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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

8 August

River Kennet - Colthrop   1000 - 1100   Warm and muggy.   6 Dace, 4 Roach & 3 brownies - biggest around 1¼lb.   Quick trotting session while Jaq picked blackberries. (Blackberry crop not a patch on last year!)A couple of the dace and one of the roach needed the net.

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

4/5 August

Marsh Farm, Nr Godalming   1545-2245 Johnsons 2315-0530 Harris 0600 - 0930 Johnsons   Warm day - chilly night(well certainly cool at day break).   14 Tench - best 3; 5lb 14oz, 5lb 2oz, 4lb 14oz. 6 Crucians - all bar one over 2lb - biggest 2lb 11oz. 6 Carp 7lb 10oz and 5 tiddlers - and I do mean tiddlers, one was no bigger than my thumb! 7 Rudd - biggest 1lb 1oz (!)   A session where the plan was to concentrate on Johnsons - hopefully for one of t

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

1 August

River Kennet - Newbury   0915 - 1145   Overcast, warm and muggy. River still in great nick for mid-summer - more water than many a year - but now shallow enough to wade out to get a trot to one of my favourite spots!   3 Chub - all between 1¾-2¾lbs.3 Perch; one just over a pound the other 2 not much under. 20+ dace, 7 roach, 3 gudgeon and a brownie.   Very pleasant morning's trotting - nice to see some chub back in residence in one of my favourite Kennet swims (and a host of other speci

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

27/28 July

Harris Lake - Marsh Farm Fishery Nr Godalming.   1730 - 0500   Warm overcast night - lovely night to be out - in shirtsleeves til the early hours. Pity then that at 5am the heavens opened, accompanied by an impressive electrical storm - so a hasty retreat was beat to the car - for some much needed kip!   10 crucians all over 1lb with half over 2 - biggest 2lb 15oz. 6 Tench - all over 3lb - best 4lb 3oz. A doz or so perch, roach and rudd.     After the

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

23 July

River Kennet - Newbury   1845 - 2315   Hot and muggy - temp still 21ºC when I got back to the car at 2330!   1 chub; 2lb 10oz, 2 Grayling 1lb 2oz and one not far under 1lb, 7 Roach - 4 really chunky ones biggest weighed in at 14oz, 4 Dace, a perch and a gudgeon (but yet again NO barbel)   This is getting a little repetitive! Another decent short trotting session - in fact for half an hour it was like fishing the Kennet of old - almost fish a chuck and never quite know what species would

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

20 July

Bucklebury Ponds   1000 -1400   Warm, overcast and muggy.   6 Bream to 1½lb. 1 Carp 2½lb. 5 roach, 5 perch.   Another weekend dominated by athletics (up in Loughborough yesterday watching Sam), so another quick 'snatched session at my local. Bites not as prolific as last Sunday (when it wasn't as bright) but still enough to keep me amused for a few hours...

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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

13 July

Bucklebury Ponds   1030 - 1430   Overcast, muggy with light drizzle at times.   2 Tench; 2lb & 1lb 6oz, 8 Bream most ± 1lb. 1 Carp 2lb 13oz. 10 roach & 4 perch.   Pleasant session watching my float dither, dip and disappear with satisfying regularity. Most fish on pellet apart from the tench which fell to maggot - had to switch to pellet when the perch moved in!

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

9 July

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1830 - 2230   Sunny and breezey. Temp 16ºC when I packed up but felt much, much cooler in the stiff breeze - intended to stay longer but was under dressed!   1 Chub 2lb 5oz, 2 dace and a brownie of about a pound.   Another evening of not catching barbel - looks like I'm gonna have to start stalking Viney! took the trotting rod as always and spent the first hour eeking out a few fish from a couple of swims. Then spent 3 hours getting increasingly cold watchi

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

5 July

River Kennet - Colthrop & Brimpton   1000 - 1500   Cool (ish), overcast with drizzly rain at times. River down an inch or two - but still at a good level for this time of year.   4 chub; Best 3lb 6oz. 6 dace. A doz + brownies to 3lb 2oz!   Jungle fishing! Travelled light and covered quite a bit of water - looks like I'm the first to visit Cothrop this summer - had to cut my way in through the brambles on at least 5 swims! Trout were a bit of a pain - especially the big one as I thou

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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

25 June

River Kennet - Thtacham   1900 - 2330   Warm evening with temps dropping quickly once the sun went down. 9ºC when I got back to the car (drenched in dew!)   1 Chub 2lb 15oz. 11 Dace, 1 Gudgeon.   Ever since the winter I've hankered after doing a summer evening in this swim thinking that it ought to hold barbel. First hour and a half it was out with the trotting rod and after a biteless 20 mins I then had a steady stream of dace - including some very chunky specimens - I even weighed a co

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

19/20 June

Marsh Farm. Nr Godalming   1530 - 1100   1530 - 0500 - Harris 0530 - 1100 - Johnsons   Warm and sunny - pleasant enough night until dawn when it got misty coating EVERYTHING in a very heavy dew.   22 Tench; Only 2 under 3lb with 10 over 4. Best 3 - 5lb 11oz, 5lb 7oz, 5lb 4oz. 2 Crucians; 2lb 13oz & 1lb 10oz. 4 perch, 3 rudd and 3 roach.   A re-run of the opening day session (though we fished different pegs on Harris and Johnsons)and this

