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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

Coarse Fishing

6 March

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0830 - 1330 Cool, calm and mainly overcast with milky sunshine at times. AT 1º - 6ºC. River still quite full but down a few inches on my last visit 4 weeks ago. 4 Chub; 5lb 2oz, 4lb 7oz, 3lb 13oz and a pounder. A doz Roach - mainly quite small with a couple of 'netters' of around 10oz. 1 Brownie; 1½lb. Surprisingly scratchy start to the morning - fished the carrier down and only had fish from 2 swims (the smaller chub & trout and the roach). Th
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

6
Coarse Fishing

18 June (6th Paul Goulbourn Memorial Fish-in)

Harris Lake - Marsh Farm, Milford. 0645 - 2345. RAIN, Rain, continuous, unrelenting, nonstop RAIN! Heavy at times, slight, moderate, torrential, tropical, cloud bursts at other times. Over a month's worth in a day! Drove over in the rain, set up in the rain, fished all day in the rain. Rain eventually stopped as it got dark - so escaped packing up in the rain - though everything was pretty sodden. Thankfully my day shelter was up to the task - alas the banks weren't, so during the heav
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

8 August

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0630 - 1230 Torrential rain for first 90 mins or so followed by showers (some quite lumpy!). Cool for August (13ºC) and quite breezy - sun eventually appeared for the last hour or so. 2 Chub: 3lb 13oz & a smallun. 1 Bream; 3lb 14oz. 4 Doz Roach & Dace (mainly roach - nothing of any size). 3 Bleak. 1 Rainbow Trout - 3½lb. I read 3 weather forecasts on Friday evening and whilst all predicted a showery weekend they all also said that Sunday wo
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

6
Coarse Fishing

29 December (Part 1)

River Kennet - Newbury (Whitehouse) 0900 - 1300 Bright and breezy with heavy showers. AT 8ºC. River very pacey with a tinge of colour. 1 Chub: 5lb 14oz. 9 Roach - all a 'nice' size - the one I deemed worthy of the scales went 14oz - with all the others around half that! 2 Dace - small. A quick return to my pre-Christmas venue. When I walked back to my car last week I spied a slack which simply screamed 'here be chub' and I wasn't wrong! First trot through the float buried at
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

6

3 July

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   0415 - 1015   High cloud - warm. 15º -> 20ºC   4 Carp; 10lb 1oz, 9lb 6oz, 9lb 0oz, 7lb 11oz. 1 Crucian; 3lb 2oz. 2 roach, 1 rudd (all 3 of which needed the net to land.)   Despite the splendid crucian and the hard fighting commons - a quiet morning bite-wise. Crucian on float fished meat - in the margins - pretty much only bite of the morning - apart from the roach and rudd - wasn't even 'carped' as is the norm. Biggest common
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

13 September

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1830 - 2315   Mild (min of 16ºC), overcast and very, very breezy! Levels on the low side and quite clear.   Blanked! (Well nothing with fins - was totally crayfished out!)   Tried another new swim but was into the Signals almost as soon as the bait hit the water. Activity stopped for an hour at around 10pm so was hopeful that fish had moved in - but nothing doing!  
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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1 November

River Kennet - nr. Thatcham   1830 - 2330   Mainly overcast and quite breezey. AT54ºF, WT52ºF and both rising. Positively balmy compared to last Monday evening, despite the wind!   4 Barbel: 10lb 7oz, 9lb 5oz, 7lb 4oz, 5lb 15oz   Cracking evening in a swim not a million miles from where John, Chris & Steve have been in the last 72 hours! 9lber first cast - all be it ¾hr after casting out and the double right at the end of the session. Biggest barbel f
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

1/2 July

Summer Pit - Cemex Yateley   2030 - 0600   Still, balmy night with high cloud - temps 20ºC->13ºC but felt a lot milder under the trees!   3 Bream; 12lb 2oz - another PB , 8lb 7oz, 4lb 15oz. 2 Tench; 4lb 1oz, 3lb 3oz. 3 Perch & 2 Rudd.   I'm utterly gobsmacked - 2 PBs and 1 = PB in a week! I said last weeks crucian would take some beating - this might just be the fish for me, that does! My first ever double figure bream - previous PB was 9lb7oz - so
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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15/16 July

