Chris Plumb's Blog

Ahh, she's a beaut. Much of a fight? Yes, I thought so. Pity about the nuisance grayling with the surgical instrument.

So pleased you fished Aldermaston ,always wondered why not more often ,as always thought where your photo was taken would fish well trotting for chub and thought I always underachieved ,never caught a grayling that far east but did catch gudgeon ,trout ,perch ,roach , bream (large) and very small chub but like a lot of the Kennet ,looks better than it fishes (for me).

Must admit chub were hoped for/expected but not a sniff of one. I'll be back with the ledgering rods before the end of autumn - does need a bit of flow. I put this pic on the NAA facebook page and it seems that RDAA & Wasing have put in grayling in the last couple of years - so these would appear to be survivors of these stockings.

My biggest grayling came from Brimpton NAA ,2lb 2oz from a undercut bank a,couple of years ago and I would be confident that was not a stocked fish but east of the Aldershot gets some really dirty water caused by the barges ,which apparently is not good for the splendid grayling ,so i do not expect them to thrive. Plus I haven't caught any small ones. Happy to be wrong though.

Wow - well done - I've caught a 'handful' of Kennet 2lbers over the years but nothing from the lower river (Ie below A34 Newbury bypass). My best Kennet fish is 2lb 5oz which took 3 grains of trotted red corn on a size 8 - meant for chub!. Since the mid 90s I've travelled a bit further afar in search of big ladies - my PB stands at 2-15 from the Itchen in 2001 - been trying to get a 3lber ever since!! I think some grayling were stocked at Rainsford a few years ago - so your Brimpton 2 'could' be a survivor of those...

2lb 15oz wat a fish ! ,gave up trying to predict the grayling and don't target them and they turn up randomly in some bizarre places and swims ,saw one amongst 20 brownies at Dunmill bridge ,caught several CSAS stretch Hambridge and a beauty right by Bulls lock ,Colthrop has plenty ,rightly or wrongly I had assumed the majority were native fish who lived in the Kennet/Lambourne seeking shallows to spawn in or around july ,like brownies although different family . 

They are one of my favourite species hence why I fish the Itchen - and join Dorchester &DAS each winter to fish the Dorset Frome. On the Kennet they only really become a worthwhile target upstream of Barton Court but I don't have deep enough pockets or know the right people any more to fish these waters now a days. Used to fish Denford in the winter but the old boy, Mr Wilson died and it was taken over my Avington who put a stop to the winter coarse fishing (twas also home to some SPECTACULAR dace when conditions were right (my PB Dace 1-02 and Roach 2-11 were from here - both caught the same day!) Whilst there may be some very limited recruitment locally I think most of the Grayling that get caught downstream of Ham Bridge have come out of the Lambourn which is a VERY reliable venue for the ladies - and until they buggered about with the water levels at the bottom of the river was a good prospect for a 2lber (my best Lambourn lady was 2-03) and some half decent roach (which ARE still around)...