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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

6 October

River Kennet - Newbury   1815 - 2315   Overcast and mild - 13ºC. WT 53ºF. River up an inch or so and with a bit more colour after Sunday's rain. No debris.   2 Barbel (6lb 4oz, 3lb 13oz), 1 Chub (2¼lb)   Fished the frying pan swim again. First bite at 2015. An evening more notable for the wildlife commuting through my swim. A mink - in the water, several large rats in the margins (being hunted by the mink???) and a badger on the bank!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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10 October

River Kennet - Thatcham   1300 - 1500   Bright and Breezy. 17ºC. River at normal levels carrying some debris.   2 Barbel (5lb 2oz, 3lb 4oz), 10 Chub - all between 10oz - 1¾lb, 1 Brown Trout 1lb 10oz.   Cracking little trotting session. All fish on double red maggot.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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28 November

River Lambourn - Shaw   0830 - 1230   Bright and breezey. 2º -> 8ºc. River still low - this wet November's rains haven't percolated through the chalk yet!   22 Grayling - 4 over 1lb, best 1lb 6oz. A dozen brownies - all small.   Pleasant morning's trotting.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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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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1 March

Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham   0630 - 0900   Dull, overcast and mild. AT & WT 47ºF. Water quite clear.   4 Perch: (2lb 14oz, 2lb 6oz, 1lb 11oz & a tiddler), 2 Chub: 2lb 10oz & 1lb 14oz, 1 Pike 3lb.   Perfect perch dawn - so somewhat surprised to find some chub taking up residence in my favourite perch swim. They were the first two fish I caught. Lost another at the net and then caught the pike so moved swims to (succesfully) find some perch! All fish on float fished lob
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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19 February

Lower Itchen Fishery   0830 - 1730   Bright and cool with sunny intervals. River high and carrying quite a bit of colour (alas).   8 Grayling - 3 over 1lb - 2lb 4oz, 1lb 15oz, 1lb 12oz, 2 Chub 4lb 1oz, 2lb 13oz, 1 Rainbow trout 1½lb, 1 Brownie, 1 Parr (Salmon or trout - hopefully the former as it will mean another point for the species race - pic to be submitted for adjudication!!!)   IAC day on the Itchen - and a bit of a grueller with bites at a premium
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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14 March

Middle Kennet   0700 - 1630   Bright and sunny - too bright for good sport but a fine spring day so not complaining. AT upto 12.5ºC - warmest day of the year!   3 Chub - 3lb 6oz, 3lb 2oz, 2lb 9oz. 11 Perch - 3 over 1lb, best 1lb 11oz. 28 Dace - only 1 really good-un of 10oz. 1 Roach. 4 Rainbows to 4lb 6oz. 1 Salmon Parr.   Another lovely day spent roaming around. Fish were quite spooky and we never got the chub feeding with abandon. Fished hard in a swim known to contain a HUGE chub - b
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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19 July

Newbury AA Stillwater - Thatcham.   2000 - 0000   Warm with a lovely warm breeze to keep the mossies off - still 19ºC when I packed up at midnight.   1 Carp 5lb 8oz.   Same plan, different lake to the evening before. Try for a crucian and hope that the carp would come into the margins at dark. Neither part of which worked! Very unusual for here not to get carp slurping at your freebies in the margins - but there was not a hint of one the entire time I was there. Only bite on meat - a cla
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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1 August

River Kennet - Thatcham   0945 - 1215   Hot and sultry - perfect weather to spend the morning up to your thighs in cool river water!   1 Chub 3lb 9oz, 6 Dace, 2 Roach and 5 brownies - 2 over 1lb.   Had to go to Tone's to pick up bait and permits for this evening - not that I need an excuse to fish here! Nice to see some dace AND roach putting in an appearance.   Chub showed obvious signs of having recently spawned...  
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

13 January

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1500 - 1630. Mild, overcast with a stiff downstream breeze putting quite a chop on the water. 9ºC 3 Perch; 1lb 5oz and a couple of 6-8oz. 1 Pike; 2lb 12oz Quick return to yesterday's venue hoping for a bigger stripey (achieved by around 4oz!) Dropped into a different swim - one in which I saw some scattering fry as I walked back to the car yesterday evening. All fish in the first 45 mins - Pike was last caught and didn't get another bite
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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10 September

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1845 - 2315   Clear and breezey. 18ºC----->9ºC. No moon - really dark night!   3 Barbel; 5lb 0oz, 2 sub 4lbers.   River down 3 inches on last visit, still carrying some debris - mainly ranunculus - which frustratingly kept catching the line. 2 smaller fish around 2100, 5lber last cast.
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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16 June 2011 (part 1)

Summer Pit - CEMEX Yateley Complex   0000 - 1000   Warm, still and overcast night (14ºC). Torrential rain after 0700 - and cooler.   5 Tench; 7lb 7oz, 5lb 10oz, 3X3lbers (3.13,3.12,3.03). 1 Bream 8lb 11oz, 2 perch.   Nice socialable start to the season - permit not valid till midnight so arriving in the dark gave it that special feel of the 16th. Paul and I shared a swim - one we've both fished before - hence our name for it - 'Doubles'. Alas though Paul h
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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20 June

Newbury AA Stillwater - Thatcham   0430 - 1000   Clear and sunny, warm after a cool start (8ºC when I set up).   6 Carp; best 2, 14lb 8oz, 8lb 4oz - the rest 6 or 7lbers.   So after a crucianless night on Marsh Farm a morning trying for one nearer to home - this lake has them to over 3lb - but alas it is also the home to a lot of voracious carp! The 4 smaller ones all 'fell' to my float gear. All the time I was feed little bits of bread into the margins by
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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23 August

