River Kennet - Nr Thatcham

1830 - 2130

Warm, muggy evening. River very low - looking rather threadbare!

6 Dace; 3 in the 6-8oz class. 1 Roach. 3 Brownies; biggest 1lb 5oz.

First trip to a swim Paul and I recce'd in the close season - an area we reckon held good trotting potential and good 'static' areas - particularly for near bank 'lowering'! The trotting lived up to expectations with some nice chunky dace and a couple of trout doing good imitations of chub as they headed for near bank cover. After an hour I was lowering a bait under a near bank bush in fast-ish deep-ish water - hopeful for some action. Hope that VERY rapidly faded. First the rather peculiar sight of a large pike (circa 15lb at a guess) being chased around the swim by an only slightly smaller esox. The bigger pike had a bream of around 1-2lb clamped between its jaws and I can only assume the smaller fish was trying to bully the larger one into letting go of it - certainly looked that way! I watched this go on for about 20 mins when all of a sudden both fish shot off downstream. The reason for their alarm soon became apparent when TWO otters came through my swim - cavorting and play fighting in mid river - and completely oblivious to my presence! At this I decided it clearly wasn't going to be my night and packed up while it was still light!