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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

27 July

Summer Pit - CEMEX Yateley   1845 - 2330   Overcast breezy and warm - min temp 15ºC when I left.   3 Tench; 4lb 7oz, 3lb 2oz, 2lb 13oz, 1 roach, 1 perch   Still no crucians!!! At least the tench came out to play - though all fish were caught after 2200 - must have a whole night on here sometime! 2 tench on meat 1 on bread.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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19 October

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1800 - 2300   Cool, calm and overcast. 11ºC river low and carrying quite a bit of leaf litter.   1 Chub: 5lb 2oz.   A similar start to my last visit here 3 weeks ago in fact I have a suspicion it might even be the same fish. However as my camera was still plugged into the computer at home I didn't get to take it's portrait for comparison. Only bite of the evening - so no barbel main course after the chub starter. Was subjected to a barrage of twitting from a
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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22 September

Alders Lake   0830 - 1100   Foggy start then bright.   3 tench, 3 crucians, 1 bream (all<1lb) 40+ roach and perch.   Fancied a couple of hours just seeing the float go under at regular intervals and not know what would show up next - though the answer to that was mainly roach!!! 1st trip here since it was re-stocked following the the fish kill of 2005. Will probably leave it 2-3 season for the fish to get a bit bigger before I return! One curious aspect of today was that I could only
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17 February

Middle Kennet   0845 - 1745   Bright and sunny after a cold (-7ºC) start. River still 'full' with nearly all colour dropped out.   3 doz Dace - best 10oz. 3 Perch (2lb 2oz, 1¼lb), 1 Chub 3lb 11oz, 7 Brownies to 2lb, 1 Rainbow 1½lb. 1 Roach, 1 Grayling.   Usual day of playing 'hunt the fish'. Fish quite spooky in bright conditions - necessitating many swim moves - though the dace in the 'keepers cottage' swim were positively suicidal at times! Dace are clos
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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20 July

River Kennet - Newbury   1900 - 2330   Warm, overcast and breezy. River very low.   1 Chub; 2lb 7oz. 20+ Dace, 9 Roach.   5 Weeks into the season and not a hint of a barbel so far! At least there appears to be an abundance of silver fish in the river and a bonus chub provided a modicum of action on the ledger rod. No otter sightings this evening - just a family of mink - 4 of them rampaging along the far bank margins!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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12 January

River Kennet (and carrier) Marsh Benham   0930 - 1530   Overcast, mild and quite breezy. River down on a fortnight ago (well we have had zero rainfall in that time).   3 Chub; 4lb 1oz, 3lb 3oz & 2lb 11oz. 1 Pike 2lb 10oz, 4 doz Roach & Dace (roughly 2 -1 ratio). Biggest roach 12oz with a lot more circa 8oz. 2 Brownies 4lb 14oz & a pounder, 2 Rainbows - both 3lbers (possibly same one!)   Chilled out birthday trip! Carrier was very low so fish w
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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6 October

0700 - 0900 K&A Canal - Widmead   4 perch( 1lb 11oz, 1lb 9oz, 2<1lb)   0930 - 1230 Warwicks Water   1 bream (1½lb), 2 doz roach & perch.   Calm, high cloud, dry. 8º -> 16º. WT 14ºC     This was meant to be a perching session but the crayfish on the canal were a nightmare. If the perch didn't take the lobworm on the drop the signals were on the bait within a minute (I timed!!). Switched to Warwicks hoping for a late crucian but none were showing. Fished meat and pellet wi
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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20 October

River Kennet - Newbury   0730 - 1230   Cold and frosty. River clear with some leaf litter. WT - 47ºF (That's down 8ºF since Monday).   5 Chub (2-3lb, biggest 3lb 11oz), 3 barbel (all 2-3lb) 4 doz Dace, Gudgeon, Roach (mainly Dace).   A morning trotting maggot or worm - very surprised to get the barbel considering the drop in WT. All chub and barbel caught after 1030 having spent 3 hours dribbling in maggot (and catching nowt but dace). Small but great fun on float rod and CP. All barbel
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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12 December

K&A (flowing) Canal, Thatcham.   1115 - 1600   Mild, overcast a VERY blowy. Rive at normal levels and quite clear.   20 dace. 1 roach.   Failed attempt at a big stripey and/or chub. Wind was a total PITA making trotting close to hopeless.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

