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About this blog

Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

31 August/1 September

Newbury AA Stillwater - Thatcham   2000 - 0700   Warm and overcast night, didn't get below 14ºC. Drizzle until midnight but by dawn our brollies/shelters were dry. Lovely night to be out.   2 Crucians; 3lb 7oz & 2lb 3oz. 1 Carp 10lb 5oz.   Not quite mission accomplished first cast - but certainly 1st bite!! Biggest crucian of the season, my 3rd biggest ever and the first 3lber I've ever had from this water. Plan was to try and avoid attracting the car
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

6

27 August

River Kennet - Newbury   0930 - 1230   Showery, 17ºC. River down to 'normal' summer levels - still several inches higher than this time last year!   30+Dace, around a dozen Roach, some gudgeon and chublet and a brownie.   Pleasant morning's trotting - though I rather hoped I'd connect with something that needed the net (though a couple of the dace and the brownie fell into that category - some of the dace were very chunky...)
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

25 August

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   0600 - 1000   Mainly overcast with some sun breaking through and the odd bit of light drizzle. 15/16ºC   2 Carp; 9lb 2oz, 6lb 6oz, 1 rudd, 2 perch.   Another blank for my target species (crucians and or tench). Smaller carp on crucian tackle - so took an age to land. Bigger one off the top on bread.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

20 August

River Kennet - Newbury   1945 - 2315   Clear and warm evening - lovely night to be out with the bats - absolutely dozens of them flying at dusk.   1 Chub 1¼lb   For the 2nd week in a row a fish first cast - followed by not a lot. Did get quite a few knocks and rattles which I took to be tiddlers - as it wasn't crayfish.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

19 August

Bucklebury Ponds   0630 - 0900   Clear skies, 16ºC -> 20ºC   3 Bream; 2 circa 1½lb and a tiddler, a doz+ perch.   Bit of a half-hearted session as I wasn't expecting much action but after a hot, sticky and rather sleepless night it was lovely to be out in the cool(ish) morning air - a few fish were a bonus!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

15 August

River Kennet - Padworth   1945 - 2315   Clear and breezy after heavy rain earlier in the day - river rose 4 inches whilst I was there - chair started off on dry gravel - seat was under water by the end (had me chesties on so didn't matter!).   1 Barbel 5lb 10oz.   Only bite (and fish - clearly) 1st cast. Not a touch afterwards!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

10/11 August

Harris Lake, Marsh Farm - Godalming AS   1400 - 0930   Hot and sunny. Night was clear and felt quite cool by dawn with a mega heavy dew! Gorgeous night to be out fishing under the Perseids!   14 Tench; Biggest 3, 5lb 13oz, 4lb 10oz, 4lb 8oz. All the rest in the '3lb class' save 2 which were smaller. 7 Crucians - all over 1lb (though a couple by not much!) biggest 2lb 5oz. 2 roach, 1 rudd & a perch.   A really lovely session which came to life at 2130 a
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

8 August (Part 2!)

River Kennet backstream, Padworth   1900 - 2330   Warm, yet clear evening. Lovely night to be out - got to see some early Perseids.   3 Barbel; 8lb 7oz, 5lb 3oz, 4lb 6oz.   Bit of an exploratory session - fished a couple of new swims - and got stung to blazes by the nettles - clearly 2 spots that have not seen an angler this season!! Fished in rotation - plan was to give each spot an hour or until I caught - whichever was soonest then switch. As it happene
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

8 August

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham.   0630 - 0930   Overcast and muggy with a little drizzle at times. River down a few inches on a month ago but still in fine nick with little colour.   2 Chub; 2lb 2oz, & 1¼lb, 6 Dace - all really chunky specimens, 2 Gudgeon & 4 brownies biggest 1¾lb.   Pleasant early trotting session - spent a fascinating 10 minutes watching a barbel feeding no more than 3 feet from my waders - obviously taking grubs and whatever I was disturbing with my feet - tried t
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

