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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

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

21 September

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham   0700 - 1300   Overcast with some light rain at first.9->17ºC   5 Carp; 9lb 9oz, 7lb 11oz, 7lb 8oz, 6lb 14oz, 5lb 13oz. A doz roach.   A morning session hoping for an autumn crucian but expecting to get plagued with carp - and so it proved! In truth it was good sport and fun getting them on light tackle and a float rod. I landed 5 out of the 7 I connected with (2 lost to hook pulls) not a bad ratio considering I was using an 1
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

20 September

River Kennet - Thatcham   1400 - 1700   Fine and sunny. 18ºC. River quite low.   1 Barbel; 5lb 6oz, 2 Chublets, 8 Dace, 3 Roach & 8 Spotties   Unexpectedly had a ½ day so seemed a pity NOT to spend it up to my calves in river water trotting a loafer through various runs. Fished a number of swims and had dace a small trout from all of them. Barbel was a real struggle to get in - and spent most of the fight trying to get downstream of it to coax it out of a weed-bed, wasn't even sure I
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

9 September

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1915 - 2315   Cool, clear evening - though felt quite snug under the trees. River carrying a tinge of colour after recent rains.   3 Barbel; 7lb 4oz, 4lb 13oz, 3lb 10oz. 1 dace, 1 brownie.   This stretch of river is certainly 'saving my bacon' on the barbel front this year - and with Paul getting a brace of 9lbers from here last week there are some bigger ones to go at! As usual I started out with the trotting rod and as usual
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

8 September

River Kennet - Newbury   0700 - 1000   Bright and sunny - river quite low. (Though nowhere near as low as 2011)   1 Chub 3lb 11oz,1 Perch (circa 1lb) 40+ Dace & Roach (2/3rds dace to 1/3rd roach). 8 gudgeon and 2 spotties.   Pleasant morning's trotting in the sunshine. Nice to see so many silver fish in the river - like to see a few more chub and barbel though!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

4

2 September

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1800 - 2015   Warm and sunny. River quite low now after a dry summer.   1 Barbel, 3lb, 1 Chub, 2½lb, 4 Dace, 1 Roach & 9 Spotties - including 1 of nearly 3lb!   Yesterday I took my bag of pellets out of my tackle bag to refill it, groove up some hook baits and flavour them up with some monster crab - the only flaw in that plan was forgetting to put said bag of pellets back into tackle bag - Doh!   Didn't forget me maggots so had to make do with a couple
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

30/31 August

Newbury AA Stillwater - Thatcham.   1930 - 0600   Mild night, quite breezy at times - temp didn't really get below 15ºC   2 Crucians, 2lb 1oz, 1lb 10oz. 3 Carp; a Common of 10lb 1oz and 2 Mirrors of 9-10 & 9-06, 1 Bream 2½lb.   Paul set the bar rather high for this trip as he visited this swim on Tuesday night and caught 6 crucians of similar stamp to my 2, a fan-tailled goldfish (an old friend, we've both caught it before!) and 3 carp to 14+lb.  
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

22/23 August

Harris Lake - Marsh Farm Fishery, Nr Godalming   1830 - 0900   Warm, balmy night under a full moon.   14 Crucians, 7 over 2lb, best 2 - 2lb 14oz & 2lb 10oz (smallest 1lb 7oz!). 14 Tench - all bar one over 3lb, best 5lb exactly. 2 Roach - a tiddler and a fish of 1lb 2oz, 6 rudd - all small and 2 perch ditto.   Well I think I've got those 2 species out of my system for another summer - simply cracking session which started with 4X2lb+ crucians in 4 casts
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

1

21 August

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   0930 - 1430   Warm and sunny.   1 Barbel, 4lb. 4 Chub - all between 8oz - 1lb. 18 Dace most really chunky - I weighed one at 11oz. 1 roach. A doz spotties most small save for a couple of pounders.   A lovely morning's trotting - accompanied for the first hour by Jaq! Bin a few years since she came fishing with me - but it was a lovely summer's morning and she did have an ulterior motive. And that motive was Blackberries! I've never seen so many and such huge
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

19/20 August

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   1530 - 0800   Warm, with 'milky' high cloud and a full moon - luv-er-ley night to be out!   3 Carp; 11lb 7oz, 8lb 10oz, 8lb 8oz. 3 doz. roach & perch in roughly equal nos. - most of the perch were in the 6-8oz bracket - most of the roach weren't! 1 rudd.   Not fished here for some time - in fact the last time was: http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-268-2930-august/   This used to be a fantas
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

16 August

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1900 - 2300   Warm, clear evening. 23º->16ºC.   1 Chub 2½lb, 3 chunky Dace & 3 Brownies   Quick return to Monday's venue - this time to accompany Paul who had arrived a couple of hours before me (some of us have to work Fridays!). Thankfully the trotting gear again won the day as ledgering was a dead loss. Paul blanked and I had just one chub rattle to show for my 2 hours on the lead.....
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

2

12 August

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1930 - 2345   Cool (down to 10ºC) and clear - perfect evening to be out watching perseids - and with no moon nature put on a stunning display! River down a couple of inches at least on my last visit here (29 July).   3 Barbel; 4lb 10oz, 3lb 15oz, 3lb 9oz. 1 Chub 4lb 5oz. 4 Dace (all chunky ones requiring a net!), 1 Roach and 4 spotties.   Wayhay! So there are still some fish in the Kennet!! Trotted until it was too dark to see
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