23 December (Part 1)

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0915 - 1345 Dull and drizzly.AT 7º - 9ºC. River very low and clear. 3 Chub; 1¼lb & 2 chublets. 3 Dace, 1 Roach (nothing of any size), 1 Brownie1½lb Pre christmas trip to use up my maggot as my bait fridge in the garage gets its annual clean and is sequestered for the turkey and other Christmas victuals. A rather dismal session - and that wasn't just the weather - very few of my banker swims produced so much as a bite - and I even struggled for b
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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24 July

River Kennet (nr Newbury)   1900 - 2300   Sunny and breezy   2 Barbel (7lb 15oz, 4½lb), 1 chub (3lb), 1 dace (!)   River up (as you'd expect - but dropping) Quite coloured but no small debris (just the odd small tree!!!). Larger barbel 1st cast. Loads of small rustles and knocks which weren't crayfish (no marks on the pellet) - but which I'm pretty sure were dace - as I managed to catch one on 14mm pellet for the 2nd trip running - this one was much smaller too!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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26 May

Eastern Solent - on Valkyrie out of Langstone Harbour - Skipper Glenn Cairns   0830 - 1500   5 Bream (all 'keepers'), 5 Pouting   Bright and breezy after a dull drizzly start - becoming VERY breezy!   A day spent on a rather choppy Solent in the company of Alan Tomkins and friends. Alas, I left my sea legs at home - spent ½ the morning chucking up and all afternoon trying not too - did very little actual fishing! Which was a pity as the bream fishing was rather good, everyone caught wit
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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25 July

K&A Canal, Thatcham (Flowing canal)   1200 - 1600   Cool and breezy. River up a god 3-4 inches and carrying a tinge of colour after yesterdays deluge.   14 Dace; with a few chunky ones in the 6-8oz bracket. 4 Roach. 1 Grayling (small). 1 Bleak. 1 Brown Trout; 2lb 15oz!   Spent a couple of hours in each of 2 swims - hoping a chub or two would put in an appearance - but my only 'chub' turned into a rather fat brown trout at the net!    
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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24 October

Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham   1300 - 1800   Drizzly start becoming bright and sunny - mild 16ºC.   9 Perch; 3lb 12oz, 1lb 11oz & 7 tiddlers, 1 chublet.   Planned to go in the morning but the wimped out because of the promised downpour which never really arrived. Should have stuck to my guns as the barge traffic was a nightmare. Biggy early in the session - but after that there was far too much boat traffic for the swim to 'settle' down - poo!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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13 August

River Kennet (Nr Thatcham)   1915 - 2315 Scattered cloud, 18ºC, one light shower.   4 Barbel (9lb10z, 6lb 5oz, 5lb 6oz, 4lb). 1 Chub (2lb)   First trip since holidaying in Scotland (Caught a few Pollack spinning from the rocks nr Oban). 3 fish (Chub, 6 & 4lber) in the first ½hour then lots of knocks/rattles which didn't develop (not crayfish) - presumably small chub/dace/gudgeon??? Final two fish at 2215 and 2250 - saved the biggest for last. 9lber had a large (size of 10p) wart on he
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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12 November

River Kennet Estate Water - Nr Hungerford   0645 - 1615   Bright sunny start, showers then HEAVY rain after 1500. AT 5º -> 11ºC. Water VERY low.   44 Grayling, 18 over 1lb, best 2 - 2lb 0oz, 1lb 14oz, 21 Dace, best 2 - 13oz & 12oz - also weighed another at 10 oz and had quite a few of similar size - unweighed, 5 Rainbow Trout - to 2½lb, 3 Brown Trout - to 2¾lb.   Surprisingly good day given the very low water conditions. Best return of 1lb+ grayling from this venue in a day (by a
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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29 June

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham   0500 - 0930   Overcast and cool - with sunny spells for last hour.   1 fantailed goldfish (!) 2lb 3oz. 6 Rudd (4 really chunky ones in the 8-10oz bracket), 4 perch, 1 roach.   Breakfast session after crucians - so somewhat disappointed with a goldfish - think its the 3rd time I've caught it (last time was Oct 2010 when it was a couple of ounces heavier!). Some nice rudd were a bonus however - wasn't too aware of them even being IN this lake!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