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   1500 - 0700   Overcast and breezy with light drizzle most of the night after a warm sunny afternoon. Min 15ºC - mild despite the breeze!   6 Carp - all commons - biggest 9lb 13oz, smallest 6lb 8oz. 1 Bream 4lb 8oz. 1 Tench 2lb 8oz. 2 Doz+ Roach and Rudd.   It comes to something when the highlight of your fishing trip is breakfast!!! However the pork and bramley apple sausages, fried egg sandwiches and mugs of steaming fresh tea w
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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20 October

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1000 - 1300   Bright and sunny after a frosty dawn. 4ºC -> 11ºC. River at its perennial autumn minimum - very low!   1 Chub; 3lb 10z, 3 Grayling; all around 12oz. 2 dace (small). 1 Brown Trout; 2lb 10oz.   On the hunt for a big chub so started out with corn and lobs - but ended up catching everything on double red maggot! All grayling a nice size - hope they grow on to be 'pounders' next year. Bit disappointed with the spottie - was convinced I was bringin
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

16 November

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury   0700 - 1630   Misty and murky all day, heavy showers for last 2 hours - 7-9ºC.   7 Chub; 5 over 2lbs biggest 3lb6oz. 7 Grayling (!) 4 over1lb (&3 over 1½), biggest 1lb 11oz. 9 Dace; 3 of which were 6oz+. 1 Roach. 7 Brownies to 3lb.   Eagerly anticipated trip - nice to see the river full after 4+ years of low water. Of course it meant having to almost completely re-learn the venue! We half expected the fish holding area
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

13 January

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury   0900 - 1630   Cold (-1ºC ->3ºC), bright and breezy. Clouding over somewhat in the afternoon. WT 7ºC (won't stay like that for long). River still very high but quite clear.   2 Chub; 4lb 3oz & 1¾lb, 5 Grayling; 3 over a pound best, 1lb 13oz. 10 Dace - only two of which were below 8oz! . Best 13oz which I achieved twice. 5 Brownies to 4lb and 2 Rainbows to 1¾lb.   Club day so the plan was to target dace all day and n
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

7 March (part 1)

Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham   0600 - 1030   Mild, overcast with continuous drizzle. AT has averaged over 9ºC for the last 48 hours and the WT is catching up (48ºF) which is 9ºC in new money!   2 Perch; 3lb 15oz (and a bit - if it had swallowed the lob and not spat it out it might have tipped 4!), 2lb 2oz. 1 Pike 2¼lb.   1st part of a 'Reverse Rusty' session (Dawn on the canal - midday on the river). And conditions absolutely screamed perch so it was
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

Fish & Fishermen in English Medieval Church Wall Paintings

Another book review - and a bit of a minority interest methinks! Fish & Fishermen in English Medieval Church Wall Paintings By Frederick Buller   A curious and rather unusual book that will fascinate anyone interested in Angling history – of which I thinks there’s a few on Anglersnet (well maybe just me and Vagabond!). The scope of this research is, however, rather narrow and I was amused by a line in the frontispiece which described the book as ‘a definitive text f
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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23 September

River Kennet - Near Thatcham   1900 - 2230   Clear evening becoming very foggy. Lovely evening to be out!   1 Barbel - 11lb 2oz   I've had a pretty patchy summer on the barbel front - a few schooly sized fish on the float have been fun but I was going into the last week of September not having had a barbel over 8lb for the first time since 98/99 season. So at the weekend I vowed to have a concerted effort between now and when the clocks go back to try and
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

16 February

River Kennet - Thatcham   1030 - 1430   Bright and sunny. 8ºC. River VERY high - but surprisingly clear.   2 Chub; 4lb 13oz, 2lb 7oz.   New winter chub banker swim turns up trumps again! Wasn't sure what I'd find - or even if I'd be able to get to the swim - but after paddling through the field - found a surprising slack piece of water. Smaller chub first cast on a lob worm, 4lber 90mins later on trotted maggot. Lovely afternoon to be by the river.  
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

