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Diary of a (mainly) river angler.

Entries in this blog

17 June

Warwicks Water   1000 - 1400   Overcast and breezy.   A dozen or so perch.   A quick recce to see how the clubs crucian project is coming along (and I'd heard of crucians and tench being caught!). Alas if the micro-perch didn't nail the bait the crayfish did - the lake bed is covered in the critters - I dropped a piece of meat at my feet to see the mayhem that ensued!!! Can't see how the fish get a look-in!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

17 June

River Kennet - Hambridge (CSAS Stretch) 0800 - 1300 Warm, overcast & sultry. River at normal summer levels and carrying a bit of colour. 5 Chub; All 'schooly' sized (1-2lbs) - biggest 2lb 13oz. 11 Dace; a couple of 'good-uns' which went 9oz each. 1 Brownie c10oz. Failed plan to try and repeat my success here last Sep of getting some float caught barbel. I did actually see a few on the shallows and they were showing more interest in each other that what was for brunch. So
Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

17 June

River Kennet - Hambridge 0430 - 0830 Warm and sultry - already 23ºC when I packed up - had planned to move to another venue after starting here but the heat decided me otherwise. River low and clear. 2 Chub: 2lb 12oz & 2lb 3oz. 20 Dace; all small. 10 Roach: ditto. 1 Bream - a large-ish skimmer which had me more than a little excited for a minute as thought I was bringing in a rather nice roach! 2 Gudgeon (hooray!) 2 Brownies - a 'pounder' and a parr. I did a recce here a
Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

17 June

River Kennet - Hambridge 0430 - 0800 Warm, muggy and overcast with a welcome heavy shower just after I packed up. AT 17ºC (but felt a lot warmer!). River quite full - especially for June! 6 Chub; 3lb 3oz, 2lb 10oz and 4 between ¾-1½lb. 21 Dace - nothing especially noteworthy - though they weren't tiddlers either. 2 Roach (same!) and 2 Brownies c½lb. A morning's trotting and home for breakfast - gotta love June! And I really should follow my own advice - I recently re-worked t
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

17 July (Part 3)

River Kennet - Padworth 1500 - 1630 Bright and breezy. Quite warm out the wind. AT 21ºC. River quite full for mid July. 1 Chub: small. 1 Roach, ditto. 2 Brownies both around 1½-2lb (definitely different fish - one had a growth on it) My day on the river was rounded off with a visit to a rarely visited venue - but one that has thrown up some nice roach from time to time - and that was sort of what I was after today. However and somewhat predictably, the only fish to put a seri
Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

17 July (Part 2)

River Kennet - Brimpton 1135 - 1415 Bright and breezy quite warm - 20ºC. River quite full with good flow - especially for July 1 Chub 2lb. 6 Trout - various sizes from 6oz - 1½lb. Oh, how I detest spotties - they were in every swim I tried (I lost nearly as many as I landed!) and even resting and returning to my favourite chub hot-spot just brought more of the blighters! Dropped into the weir-pool for a solitary fish without an adipose!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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Coarse Fishing

17 July (Part 1)

River Kennet - Hambridge 0700 - 1100 Bright and breezy. Felt quite cool to start. AT 12ºC - 19ºC. River up an inch or so on last week - after a very wet weekend! 6 Chub: 4lb 5oz, 3lb 11oz, 3lb 7oz, 3lb 3oz, 2lb 10oz & a 'pounder'. 4 Dace, 2 Roach - all quite chunky. 3 Brownies a fish of around 1¼lb and a couple in the 6-8oz bracket. Quick return to last week's venue hopeful that I could pull off another float caught barbel - so concentrated my efforts on a swim where I've
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17 January (Pt 2)

River Kennet, Newbury   1115 - 1245   Still bright and sunny. River pushing through and quite coloured. WT 43ºC   1 Gudgeon!   Tried worming for an hour or so - without a bite - switched to maggots for the last ¼hr to save a blank!!!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17 January (Pt 1)

River Lambourn, Shaw.   0800 - 1045   Bright and sunny 2ºC - 8ºC. River 'full' with a merest tinge of colour.   7 Grayling - biggest 1lb 11oz, rest all sub 12oz. 1 Brown trout.   Last minute change of plan - as I forgot to check the match booking sheet until I got into Newbury - so decided on Shaw (before it got too busy!) first followed by a quick jaunt to the Kennet. Biggie first fish of the morning - best grayling from the Lambourn this season.  
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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Coarse Fishing

17 January

River Kennet - Hambridge 0915 - 1315 Cool, calm and bright. AT 3º - 6ºC. River at normal winter levels and quite clear - looked in great nick. 1 Chub; 1½lb. 3 Perch; 1lb 9oz, 1lb 6oz and a sub lber (but not by much!). 7 Roach - all handsized. 7 Dace - 3 in the 6-8oz class. 4 Brownies - a lber and 3 smalluns. Usual tactics to snaffle a decent chub from the off meets with a rare failure (I'm blaming the bright conditions and a trout first cast!) - only chub I did get turned up
Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

17 January

River Kennet - Newbury (Whitehouse stretch) 0900 - 1200 Cold, calm & cloudy. AT -2º - +1ºC. River very pacey and crystal clear. 2 chub: 4lb 1oz & 3lb 7oz. 1 Brownie: 2lb+. This is rapidly becoming my new favourite winter venue! Started in my '5lber swim' but couldn't get a bite which was repeated in my next 2 swims which produced the silvers on previous trips. So more in hope than expectation I went exploring further swims. The river is fairly featureless so I was loo

17 February - Part 2

K&A Canal, Woolhampton   1500 - 1715.   Mild and mainly cloudy.   3 Perch: 2lb 4oz, 2lb 1oz, 1lb 7oz.   Had to make the most of this mild spell with a dusk session for stripeys. Thankfully they'd read the script and whilst bites were at a premium every one resulted in a nice perch.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17 February - Part 1

