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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

25 September

River Kennet - Hambridge   0900 - 1200   Bright and sunny after a frosty start, had to scrape ice off the car which was a shock to the system after a week away in Lanzarote! River up a touch and with a bit of colour.   6 Chub; Best 2, 4lb 15oz & 3lb 14oz all the others between 1¼lb - 2lb 6oz. 10 Dace - with 4 in the 8-10oz bracket, 2 Roach, 3 Brownies - all over 1lb - biggest nearer 2.   Cracking little trotting session was hoping for a chub or 2 so to get half a dozen was great. Was
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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15 September

River Kennet - Thatcham   0900 - 1200   Bright and sunny - quite warm.   1 Chub 2lb 3oz, 2 Dace, 1 Roach & 5 Brownies (2 circa 1lb)   Off to Lanzarote tomorrow and didn't want to leave maggots in the bait fridge whilst I was away (not that I need an excuse!)
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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10 September

River Kennet - Bulls Lock   1800 - 2300   Warmish and overcast.   3 Dace and a chublet.   Another fruitless barbel session on a rarely fished stretch of river. As per usual started off trotting for not a lot - and once ledgering the only rattles came from the crayfish of which there were A LOT!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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8 September

River Kennet - Brimpton   0615 - 1300   Overcast and quite breezy at times - drizzly rain for first hour. River not as low as I expected.   2 Chub: 5lb 6oz, 4lb 13oz. 7 Dace, 1 Roach, ½doz+ brownies - most quite small with one circa 1lb.   Took a ledgering rod As I wanted to have a daytime try for a barbel - however they were removing willows just upstream and an absurd amount of branches and crap coming downstream made it impossible. So back to usual trot
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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3 September

Alders Lake - Thatcham   1800 - 2230   Warm and quite breezy.   2 Tench; 2lb 6oz and a pounder. 4 Perch.   Yet another new swim - feel I've given this lake a proper go now and whilst not blanked hasn't been as productive as last summer - when I caught mainly bream and hardly any tench - complete opposite to this summer!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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31 August/1 September

Willows Lake - Thatcham   1800 - 0600   Cool clear night down to 7ºC at dawn and very misty and damp with dew.   9 Tench: All over a pound with 3 fish over 2lb. 7 Carp biggest 2, 12lb 2oz & 8lb 15oz all the others between 3½ - 6½lb. 1 Crucian 2lb 2oz. 4 perch.   A return to the swim of a fortnight ago hoping for - and getting - a similar return for what will probably be my last overnighter of the summer. As before, started off float fishing maggot but the micro perch were in residen
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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29 August

River Kennet - Newbury   1800 - 2245   Warm and overcast evening though clouds cleared and temps started to plummet in the last half an hour.   7 very chunky dace - all 6-8oz. 1 Roach, 2 brownies to 1½lb.   First serious attempt of the season for a barbel - but of course I started out with a trotting rod for the first hour or so. Once I switched to the ledgering the only indications were from bats and crayfish - LOTS of crayfish - A pattern I'll see a lot of in the next couple of months!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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25 August

River Kennet - Marsh Benham   0600 - 1300   Cool (6ºC when I arrived) and sunny - with a nippy northerly breeze. River lower than my last visit 4 weeks ago.   1½doz+ Chub, Biggest 3lb 5oz, the rest all chublets. 1 Pike; 3lb 10oz, 2doz+ Roach, 5 Dace (2 of around 8oz), 1 Perch, 1 Bleak, 1 Gudgeon.   Ledgered meat for the first couple of hours or so - 45 minutes each in 3 different swims - but the only pull resulted in a meat munching pike again - possibly the same one that I had here las
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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20 August

Alders Lake - Thatcham   1800 - 2300   Warm and overcast.   3 Tench - all between 1-2lb.   Another Monday evening and another new swim (bin working my way around the lake this season trying a different swims each trip.) Bites at a bit of a premium - much as expected - but at least when they cam they produced and end result - unlike last week!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17/18 August

Willows Lake - Thatcham   1900 - 0500   Warm overcast night - lovely night to be out!   4 Carp; 6lb 5oz, 6lb 14oz, 7lb 12oz, 13lb 9oz. 5 Tench - best 2lb 7oz and all the others C2lb±2oz. 1 Crucian; 3lb 3oz. ½doz+ perch - all small.   Nice to see some tench in Willows - bin many years since I've had this many in a session. All fish fell to lift method tactics less than a rod length out - with simple maggots as bait - did also bring a feeder rod but it staye
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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13 August

Alders Lake - Thatcham   1830 - 2230   Warm and breezy.   1 Tench - c1lb, 1 perch.   Frustrating evening - as I was getting loads of bites which I couldn't hit - quite unusual for here - as was seeing other anglers on the water! Still another 2½lb of blackberries picked!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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10/11 August

Dobsons Lake - Thatcham   1800 - 0500   Cool clear night. Temp down to 5ºC when I packed up!   4 Carp: 9lb 12oz, 8lb 2oz, 7lb 15oz, 6lb 9oz. 1 Bream 5lb 12oz. 1 roach.   Brrrr - a slow but steady night looking out for Perseids as much as fishing! Surprised how cool it was at dawn - compounded by a very heavy dew!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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6 August

Alders Lake - Thatcham   1800 - 2245   Warm (as ever) - still 22ºC when I left.   2 Bream: 4lb 14oz, 4lb 10oz.   3rd Monday evening on the trot here and as before the fishing was preceded by 30 mins of blackberry picking and as a result we now have a dozen or so jars of bramble jelly - which should see us through to next spring! Back to the fishing - both fish caught in the first hour with the sun still on the water - which augured well for the twilight ho
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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4 August

