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Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

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Coarse Fishing

28 November (Part 2)

River Lambourn - Shaw 1030 - 1300 Still dull and misty. AT 9ºC. River on the low side. 11 Grayling; A real mix of year classes (and hence sizes). Biggest 1lb 13oz (!!) with another 3 an ounce or so either side of 1lb ( the usual maximum size here). 6 Brownies most 6-10oz with one well over 1lb. Well I wasn't expecting that! Pretty sure that's my biggest grayling from this stretch - I've gone back over 20+ years of diaries and can't find a bigger one! Caught from a very shallo
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

28 November (Part 1)

Northcroft Stream - Newbury  0745 - 1000 Misty & murky 7ºC. River at normal levels and quite clear. 3 Chub; 2lb 14oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 5oz. 6 Dace &  2 Roach - all small. Successful chub hunt - though was hoping for something a little bigger. My usual 'banker' swim here produced not so much as a bite - thankfully they were all in my back up swim!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

21 November (Part 2)

Kennet & Avon Canal (flowing), Thatcham 1100 - 1330 Dull and breezy. AT 11ºC. River at normal levels and quite clear. 6 Dace; 5 over 8oz - biggest 15oz !! 1 Gudgeon. Another trip to an infrequently fished (and less than reliable) venue but one which has thrown up decent dace and chub in the past. Nothing quite in this class however -  a female almost in full breeding condition (3 months early). My biggest dace for 11 years, since this day.  
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

21 November (Part 1)

River Kennet - Arrowhead (Thatcham) 0715 - 1030 Dull and quite breezy, temps around 10ºC. River at normal levels with little colour. 6 Dace, 1 Roach & 2 brownies - all small. Scratchy session to a venue I only visit every other year or so but which in the past (well 13/14 & 14/15) was a nailed on banker for big chub and perch ( see here as an example). Strange as the place still screams fish but I've caught very little here since those 2 winter campaigns (And not a wh
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

13 November - Part 2

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0930 - 1415 Bright and breezy, clouding over with the wind dropping. Mild. River in good nick. 4 Chub 4lb 14oz, 3lb 12oz, 2lb 6oz & a chublet. 4 Roach - best c8oz, 2 Dace, 1 Gudgeon & a brownie. Had planned to do quite a bit of wandering today but ended up refamiliarising myself with a favourite swim of old. Back in 2004 (25th Sep to be precise) I had 4 chub for over 21lb from this spot (fish of 6.05, 6.0, 4.11 & 4.06), plus 2,5lb bream
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

13 November (Parts 1 & 3!)

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0700 - 0915 & 1445 - 1630 Squally rain to start, overcast and becalmed to end. Quite mild. 18 Perch; Most 8-12oz with around half a dozen in the 1lb class save the biggest which went 1lb 10oz. Dawn and dusk session to top and tail a trip to Speen and there appears to be a LOT of perch in the 12oz class this autumn. More fish during my dawn session than dusk - but that may have been due to pike as was bitten off twice.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

7 November (Part 2)

River Kennet - Hambridge 1045 - 1345 Cool, milky sunshine. River at normal autumn levels - much lower than expected after a really wet month. 4 Chub; 4lb 6oz, 3lb 6oz, 3lb 2oz, 1lb 15oz. 7 Dace (4 chunky ones). 1 Grayling, 2 Gudgeon & a Brownie. Hooray - banker chub swims gives up more than one fish! Had three in the first 20 mins with the 4th one coming after resting it for over an hour whilst I explored elsewhere.  
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

7 November (Part 1)

River Lambourn - Newbury 0700 - 1000 Cool and misty. River quite low especially given how wet October was. 8 Grayling; All between 8-10oz with a couple a tad bigger. 6 Brownies - a couple of netters - the rest were parrs. Scratchy morning's trotting - fish thin on the ground - most of my usual banker swims turned up nothing - think they were just too spooky in the clear shallow water.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

31 October

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 0615 - 0945 Mild (13ºC) with an increasingly strong breeze (storm Aiden approaching) 9 Perch: All, bar one, over 8oz with a couple pushing a lb. Still searching for the bigger ones! Quick session before the rains arrived (started pishing down just as I got back to the car!). One of the advantages of the clocks going back is there's a bit longer to fish before the barges start up and whilst the first one came through at 0830 again - there
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