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

18 June (part 2)

River Kennet - Newbury   1830 - 2300   Sunny with temps dropping quite quickly after sun down - but perfectly pleasant under the trees! River still very full.   1 chub 1lb 11oz, 10 dace, 1 roach, 1 gudgeon and a brownie of 2lb 4oz!   A quick return to the swim where I had a barbel on the float yesterday - reasoning that where there's one....! However it was a case of watching the float dip with satisfying regularity for an hour and a half, followed by three hours staring at stationary is

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

18 June (part 1)

NAA still water - Widmead   0430 - 0900   Overcast and cool (ish)   Doz+ rudd, 1 perch.   A morning that didn't get off to the best of starts as I couldn't even get into the venue I wanted to fish - the latch on the gate was jammed - looks like someone had vandalised it! So this was very much plan B - and a not very successful plan at that - the rudd were a pain - even when fishing meat and I couldn't even tempt a carp off the top....

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

17 June A Day on the River

River Kennet 0500 - 1430   Bright and sunny - and VERY breezy. River very full - highest I've ever seen it at this time of year.   0500 - 0800 - Newbury.   1 Barbel, 4lb 9oz, 7 dace, 2 roach and a brownie   Always try and get a session here early in the season - though last year was the first time in over 30 years I didn't get a barbel from here - something I put right within 10 minutes of starting to fish. The surprise was it came from my 3rd choice

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

15/16 June 2014

Marsh Farm - nr Godalming   2000 - 1030 (2000 - 0500 Harris, 0530 - 1030 Johnstons)   Over cast with a chilly northerly breeze. Min 12ºC (though max wasn't much more!)   4 Crucians, biggest 1lb 14oz, 5 perch - all 'net-ers' though the biggest was barely a pound, 1 rudd.   Start the season on a 'easy' tench and crucian venue - then switch to a new water after bagging up all night - what could possibly go wrong!!! Well a chilly north wind for a start -

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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

14 March

0645 - 1015 Speen Moors 1115 - 1315 River Kennet, Newbury 1345 - 1615 River Lambourn, Newbury   Foggy start, then bright sunshine and quite warm - shirtsleeves weather! River still very high. Lambourn particularly so.   Another '3 venue day'!   Speen. 2 Chub; 2lb 10oz, 1lb 7oz & 3 Dace. Had planned to spend all day here but high water meant I couldn't actually get to ANY of the swims I wanted to fish. Started in a known perch slack AKA 'Rusty's Corner'

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

13 March

0630 - 1000 K&A Canal, Enborne 1015 - 1130 Speen Moors 1330 - 1800 River Kennet - Thatcham   Foggy morning - clearing by midday to give a bright sunny afternoon. River HIGH and clear.   Canal - 5 Perch, 2lb & 1lb 8oz plus 3 little-uns. 1 Chub 1¼lb. Successful dawn raid after a stripey or 2. Chub sicked up a massive gob of brown bread (locals feeding the ducks!)   Speen - 2 Brownies 1½lb & 2½lbs More of a walk than a fishing session - but spent 20mins running a float through t

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

7 March

Middle Kennet Estate   0715 - 1730   Mild (max 15ºC) with sunny spells after early morning drizzle. River high with more colour than I expected.   15 Chub; all over 1lb - best 4lb 7oz, most between 2-3lb.15 Roach - quite a few 'chunky' ones with the best 2 going 1lb 2oz & 15oz. And err 15 dace. 7 perch; all small except one 'pounder' & 'only' 3 brownies to 2½lb.   Usual 'chub fest' at this ever reliable venue though Paul and I started out trying to

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

2 March

River Kennet   0800 - 0930 - Newbury   1000 - 1230 - Thatcham   Overcast, mild (8ºC) and breezy. River high but clear.   Newbury - 1 Grayling and a couple of gudgeon. Thatcham; 2 Chub; 4lb 0oz & 3lb 6oz, 1 Perch 4lb 2oz (!) and a small dace.   Started at a favoured flood slack which was surprisingly devoid of fish. So shifted off downstream to show Paul and Rusty how its done! However, the first hour and a half or so was bite-less and

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

27 February

River Kennet - Thatcham   1600 - 1800   Sunny with some broken cloud, Cool (4ºC). River still very high and carrying a bit more colour than last weekend.   1 Perch 2lb 4oz, 3 Roach; 14oz and 2 smalluns, 1 chunky dace of around 6oz.   Had a free afternoon so with the forecast heavy showers by-passing West Berkshire it seemed a shame not to visit my new favourite swim! And yet again it threw a bit of a curve ball - no chub - 1st time that has happened - but a smattering of silver fish turn

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

22 February

River Kennet - Thatcham   0645 - 1030   Bright and sunny - a lovely spring morning. River still very high though running clear and a couple of inches down on Sunday.   3 Chub; 5lb 14oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 6oz. 3 Perch; 3lb 1oz, 2lb 11oz, 2lb 3oz.   Stonking session in the swim I fished on Sunday - though this time there was a bit more flow as the flood water is starting to run off. In truth I hadn't planned to fish here but Paul paid a visit during the week and

Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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

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