wheel, & Fish, Fishing & the Meaning of Life. I like anthologies
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0
Coarse Fishing

Season's Bests 2023-24

Another season comes to a close - my first one since retiring and as a consequence I got out a lot more especially in the autumn/winter though plans were somewhat thwarted by the high water levels in the rivers. Since I left work in June we have had 9 consecutive months of significantly above average rainfall. The springs of the Kennet 'broke' unusually early in mid-October (they typically start flowing late December/early January) and as a consequence many venues have been inaccessible  let alo
Coarse Fishing

Season's Bests 2022-23

And so endeth another season. And a pretty pleasing one - with some of my favourite Kennet swims producing good fish (mainly chub) throughout the season. The summer started off with a bang - in the shape of my first ever 4lb+ crucian - the biggest of 5 X 3+lbers in an afternoon - any of which would have been season's bests in recent years - a real Red Letter Day! Best Carp 14lb 5oz. 10 August  Free-lined bread flake - Willows. As usual I spent most of the summer trying to avoid carp in my q
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

Season's Bests 2021-22

And so another seasons draws to a close - quite a good one on the numbers front with over 400 fish over a lb landed and 12 (14 including trout - which I'd rather not!) different species over a lb caught. The best returns since 14/15 season. Few fish came close to a PB however - so quantity not quality probably sums it up! Best Carp 12lb 14oz.  9 July  Freelined Bread flake - Willows. I rarely have carp as my primary quarry - but they are often a by-catch (usually unwelcome!) when I'm after
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

4
Coarse Fishing

Season's Bests 2020/21

Plumby’s Annual Round-up. And so another season comes to a close – and I’m just thankful that I had a season at all. The Angling Trust somewhat came of age this year and showed itself to be an effective voice for anglers with its successful lobbying of government for angling during the pandemic. Fishing local did curtail my usual winter jaunts south in search of big ladies – but it was a small price to pay. Best Carp: 13lb 14oz. 9th September.  Float fished maggot – Willows. I rarely c
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

4

Season's Bests 2019/20

And so another season comes to a close - not a bad one despite the wet weather disrupting several plans over the autumn and winter (including the annual Itchen IAC fish-in). I did at least get a  PB this year. Still no barbel,though there is a planned trip to the Wye to try and rectify that in 2020  - and the season finished strongly with 3 SB's in the last 4 days. Biggest Carp. 15lb 8oz, 28th June. Ledgered pellet - Method Feeder. Jubilee Lake - Thatcham. My now annual trip to try and get
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 2018-19

A satisfactory season despite (yet again) not a barbel on the bank.   Best Carp: 23lb 10oz. 21 June Ledgered Pellet - method feeder Jubilee Lake - Thatcham. Biggest carp for 10 years and my biggest ever Common.   Best Bream; 7lb 14oz. 17 Nov, Trotted corn, River Frome - Wool. Something of a surprise capture as I was after Grayling - my biggest ever river Bream.   Best Chub; 6lb 4oz. 9 Dec, Trotted maggot, River Kennet - Brimpton. First 6lb+ chub for 7 s
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 2015-16

Best Carp; 17lb 14oz, 11/07/15. Free-lined bread. NAA Still water, Thatcham. http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-1311-1011-july/   Best Barbel; 11lb 7oz, 30/07/15. Ledgered halibut pellet. River Kennet, Nr Thatcham. http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-1321-30-july-part-2/   Best Tench; 7lb 6oz, 19/6/15. Float fished prawn section. Johnsons Lake, Milford. http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/bl
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

2

Season's Bests 2014-15

End of Season Round-up. So endeth another season – quantity not quality rather sums it up. Best ever season for fish over lb, yet few ‘stand-out’ captures and no PBs. Summer and autumn was a real grueller on the barbel front and I had my worst return (5 fish) since the 78/79 season despite putting in quite a few rod hours. The news that there’s been a modest barbel stocking into one of my club’s section of the Kennet was thus very welcome. Summer was punctuated with monthly trips over to Go
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 2013-14

Plumby’s Annual Season Round-up! Bit of a strange season – summer was somewhat slow – saved by a three trips to Marsh Farm on the still water front and eventually finding some Barbel at a haunt of old, late summer, after some very poor river trips. Hard to remember now that the autumn was actually pretty dry – in fact on my only 2 trips to the Dorset Frome the river was actually fairly threadbare and in need of some water. Of course we then got biblical proportions of rain and the last 3 mo
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

1

Season's Bests 2012-13

Plumby's Annual Round-up!     This time last year the word on everyone’s lips was drought. We’d had 3 dry winters on the trot – hosepipe bans were already being introduced and the chalkstreams of southern Britain were drying up. The springs feeding the Kennet didn’t ‘burst’ at all during the winter of 11/12, the river was looking very ‘threadbare’ and I feared for what conditions I’d find in June. What a difference a year makes!! April 2012 was one of the wettest on record – the s
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 2011/12