6 August

Willows lake, Thatcham   0530 - 0930   Overcast, clearing to bright sunshine for last hour.   5 Carp; 12lb 9oz, 11lb 2oz, 8lb 11oz, 7lb 2oz, 6lb 13oz.   Another forlorn crucian hunt - but at least at this venue there are some 'easy' carp (too easy!! ) to amuse.   2 smaller fish on float tackle - bigger 3 on floating crust in the margins (ie within 1m of the bank!)   Biggest one:
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

3 August

River Kennet - Newbury   0630 - 0900   Breezy with the odd light shower, river down an inch or two but quite clear.   3 Chub; 1¼lb and a couple of chublets, 2 Perch; 1lb 14oz & a tiddler, 30 Dace, 1 Roach, 2 Gudgeon and a brownie of around a pound.   Pre-Olympics trotting session - hoping for a barbel but more than happy with nearly a fish a chuck - a couple of the dace were real lumps (for dace!). and the perch was a nice bonus too.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

2 August

Warwicks Water - Thatcham   0530 - 0930   Bright start, soon clouding over - raining as I packed up.   6 Carp: All between 3½ - 6lb. 3 Roach.   It's not many seasons ago when I'd fish this pond with the expectation of half a dozen to a dozen crucians in a morning. More recently the place has suffered from low DO and the fishing has been poor. With water levels healthy again - this was a mission to see if the crucians were still around. The answer to that is yes - as I actually had one ro
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

27/28 July

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   1330 - 0600   Warm and Sultry - fresher in the morning!   8 Carp; Best 8lb 10oz - almost all the others were circa 6lb. 8 Roach, 4 Rudd and a Perch.   Very slow night - especially as neither Paul or I caught anything that we were actually fishing for - tench or bream. Nearly all my fish fell to float fished maggot right under my rod tip - just 2 carp on the method rod. Paul had a solitary blank saving common of around 7lb after 14 hours of fishing!   Paul got
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

23 July

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham   1945 - 2345   Clear warm evening. River full and looking in very good nick with a little colour. Shirtsleeves all evening - lovely!!!   1 Barbel; 4lb 14oz. 2 Dace and a spottie of a round ¾lb.   Took the trotting rod - to save Rusty from having to compose another headline - though in truth the dace weren't exactly playing ball either. Not helped by the troot wrecking my first and favourite swim with its airbourne antics. Only bite on the lead came quite late
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

21 July

NAA Stillwater - Widmead   0430 - 0830   Murky low cloud with sun breaking through. 11-14ºC   2 carp; 7lb 3oz, 5lb 13oz. 10 rudd.   Fruitless morning chasing crucians and/or tench. If the rudd didn't nail the bait the commons did - both took an age to land on my float tackle.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

16 July

River Kennet - Newbury   2000 - 2330   Breezy with clearing skies after (yet another) rainy day. Min 15ºC - felt very pleasant. River looking in superb nick, fuller than I've seen it for many a summer and running quite clear too.   3 Barbel; 3lb 15oz, 3lb 4oz, 2lb 6oz. 2 Chub 1lb 13oz, 1lb 10oz.   So maybe not the biggest fish in the river but after last Monday's monotony of looking at a stationary quiver tip it was a pleasant change to see the rod rattle (chub) or thump around (barbel).
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

2

15 July

River Kennet - Thatcham   0645 - 1100   Broken cloud - mainly sunny - makes a change! Temp only upto 15ºC but felt nice to have some sun on my face at last!! River very full but with surprisingly little colour!   1 Chub; 1¾lb, 11 dace - all a 'nice' size, 2 spotties - a par and a fish of around ¾lb.   A morning's trotting in the company of Paul. Barbel as usual were the target but the closest either of us came to one was me being comprehensively smashed by one within 5 minutes of starti
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