24 October

Kennet & Avon Canal - Widmead 0715 - 1030 Mild, overcast with some light drizzle and an ever increasing breeze. Canal quite full. 4 Perch: 2 'pounders', biggest 1lb 6oz. 3 Chub: again a brace of pounders - to 1lb 9oz. Dawn perch raid to a favoured swim of old - been 3 years since I last fished here but for a decade from 05-15 this was a nailed on banker venue for big perch - had dozens and dozens of 3lbers in that time plus a couple of 4s. My last 3 from here was Dec 15 a
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

19 October

Lower Itchen Fishery 0800 - 1800 Bright and breezy, clouding over in the afternoon. River quite full (though has clearly been a lot higher recently) 20 Grayling; 9 over lb - best 4, 2lb 2oz, 1lb15oz, 1lb 12oz, 1lb 10oz. 4 Chub; 3lb 13oz, 3lb 6oz & 2, lbers. A dozen plus (too many!) trout to 4lb+ - mainly browns with a couple of silver tourists! 2 Salmon Parr. Very slow morning followed by a lively afternoon. My first half a dozen swims produced just one decent grayling (f
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

17 October

River Kennet - Hambridge 0845 - 1045 Cool and overcast. River at normal levels with minimal colour. 2 Chub: 2lb 9oz & 1lb 14oz. 9 Dace & 6 Roach - nothing of noteworthy size. 1 Brownie. Quick couple of hours as I needed to get some bait for my trip to the Itchen on Monday - not that I need an excuse to fish one of my favourite (and most reliable) swims on the Kennet. As usual biggest chub first cast and I must find a way of winkling out more than one in a session from
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

10 October (Part 2)

River Kennet - Speen Moors 1015 - 1400 Cool, overcast and quite breezy. River in good nick - not as high or coloured as I expected after all the rain last weekend. 5 Chub; 3lb 6oz, 2lb 2oz, 1lb 6oz & 2 chublets. 1 Perch 1lb 7oz. 30(!) Roach with around a 3rd in the 8-12oz bracket. 12 Dace - all, bar 2, a really good size - biggest weighed in at 11oz but nearly everything else was within an ounce or 2 of this - cracking stuff. 2 Bleak & a Gudgeon. Super trotting sessio
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

10 October (Part 1)

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0700 - 1000 Chilly and bright - clouding over. 3º - 8ºC 6 Perch - only 1 below 8oz but only 1 over lb (and not by much!) 1 Roach c10oz (on a whole lob) A sudden drop in temps and a bright crisp morning are not the ideal conditions to kick off my autumn perch campaign here - so glad to get any interest at all in my float fished lobs. Started in one of my 'banker' swims which produced all the fish before doing a bit of prospecting which produce
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

3 October

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1245 - 1615 Overcast, cool and drizzly at first (after 2inches of rain in the previous 24 hours). Water up and coloured. 5 Perch; All 'netters' with a couple nudging a pound. 1 Tench; 2lb 6oz. Quick 'snatched' session to the venue nearest where I live. Had planned to fish upstream of Newbury today but didn't fancy standing out in the pouring rain all day - so made the most of a short break in the weather (the rains returned as I walked ba
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

26 September

River Kennet - Hambridge 0700 - 1330 Cool (5ºC when I started), bright and breezy. River quite low - normal for Sep. 3 Chub; all 1-2lb. 5 Barbel (!!!); all 12oz-1lb. 8 Dace - all chunky ones in the 6-8oz class with a couple a tad bigger. 4 Brown Trout; one close to 3lb the others circa 12oz+. Another recce session - following up on some recently acquired intelligence (cheers Martin - spot on! ?). Been a few years since I last exchanged my NAA card for a CSAS one to fish this
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