And another season comes to a close. And a rather good one it was too - with 3 PB's, an equalling PB and a couple of near misses. A rather indifferent summer, despite a PB Bream and a PB Crucian in the same week - was compensated by some great post September angling. The autumn perch campaign got off to a real flyer. A session which produced 18 fish for nearly 40lb including 5X3lbers and a PB equalling 3lb 14oz fish was a real red letter day (see 13 October entry). This winter I was eagerly look
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 16/17

Somewhat of a mediocre season!   Best Carp 14lb 9oz, 30/8/16 Jubilee Lake Thatcham, Pellet Feeder (a very sickly looking fish - so no pic! Pic below is of my 2nd best of the season a 12lb 11oz fish caught from the same venue a week earlier) Best Barbel 10lb 4oz 10/10/16, River Kennet, Nr Thatcham. Ledgered Snailz Boilie. Yet again another season where I struggled to catch barbel - this double was the biggest of just 3 fish landed all season. Best Bream
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 09-10

Well that's it until the 16th June - a 3 month break for me - and after my personal 'Vomit Fest' last spring, I can't see meself making the annual trip to the South Coast for the IAC Black Bream trip.   A very slow summer was more than compensated by a fine autumn's perch fishing. 2 PB's and 4 fish over my old PB of 3lb 9oz. That 4lber will have to wait another year though. No other PB's though it was nice to get another 6lb chub - especially as it was caught trotting. The coldest wint
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 08-09

Well that's it for another season and a pretty indifferent summer was more than compensated by an excellent autumn/winter campaign! Weights in red were new PB's set this season.       Best Carp: 27lb 6oz, 15/8/08. Hemp bogey/Method feeder, Cemex Blue Pool, Burghfield. Best Pike: 10lb 14oz, 18/10/08. Float fished lob worm, River Kennet, Speen Moors. Best Barbel: 8lb 11oz, 2/7/08. Ledgered 14mm Halibut Pellet, River Kennet, Newbury. Best Chub: 6lb 6oz, 8/3/09. T
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests 07/08 Season

Right that's it for another season. 07/08 was a pretty good one - despite only 1PB for Brown Trout - though this was more than double what it was at the beginning of the season!   Best BARBEL, 11lb 6oz, 1/10/07, Ledgered 14mm Halibut Pellet, River Kennet nr Thatcham Best CARP, 9lb 6oz, 29/6/07, Ledgered 14mm Halibut Pellet, River Kennet at Woolhampton Best BROWN TROUT, 8lb 12oz, 14/3/08, Trotted single white maggot, River Kennet nr Newbury Best BREAM, 7lb 9oz, 18/6/07, L
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

Season's Bests - 2010/11

And so endeth another season. No PB's this season - though a few fish got close (6lb 5oz chub the closest). A much better summer than in the past few years with some really nice crucians (from a variety of waters too) and quite a few 6lb+ tench - all caught float fishing. Winter started with a long cold snap form mid-Novemeber - rather curtailing the perennial 4lb+ perch hunt - though a morning when I brought 4, 3lbers to the net will live long in the memory!   Best Carp; 14lb 10oz, 21
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

4

PB List (with Pictures!)

My PB List. Haven’t done one of these for a while and it seems an appropriate way to ‘celebrate’ my 400th blog post. And I’ve even dug out and scanned a few old photos (rather crappy ones I have to admit!) which are appearing on the WWW for the 1st time.   Best Carp – 27lb 6oz. 15 August 2008. Blue Pool – Burghfield. Method feeder – hair-rigged hemp bogey. I usually spend all summer trying to avoid carp as I pursue tench and crucians but this was caught on an IAC fish-in
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

1

Out of the Blue/On Fishing at Sea

Another book review...   Out of the Blue/On Fishing at Sea - Chris Yates   When the Out of the Blue first came out in hardback in 2008 I didn’t rush out to buy it as I might have for any other new work from Chris Yates. In truth, I had been a little under-whelmed by his offering 2 years earlier - How to Fish. Not that this is a bad book, in fact by any other yardstick of modern angling writing it IS an excellent read. It was just that I didn’t consider it to be Yates at his b
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0
Coarse Fishing

Nothing New

Middle of my usual spring hiatus so I thought I'd post up my latest article for one of my club's (NAA) quarterly newsletter... Nothing New! Walk into any tackle shop or browse any bait catalogue and the variety of baits and flavours for sale can be bewildering to the novice (and the more experienced) angler. The Hinders online store, for example, offers over 500 different choices of pellet, particle, boilie, wafter, flavour or glug with the promise of more 'in store'. What to buy

My Perch Weights since 1990

Following on from the Chub weights progression thread I started on the main forum - (see:http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/6986096-kennet-chub-weight-progression-since-1982/) I've done the same with my perch captures (thanks to Rusty for putting the idea in my head!) to see if the same uplift in weights happened at around the same time (turn of the millennium). This file IS small enough to upload on the blog as there is less data (it starts from 1990 as I didn't have enough cap
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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