River Kennet - Brimpton   0530 - 1130   Hot and sultry. AT 19ºC when I left home at 0445! River still seeing the benefits of a wet spring.   6 Chub: 4lb 3oz, 4lb 0oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 10oz, 3lb 9oz, 3lb 2oz. 10 Dace - 4 over 8oz - best 10oz. 10 Brownies - mostly small - with 3 over lb.   Lovely morning'c chubbing - the more so as I spent most of it up to my thighs in cool Kennet water. Nice stamp of fish which came from 3 separate swims.As ever, these days th
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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30 July

Alders Lake - Thatcham   1800 - 2230   Bright and breezy.   1 Tench - unweighed but around a pound.   Hopeful that the recent rain might have pepped things up a bit - though the opposite looked likely as the water appeared quite lifeless. Thankful for a solitary bite - which I missed - but the tench belied its size by nearly pulling my rod in!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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28 July

River Kennet - Marsh Benham   0830 - 1430   Warm, bright and breezy with a couple of lumpy showers. River still higher than anticipated and carrying quite a bit of colour.   2 Pike; both 3lbers, 7 Chublets, 1½doz Roach. 1 Doz Dace, 1 Perch, 1 Gudgeon, 2 Bleak and a Trout.   First trip of the season to 'my' syndicate stretch of river - both pike on ledgered meat from the weirpool - had me thinking I hooked small barbel both times!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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23 July

Alders Lake   1830 - 2230   Hot and sultry - a shirtsleeves and DEET evening!   2 bream both a couple of ounces either side of 2lb, 1 Tench circa 1lb and a roach.   First soirée here of the summer. All fish came in a 45 period from 2100 as it started to get dark.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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20/21 July

Willows Lake - Thatcham   2000 - 0500   Warm (min 16ºC), overcast and drizzly most of the night especially early on.   8 Carp; biggest 18lb 5oz - all the rest between 5¾lb - 9¼lb. 1 Tench - circa 1lb and a skimmer.   A night of 2 halves - started float fishing the margins targetting the lake's rare but large crucians - and sure enough had crucians rolling in my swim repeatedly as it got dark - so hopes were high! Alas the carp kept getting to the bait first and when I didn't connect wit
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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15 July

Northcroft Stream - Newbury   0430 - 0815   Warm with cloudless skies. River looked in surprisingly good nick - still reasonable flow.   2 Chub - both circa 1lb (and possibly same one - caught nearly 3 hours apart!), 2 doz dace & 9 Roach.   Pre breakfast trotting session - hopeful for some ( bigger) chub which didn't show up.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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2/3 July

3rd Paul Goulbourn Memorial Trophy - Harris Lake - Marsh Farm.   0800 - 0800   Hot, bright and breezy. Breeze never really died down even at night.   19 Tench - biggest 5lb 4oz with nearly all the rest in the 3½-4½lb class. 13 Crucians; 3 over 2lb (just!) - biggest 2lb 3oz. Around half the rest were 'Big 1's' (had 3 @ 1lb 15oz!). 3 Roach, 3 Rudd & 4 Perch.   IAC came out in force to do Pauls' memory proud! Record attendance at this meant £400 being raised for Sue Ryder. Despite chall
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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21/22 June

Jubilee Lake - Thatcham   1400 - 0500   Clear and breezy - night was cool and clear but not as cool as forecast (kept too busy to get cold!)   10 Carp; 23lb 10oz (!), 11lb 15oz, 10lb 11oz, 10lb 6oz, 10lb 4oz, 9lb 14oz, 9lb 5oz, 8lb 13oz, 8lb 6oz, 7lb 7oz, (Over 110lb of carp!). 2 Tench 3lb 11oz & 3lb.   Last year I made the mistake of fishing here in the school holidays - and got very irritated by the noise from other anglers. No such worries last nigh
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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20 June

River Kennet - Thatcham (2 venues)   0900 - 1400   Warm, muggy and overcast.   A dozen + dace, 2 perch (both around 10-12oz), 1 roach, 1 Gudgeon & 2 brownies - 12-16oz.   A visit here is now more by habit than expectation - long gone are the days when you could hope to winkle out a few barbel on the float - though I was still hopeful of chub. However just getting to a swim was a battle - head high nettles meant I just hacked my way into a couple of spo
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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18/19 June

Johnsons Lake - Milford   1200 - 2315 & 0300 - 0900   Warm and overcast and quite breezy. Quite the best night to be out - no need of warm clothing - or a shelter!   8 Crucians - best 4: 3lb 11oz, 3lb 8oz, 3lb 5oz, 3lb 4oz, 2X2lbers & 2X1lbers. 9 Tench; 3X5lbers to 5-15 and 6 of various sizes. 5 Rudd, 1lb 11oz & 1lb 8oz and 3 smalluns. 1 Roach.   Wait 27 years for a decent rudd and then 2 come along at once. 1-06 was my previous best rudd - fro
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17 June

Warwicks Water   1000 - 1400   Overcast and breezy.   A dozen or so perch.   A quick recce to see how the clubs crucian project is coming along (and I'd heard of crucians and tench being caught!). Alas if the micro-perch didn't nail the bait the crayfish did - the lake bed is covered in the critters - I dropped a piece of meat at my feet to see the mayhem that ensued!!! Can't see how the fish get a look-in!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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16 June 2018

River Kennet   0400 - 0830 Thatcham 0915 - 1300 Newbury   Overcast start with some light drizzle - river very full for the time of year and quite coloured (boat traffic)   Thatcham - 1 chub 2¼lb, 6 dace, 1 roach, 1 Grayling and 4 Brownies to 2lb+ Newbury - 15+ dace, 2 grayling - both over 1lb!! & a couple more troot.   Wasn't going to continue this blog until somone unexpectedly asked if I was continuing and as I said yes I better put something up!!! Very pleasant start to the seas
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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