River Kennet (& carrier) Marsh Benham   0930 - 1400   Mild and bright, clouding over by the time I left. River still not very high for mid Feb.   3 Chub; all 2lbers. A dozen roach, biggest 1lb exactly with nothing else remotely close to that!. Half dozen dace, 3 Brownies between 2-3lb & 4lb+ Rainbow.   Most fish from the weirpool - though started with a 2½lb chub from 'Chub Corner' first cast - turned out to be the biggest of the day!
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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17 February

River Kennet - Speen Moors   0700 - 1300   Cool, bright and sunny after a frosty start. River full and clear.   2 Trout - both over 2lb.   A real struggle of a day despite the river looking in good nick. Walked miles to fish all my usual 'banker' swims and hardly had a bite - and when the float did go under it was a pesky trout responsible!
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

17 December

River Frome - Wool 0830 - 1345 Bright, milky sunshine - very cold start - the thaw arrived mid morning - which I was very thankful for - line freezing in the ferrules had made for a tough couple of hours prior to that. AT -6ºwhen I arrived ->+6ºC when I drove off. River at normal levels - 1.05m at the East Stoke gauge. 13 Grayling: 8 over a lb - the 3 I weighed went 1lb 14oz & 2 X 1lb 10oz (different fish!) most of the others lbers around 1lb 6oz. 3 Trout - a lber, one half
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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17 August

Pumphouse Lake (Yateley)   1930-0000   Warm (17ºC) and overcast - started raining as I packed up...   3 Bream (6lb 2oz, 5lb 9oz, 4lb 13oz)   Fished 2 rods - pellet on the lead produced not a touch. Started float fishing maggots in the margins - and had no bites for the 1st hour or so - sense of deja vu! Switched to float fished meat - and all the fish fell to this - though rather wished they were tench! Final fish was right on the stroke of midnight when I'd packed most of the gear away
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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17 August

River Kennet - Newbury   0900 - 1400   Bright and breezy - river up an inch or so after yesterday's heavy rain with its usual summer tinge of colour.   18 Chub: Most around 6-8oz, with 5 over a lb, biggest went 4lb 7oz with the others between 1¼ - 2¼lb., 2 doz+ Dace, 1 doz Roach, 2 Grayling, 2 Bleak and 3 Brownies.   Lovely morning's trotting - great to see so many silvers in the river - especially the young chub.
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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16/17 June

NAA Stillwater - Thatcham   2000 - 0900   Mild and overcast with showery rain at dawn.   1 carp 12lb 14oz, 3 perch and err that's it!   Annual crucian hunt gets off to an inauspicious start and whilst they can be picky at the best of times at least we had some 'easy' carp to go at to keep us amused if they didn't come out to play - at least that was the plan. What wasn't in the script was the carp being as choosy as the crus. We saw loads of them swimming
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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16/17 June

Harris Lake - Marsh Farm Fishery, nr Godalming   1230 - 0445.   Warm (especially overnight), overcast, with heavy showers - though the worst of it missed us. Lots of thunder rumbling away in the distance - thankfully that's where it stayed!.   18 Crucians; 7 over 2lb, 2lb 9ozX2, 2lb 7oz, 2lb 6oz, 2lb 4oz X3, 3 Tench to 3lb 10oz (all over 3lb)   Informal IAC 'match' competing for the inaugural Paul Goulborn Memorial Trophy - to be awarded to the captor of t
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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16/17 July

NAA Stillwater, Widmead   1830 - 0800   Heavy evening showers giving way to clearing skies - feeling quite cool by dawn (12ºC)   3 Tench; 6lb 14oz, 3lb 6oz, 2lb. 3 Bream; 5lb 3oz, 4lb 5oz, 4lb 1oz. 4 Carp biggest 5lb 14oz. 4 roach & 4 perch.   Slow but steady night - quite a lot of activity which didn't translate to bites! Paul had a much quieter session ( he did sleep through most of it!) with just a blank saving bream to show before he packed up at first light! * All carp (and bigg
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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16 September

Kennet & Avon Canal - Avington   0645 - 1230   Bright start, rain from 1000.   6 Perch: 1¼lb & 5 small uns. 1 Chub - small. 7 Skimmers to 1lb, 2 doz roach - to 1lb, 2 Gudgeon and 3 Ruffe!   First autumn perching session - which whilst it got off to a good start with the pounder first cast - didn't get any better. Loads of pred activity too - think they were pre-occupied with fry and ignoring my lobs. First EVER ruffe from the Kennet system - only o
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

16 October (Part 2)

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0930 - 1230 Cloud clearing to a bright and sunny morning. AT 14ºC when I packed up. River low. 4 Chub; 2lb 11oz, a couple of around 12-16oz (of course) and a tiddler. 13 Roach, 2 Dace (all apart from one of the dace quite small). 1 Brownie 1¾lb. A couple of hours prospecting for new chub swims which produced nothing but the trout - followed by ¾hr in the ever reliable weirpool which produced everything else!
Chris Plumb

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Coarse Fishing

16 October (Part 1)

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0715 - 0900 Mild,calm & overcast after a prolonged shower. Lovely, benign autumn's morning. AT 9ºc on arrival. 11 Perch: biggest four: 3lb 2oz, 2lb 12oz, 2lb 9oz, 1lb 12oz - with nearly all the rest in the ¾lb - 1¼lb category. 1 Tench; 3lb 0oz. Splendid start to my autumn perch campaign - 3lber was first fish caught - and all the bigger ones came in the first half an hour - fish (apart from the tinca) got progressively smaller as light le
Chris Plumb

Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

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