9 July

River Kennet, Nr Thatcham   1930 - 2315   Cool, overcast some light drizzle at times - more like October than mid-July!   Blanked!!   Cue another Rusty faux headline!!! Shocked on 2 counts when I arrived. The first was not being able to even get in the car park - full of anglers cars. And the second was the state of the river - really coloured up and tanking through - more like mid-winter condition. I did consider turning around and going elsewhere - a thought that stayed with me all eve
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

6

7 July

NAA Stillwater - Widmead.   0400 - 0800   Soggy!! Not actually raining for most of the trip (though tipped it down at the end of it) - but sat under the trees it was drip, drip, drip all morning!!   2 Carp; 7lb 12oz, 5lb15oz. ½doz or so rudd, 1 roach.   Frustrating morning after crucians. Had fishing rolling in my swim 3 or 4 times but the rudd were insatiable, nailing whatever baits I tried. Bigger carp on floating crust.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

2 July

River Kennet - Newbury   1945 - 0000   Dull, overcast with fine drizzle. Quite 'warm' (15ºC), really felt quite snug under the trees! River looks in fine fettle - though carrying a little colour.   2 Chub 2lb 15oz, 2lb 2oz.   An evening ledgering for barbel, but not disappointed to 'only' get a couple of blank saving, schooly chub. Bigger one first cast - smaller one just as it got properly dark at around 1045pm. A good year for bats - loads and loads of them at dusk!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

1 July

Bucklebury Ponds   1000 - 1300   Breezy, overcast with frequent light showers.   3 Carp; all between 3-4lb. 2 Bream; both circa 2lb. A dozen+ roach and perch - mainly perch plus a roach/bream hybred of around 1lb.   Quick morning visit to my 'local'. Carp were actually a bit of a menace - took an age to land on light tackle and suspect they were bullying the target species (basically anything that wasn't a carp!) off the bait. Also got smashed a couple of times - only had 1½lb hook lengt
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

27 June

Newbury AA Stillwater - Widmead   1930 - 0000   Warm overcast and muggy night - lovely shirt-sleeves evening though needed plenty of DEET - mozzies were in almost plague like swarms! Temp still 16ºC at midnight.   1 Crucian; 3lb 3oz. 1 Tench; 4lb 9oz. 2 carp 6lb 3oz & 6lb 13oz. 1 Rudd.   Mission accomplished - 1st crucian of the summer and it's a real goodun! Things didn't start off quite so well - had the 'smaller' carp practically 1st cast on my floa
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

2

22/23 June

Newbury AA Stillwater - Widmead   1700 - 0730   Cool and breezy (very) with short sharp showers to start. Overnight felt very chilly in the wind (temps were down to 10ºC) so the quilted, thermal one-piece suit made a rare appearance. I went from feeling chilled to toasty in a matter of minutes (though that might just have been struggling to get in it!)   1 Tench; 4lb 3oz. 2 Bream, 5lb 2oz & 4lb 3oz. 1 roach & 1 perch.   A session that failed to liv
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

22 June

Bucklebury Ponds   0930 - 1230   Weather; 'Oribble, wet, windy and cold - this is meant to be JUNE. So far this month we've had nearly SIX inches of rain - 3 times the average for June and there's still over a week to go... 4 Bream all circa 2lb+, 1 Tench 1lb 15oz, 1 Carp 4lb 4oz, 1 roach and 7 perch.   For a venue that is the nearest to my house (even nearer than the Kennet), I really don't visit here that often. When I do its usually to try and catch a crucian, any crucian - as nothing
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

0

21 June

River Kennet - nr Thatcham   0830 - 1230   Cool (for June) and overcast - with heavy rain for last ½ hour which persuaded me it was time to pack up early and go home for lunch. Heavy overnight rain - but the river was in good nick with good clarity and down a bit on the 16th.   1 Chub; 4lb 10oz. 2 Barbel; 2lb 13oz, 2lb 1oz. 13 Dace. 4 Brownies - 2 circa 1lb.   (Rusty's going to hate me!) A quick return to the venue we visited briefly on the opening da
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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