16 July

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1900 - 2300   Warm, balmy evening - in shirtsleeves all session - temp still at 19ºC when I got back to the car. Lovely evening to be out!   3 Chub; 4lb 10oz, 4lb 2oz, 3lb 4oz. 1 dace,   Another evening NOT catching barbel - but at least some half decent chub kept me occupied for the first couple of hours. Biggest chub and the dace on trotted maggot in the first hour. Other 2 chub on ledgered snailz boilie (an impulse buy when
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

30 July (Part 1)

Alders Lake - Thatcham   0530 - 1030   Bright and quite cool with a breeze picking up for last hour.   3 Rudd. 9 Perch.   A dawn session more in hope than expectation! Was after the lake's resident tench or bream though reports this summer from here haven't been exactly favourable! Water looked pretty life-less so whilst I had planned to stay longer - I decided an early pack up to get home in time for the start of the cricket was the better option!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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22 December

River Lambourn - Shaw   0800 - 1100   Cold & misty/overcast. -1ºC -> 3ºC   8 Grayling - 3 'pounders', biggest 1lb 5oz, 3 Roach - biggest 1lb 6oz (!), 5 small brownies - oh and a bullhead!   Slow morning, bites hard to come by - so the roach - caught almost last cast, was a real and very pleasant suprise. My biggest from this venue (don't ever remember having one worthy of the scales before)! Upto that point I was most pleased with the bullhead (!),
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17/18 June

Newbury AA lakes - Thatcham   1430 - 1100   Sunny becoming overcast. Breezy becoming VERY breezy. 13ºC-18ºC.   9 Carp (3½ - 8lb) 3 roach and a rudd.   Disappointing session on a usually prolific water. Paul did much better (eventually) and had a dozen on The Method - including a brace of 10's. Had hoped to do some surface fishing but legions of terns, ducks & geese made this sadly impossible - the buggers were insatiable - and did we try and sate them! Float fishing the margins - ano
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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2 July

River Kennet nr Newbury   1830 - 2315   Dry, following afternoon rain - clearing skies 19ºC -> 12ºC (but felt cooler in the heavy dew!) River in good flow with some colour and debris free until the Canada Geese started feeding just upstream!!   3 Barbel (8lb 11oz, 5lb 14oz, 4¼lb), 2 Chub (5lb 1oz & 3lb 13oz).   Bigger chub 1st cast, biggest barbel 2nd cast! 2 smallest fish in last ½hr. 5lb chub - very lank and spawned out - will be MUCH bigger in the winter! All fish on pellet.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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18 January

Middle Kennet Estate Water   0800 - 1700   Bright and very breezy, 4ºC. Water carrying some colour after yesterdays rain - though dropped out noticeably by the end of the day.   4 Chub; 3lb, 2lb 4oz and 2 chublets, 19 Dace; best 2, 13oz & 11oz, 8 Brownies; best 2, 4lb 7oz & 4lb 3oz, 1 Grayling.   'Scratchy' sort of a day playing hunt the fish. Spent the morning exploring a carrier I'd not fished before - and probably won't again as it appeared devoid of fish!! Biggest chub on cor
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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23 June (Part2)

River Kennet - Padworth   1815 - 2330   Warm and clear, lovely evening to be by the river!   1 Chub 6lb 5oz (!!) (1oz short of my PB!)   First trip to this new stretch of Kennet back-water - which is mainly quite shallow and with low flow - due to the sluices being up - suspect it will be a great flood venue. Was here ostensibly for a barbel or two but if the chub are that calibre I'm not complaining! Would love to meet him again in the winter - should thi
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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24 December

River Lambourn - Newbury   1230 - 1500   Bright and breezy after heavy morning rain. 8ºC. River up a tad and carrying a bit of colour.   18 Grayling; 5 over 1lb to 1lb 6oz. 1 Trout.   Traditional Christmas Eve session to empty the bait fridge so that it can be used as a 'Christmas overflow'. Usual catch a couple and move on tactics - didn't have more than 3 grayling from any one spot.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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