2

1/2 August

Marsh Farm Fishery, Nr Godalming   1830 - 1100   Hot and Sultry start - car thermo was reading 34ºC when we pulled into the car park. Dawn greeted us with heavy showers and rumbles of thunder - though the cloud cover was good for the fishing!   15 Tench; 9 over 4lbs including 2,5s - biggest 5lb 4oz. 10 Crucians, 5 over 2lb - best 3 went 2lb 14oz and 2 at 2lb 12oz, 5 Roach and 5 Rudd.   Thank goodness for Marsh Farm! After a dismal July (angling wise) it wa
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

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

0

29 July

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1630 - 1900   Heavy thundery showers. River looked in good nick, reasonable flow with some colour.   1 Barbel; 4lb 9oz. 2 Chub; 4lb 5oz & 1lb 13oz. 7 brownies including one of nearly 3lb!   Curtailed trotting session. Had planned to stay all evening and have a couple of hours of darkness on the lead. However I really don't like being out in a thunderstorm and having watched one storm skirt north of me and another south I co
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

27 July

River Kennet - Newbury   0500 - 0830   Warm, overcast-ish morning. River getting quite low after a dry summer (so far)   1 Chub; 1¾lb, 4 Roach; 1 of 12oz, 27 Dace, 1 Perch c¾lb & 2 Brownies both ±1lb.   Pleasant morning's trotting and home in time for breakfast. Nice to get my string pulled with regularity after the Stillwater frustrations of late!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

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

0

18 July

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham   1930 - 2330   Warm and sultry - 26 ->18c. Shirtsleeves and shorts - until the mossies turned up in force!   2 Carp; 10lb 9oz, 3lb 15oz. 10 Roach.   Another cunning plan bites the dust. Paul and I had agreed to meet up for an after work session hoping for crucians, with a carp or 2 off the top as Plan B. Well I managed 'A' carp on floating crust ( the bigger one) - but the usual tactic of letting the floating bait drift into the margins was scuppered by rats
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

11/12 July

NAA Stillwater - Widmead.   2030 - 0630   Warm still night. Thatcham weather site says min temp of 10ºC - but it felt no where near that cool at any time!   8 roach, 3 perch and a skimmer.   Another bad day at the office - fishing wise at least - though in truth it was a gorgeous night to be out just a pity a few more fish didn't show up. Although bites were a premium both Paul and I suffered from infuriating hooks pulls when we did connect. I had a fish on for ages and was just beginnin
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

1

8 July

River Kennet - Padworth   1930 - 2330   Warm evening with a nice breeze to keep the mossies off. Still 16ºC when I packed up.   1 Barbel; 5lb 11oz   Unusually for me ledgered with two rods (and even more unsually left the trotting gear at home). One rod on boilie and one on halibut pellet. Pellet rod went off within ½ hour of arriving - a great start. Unfortunately it was then down to the crayfish to move in. Bait thieving activity died down for the last 45 mins - but it was false hope..
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

10

5 July

K&A Canal - Enborne   2000 - 0000   Hot and sultry - shirtsleeves all evening - still 16ºc when I packed up   3 Perch; a tiddler and a couple of 'nice ones' best circa 1lb. 7 dace and 2 chublets.   Had a notion and a plan to try and get a canal tench or two from here - thinking that if Paul can get one in January - July should be doddle! Wrong! Only gratifying thing was the number of fingerling dace and chublets - which IS good to see (there were loads and was quite difficult NOT to
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

1 July

River Kennet - Newbury   2045 - 0000   Warm and overcast - river still has good flow though a little turbid.   2 Dace & a spottie.   Planned to be bankside way earlier - but was seriously delayed getting home. Quick 20 mins trotting followed by 3 hours looking at a mainly stationary rod tip. Had a couple of promising rattles but nothing that developed into anything 'hittable.'
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

4

30 June

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   0430 - 1030   Overcast clearing to bright sunshine - quite breezy.   1 Carp 5lb 15oz, 1roach, 1perch, dozen+ rudd.   Fruitless morning after crucians. At least I wasn't plagued by nuisance carp - the only one I caught was deliberate - off the top on bread. Rudd were a bit of a menace - especially as they gave very crucian-like bites at times.....!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

20/21 June

Harris Lake, Marsh Farm Fishery, Nr Godalming.   1530 - 0930   Overcast and muggy becoming cooler am. (And DRY despite the forecasts for days beforehand forecasting rain!)   14 Tench; 7 over 4lb, best 3 - 6lb 2oz, 5lb 7oz, 5lb 5oz. 6 Crucians; 3lb 1oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 3oz*, 2lb 1oz*, 1lb 15oz, 1lb 10oz. 4 Roach - 3 over 1lb (!) best 1lb 6oz. 3 Rudd - all 10-12oz.   3rd time Paul and I have done a night here and this cracking session was following on from las
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

3

19 June part 2

River Kennet, Padworth   1530 - 2230   Hot, overcast and sultry - still 21ºC when we packed up.   4 brownies - a couple circa 1¼lb (possibly the same one!)   Reports from the river suggested barbel fishing would be a bit of a struggle - so the trotting rod was added to the quiver in the hope of a few dace - but yet again one of my favoured trotting swims here was occupied with troot and not a lot else!   As expected the barbelling was hard going - not helped by tonnes of pussy willow f
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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