5 October

River Kennet - Thatcham   0745 - 1000 (a) 1030 - 1230 (b )   Bright and sunny after a chilly start (ice on the car for the first time this autumn). River low and carrying a tinge of colour.   (a) 1 Chub (circa 1lb), 16 Roach, 5 Dace, 4 Grayling, a bleak and 2 brownies - biggest circa 1½lb. (b ) 3 Chub; 5lb 6oz, 4lb 13oz 4lb 9oz. 6 Dace biggest 10oz (the other 5 weren't much smaller!)   A couple of hours trotting in a couple of swims half a mile a
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

22 November

River Frome - Wool   0800 - 1630   Very mild (14ºC), overcast and quite breezy with the very occasional drizzly flurry. NOT at all what was forecast - which was pretty much rain all day! River quite pacey (0.97m at East Stoke river gauge) and carrying a bit more colour than I'd have liked.   14 Grayling; 8 over 1lb (6over 1½lb). Best 3; 1lb14oz, 2lb0oz, 2lb1oz. 2 Dace; best 10oz. 1 Roach; 9oz. 9 Brownies to 2¼lb. 3 Salmon parr.   A trip that we nearly abor
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5

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
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

20 February

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0700 - 0915* 1000 - 1715˜ Mild, mainly overcast, quite breezy (some milky sunshine at times) - light showers on and off all day with rain for last hour and a half. AT around 12/13ºC all day. *27Perch - with 13 (!) over 1lb - and 3 over 2 - best 2lb 7oz. ˜(½mile upstream!) 7 Perch - all over 1lb (3 over 2) best 2; 3lb 10oz? & 2lb 11oz. A doz roach and a dace - all small.   What a Red Letter day! Make hay while the sun s
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

5
Coarse Fishing

27 February

River Kennet - Thatcham 0900 - 1245 Bright and sunny after a frosty start. AT was 11ºC when I packed up. River very full - but quite clear. 2 Chub: 3lb 13oz & 2lb 5oz. A dace and a brownie - both around 6oz. Bit of a gamble which nearly backfired - very few floodwater swims at this venue - though there is a nice near bank eddy which usually produces a nice chub. Alas if it was in residence it wasn't hungry as all I extracted from the swim were minnows (yes, Martin - there
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

5
Coarse Fishing

8 September

River Kennet - Thatcham 1800 - 1930 Hot and humid - with the crash, bang, wallop of an electric storm to finish! River quite low. 6 Chub: biggest 2lb with another couple of around a lb and 3 tiddlers. 1 Pike; 4lb 3oz (on trotted maggot!). 2 Perch; both around the 1lb mark (nice!). 2 Roach; a 'netter' and a tiddler. 2 Brownies - small. Quick return to the venue I had a barbel from recently with the intention of ledgering into the dark to see if I could get another. As usual I
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

5
Coarse Fishing

12 February

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0900 - 1430 Overcast morning, brightening up after lunch (to the detriment of the fishing!)  and quite breezy. AT 5º -> 9ºC. River low and clear (at normal summer levels!). 3 Chub; 4lb 0oz, 3lb 4oz, 2lb 2oz. 1 Bream; 3lb 10oz. 17 Roach; most around 6-8oz with a couple of biggers ones. 1 Bleak. Whole session on the main river of my syndicate stretch. Had a first cast trout - which got eventually off but only after totally trashing my first swim!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

5
Coarse Fishing

26 February - 5th Paul Goulbourn Memorial Grayling Day

Lower Itchen Fishery 0830 - 1730 Bright and sunny all day - quite breezy at times. AT -2º -> 10ºC. River looked in good nick. 16 Grayling: most around 8-10oz with 4 bigger. Best went 1lb 5oz. 1 Chub 3lb 10oz. 6 Brownies; 1½ - 2½lb. 2doz+ Salmon Parr! Since Paul's passing in 2015 I've organised (or tried to) a couple of fish-ins a year to a couple of our favourite venues - and places where Paul himself used to organise get togethers of the Internet Angling Club. This was th
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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