19 September (Part 2)

River Kennet - Brimpton (Aldershot water) 1030 - 1400 Warm and sunny. 21ºC. River at normal September levels. 13 Chub(!): 7 over 1lb but 'only' 2 over 2 - best  2lb 10oz & 3lb 2oz. 4 Roach - all a nice size - best 13oz. 2 Dace. 5 Brownies - all around 10oz with one a fair bit bigger. Another swim I've not fished in a while - though I won't be so tardy revisiting it! Nice to see smaller chub coming through - and the roach were a real bonus as well.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

19 September (Part 1)

River Kennet - Colthrop 0700 - 1015 Bright and sunny. River at normal early autumn levels (i.e. quite low). 2 Chub - both quite small. 5 Roach - handsized or better. 4 Dace. 12 Gudgeon and a bleak. Bit of a recce trip as I haven't fished here for a while - ran a float through half a dozen swims on the backstream, giving each half an hour or so. 
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

14 September

River Wye, Llanthomas 1630 - 1930 Warm,sunny evening. 2 Barbel: 5lb 14oz & 7lb 7oz. Mission accomplished! I usually make a point of NOT fishing when I'm on holiday with Mrs P - I tend to stay married that way! However when a long weekend in the Brecons became a week's stay in Hay due to our Greek holiday falling victim of Covid it would have been churlish not to drop in on Geoff's! I've known Geoff over 20 years and around 9 years ago he acquired a mile (double bank) of t
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

9 September

Willows Lake - Thatcham 1800 - 2300 Warm evening (though temps were starting to plummet when I left) 21º->12ºC. 2 Carp: 13lb 14oz, 7lb 2oz. 2 Tench - both quite small but pushing a lb. 3 Crucians - handsized. A session topped and tailed by the 2 carp. The biggie snaffled my float fished maggot within 20mins of starting and with a 16 to a 4lb bottom I was grateful for the help of a fellow angler for its netting! In truth the carp were a pain - especially until it got dark a
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

5 September

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0700 - 1200 Cool and sunny - felt quite autumnal first thing. 9-15ºC 4 Chub; a brace of 2lbers and a couple of chublets. 30+ Roach & a doz+ Dace - nothing particularly big. 5 Bleak. 3 Rainbows 2½-4½lb. 1 Brownie; 3lb+ A morning hunting chub but finding mainly rainbows ? - I also lost 3 - one of which was nailed by a huge pike as I brought it in!
Chris Plumb

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2 September

Alders Lake - Thatcham 1745 - 2215 Overcast, quite breezy at times and the AT actually went up a degree from 15-16ºC 1 Bream; 4lb 14oz. 1 Tench - c1lb. 2 Perch - both 'half decent' around 8-10oz. 3 Rudd. Bites a-plenty for the first couple of hours (though I think a lot of them were rudd attacking the shot) - went very quiet as it got dark - exact opposite to what usually happens. Only bite after 2000 was the bream - which was very much a last cast fish - and meant I had a ve
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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29 August (Part 2)

River Kennet - Widmead 1015 - 1215 Sunny spells and still cool - 14ºC. 1 Chub: 1½lb. 13 Dace: most a really nice size - biggest 12oz. 1 Roach. A real pain getting through the minnows - but once you did there were some quality dace on offer - still hoping this swim will produce decent chub - but had just the one modest sized one early in the session to show for my efforts. Best dace of the season (so far!)
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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29 August (Part 1)

River Kennet - Hambridge 0615 - 0930 Cool (9ºC) and overcast - more like late October than late August!  River higher than normal for this time of year - but reasonably clear given all the rain this week. 2 Chub; 3lb 14oz & a chublet. 1 Pike; 8lb 12oz. 7 Dace, 5 Roach and a couple of brownies - 12oz+. Chub first cast ( as per usual) after trickling in maggot for 15mins before starting. One of the dace was an absolutel clonker - a season's best for all of 2 and a bit hours
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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26 August

River Kennet - Brimpton 1800 - 2300 Warm, still evening (calm after the storm!). River up a tad and carrying a bit of colour (and the odd branch!) 2 Roach (handsized). 2 Dace. 3 Gudgeon & a Brownie (small). An hour's trotting - hopeful of a chub - but really just a blank prevention measure (!) followed by 4 hours staring at a couple of isotopes willing one of them to wrap around with a three foot twitch. Alas the only excitements came from the crayfish and numerous bats c
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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