River Kennet - Thatcham Warm and sunny. River down to normal summer levels.   0700 - 1015   1 chub 1½lb, 9 dace, 1 grayling and 6 brownies to 1¼lb   1045 - 1300   7 dace, 1 roach, 2 grayling and a brownie.   Pleasant's morning trotting on a couple of my favourite venues. Funny how grayling suddenly turn up every couple of years (the 2 caught at my 2nd swim being particularly surprising!). Chub first cast, augured well - pity a bigger one or a barbel didn't show up. A pair of canoei
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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8 December

River Lambourn - Newbury   0730 - 1030   Rain, continual unrelenting rain! 5ºC   5 Grayling (2 'pounders', best 1lb 7oz), 12 roach, 2 Brownies (biggest 1¾lb)   Rather hoped I'd sneak an hour of so of daylight before the rains came but the 1st drops started to fall on my 1st trot through. A couple of roach were ½ decent - around 8-10oz. All grayling a decent size (10oz+).
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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10 July

Newbury AA Stillwater - Widmead   0500 - 0900   Bright and breezy - water levels well up after yesterday's rain - and lake looked rather lifeless.   1 carp (4lb 13oz), 2 tench (2-3lb), 7 Perch (one of 1lb 6oz), 2 Roach (13oz & 1lb) (!), 3 Rudd.   Fished VERY,VERY tight to margins - hoping - in vain for a crucian. Most on meat - roach on floatfished bread.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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12 February

Middle Kennet Estate - Nr Hungerford   0730 - 1730   Cool and overcast with afternoon showery rain. AT 1º -> 5ºC. WT 44ºF river carrying a slight tinge of colour.   33 Grayling; 13 over 1lb (7 over 1½lb) - best 1lb 14oz, 2 Dace (small), 5 Rainbows to 2¾lb, 3 Brownies to 1¾lb     A fruitless search for those elusive big Kennet dace. Fished with Paul who had a very similar return (36 ladies and 3 small dace). Thankfully the grayling are showing well
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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31 July

River Kennet - Nr Newbury   0500 - 0800   Overcast with heavy drizzle for most of the session. 17ºC - river quite low.   2 Chub; 2¼lb & 1½lb. 18 dace, 14 roach and a dozen gudgeon.   Pre-breakfast trotting session in the rain - most notable for my very first sighting of an otter on the Kennet. Paul had just arrived - ½hour after I'd started fishing and had waded out to join me mid-stream. I'd just announced that my bites had dried up and we quickly saw why! The animal wallowed in my
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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10 November

K&A Canal @ Enbourne/Speen Moors   0700 - 1130   Bright and breezy - clouding over. WT 48ºF. low and gin clear.   1 chub (1½lb), 1 perch (scraper lber), a dozen dace, ½doz each of chublets, roach, gudgeon and small perch, 1 B. Trout.   1st hour on the canal then switched to the river. Stiff downstream breeze made bait presentation a nightmare - managed 3 perch before moving. Fished mainly on PD - some lovely dace showing had 5 around the 8oz mark - a couple of roach of similar size.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

2 February

River Lambourn - Shaw   0730 - 1030   Sunny and cold -2ºC -> 4ºC. River very high (As high as I've ever seen it) with a little colour.   9 Grayling (2 'pounders - biggest 1lb 5oz), 8 roach (best 1lb 2oz and another just shy of 1lb - rest small) 4 brownies (2 over 1lb) & 5 Salmon Parr.   Struggle for bites at first - got a little easier with some cloud cover - most fish on the 'church' stretch. 2nd (&3rd) respectable roach from here this winter.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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14 February

Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham   1500 - 1715   Cool with hazy sunshine. AT & WT both 43ºC. Water levels up with some colour.   1 Perch - 1lb 13oz.   So nearly a blank! Solitary bite at the 'death' - and even then I nearly lost it as it was grabbed by a jack - briefly - as it was landed.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

24/25 July

Pumphouse Lake, CEMEX Yateley.   2000 - 0700   Clear night, min temp 13ºC.   2 Bream: 6lb 15oz, 4lb 10oz, 2 Tench - biggest 4lb exactly, ½doz small perch.   All fish caught float fishing under rod tip - biggest tench on black pudding, all other fish on maggot and all caught during darkness. Not a touch on the lead - fished out in the middle (with a variety of baits!)
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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4 October (Part 1)

Kennet and Avon Canal - Thatcham   0700 - 1000   Overcast and mild (16ºC) becoming breezy.   9 roach, 1 dace and a bleak!   Exploratory session, searching for and spectacularly failing to find some new perch swims. Fished 4 likely looking swims (3 I've never fished before) and didn't get a touch on lobs from any of them - not even from crayfish. Gave each spot a good half an hour on worm then had 5-10 mins on maggot to see if there were any bait fish around (there were every time!)   H
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17 January

River Kennet, Newbury.   1030 - 1330.   Cold, and overcast with some sleety drizzle at times. Much heavier rain prompted a slightly earlier than planned pack up (coupled with no bites in the previous 45 minutes!). River 'full' with some colour - starting to drop out. AT 34ºF, WT 42ºF. (Balmy in comparison!)   2 Chub; 3lb 7oz, 2lb 0oz. 1 Perch; 1lb 12oz. 3 Grayling, 3 Dace.   Successful jaunt in search of some winter chub though bites were at a premium all morning - first 3 fish were all
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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