Chris Plumb's Blog

Wow! Amazing day. A dozen brownies - superb! 

 Always a challenge to keep the Trout to Chub ratio down! 

Excellent!

 

Chris, your creel-cramming haul leaves me curious in two ways:

1- I'm wondering why you think the MKE-K appears so stuffed with fish compared with other stretches. I'm presuming the geography is more or less the same, and that the work of abstraction/cormorants/crays and otters is similar. If this is the case, I can only presume it is the way in which the river is kept by the Estate management and perhaps while NAA couldn't replicate this care entirely, perhaps there are one or two actions it could take to address the decline in its patches.

2 - With your magnetism for chub, why don't you fish it more often/every week? Perhaps you have a Saturday morning there job polishing the grouse or greasing the blunderbusses that allows you occasional access or poaching rights?

1. Management and habitat! Or should that be management OF habitat! This is a 'managed' trout fishery - probably the premier one on the whole of the Kennet - you'll need to take out a second mortgage to fly fish it during 'Duffers Fortnight'! The trout are fed regularly during the winter months and the coarse fish clearly benefit from this - in fact the keeper will often point me to swims where he's seen a good head of chub feeding on the trout pellets. Predators are also 'managed' (I'm talking cormorants and pike here!) and in recent years - to maintain a balanced fishery they have even stocked some coarse fish (chub, dace, roach - even a few barbel). I've found that dace in particular love small carriers - they have to be gravel bottomed and reed lined - I'm sure they seek such places out to breed every Feb/March (every 1lb+ dace I've ever caught has come from such a swim). This estate is riddled with such carriers - NAA has nothing comparable!

2. As for access for coarse fishing in the winter - this is VERY much at the descretion of the Head Keeper !! Paul and I got to know him quite well over the years (we first fished here in the late 90s) and have built up his trust - to allow us(me) access. They don't expect anything in return - though a bottle of red is always welcome and a few extra trusted eyes on such a large estate can be useful (I saw off a poacher when I went in Jan). Access comes with certain caveats (some spoken others inferred!). Number one is look after the trout (!) - if you start catching too many - move (as I had to on Tuesday!). Number two is look after the banks (so no well worn swims please!). I used to fish it a little more than twice a year - especially the downstream beats (below my syndicate stretch) - but that was before I got in my little syndicate - so that itch got well and truely scratched! If I was ringing up every week during the winter asking for access - I think it would be considered as taking the **** a bit - I consider fishing there a privilege not a right and don't want to lose such a privilege! Incidently Paul's ashes are buried here - so I always pay 'him' a visit when I go.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Chris Plumb

Ha ha - just seen that the blog has censorship software - its **** out a rude word I typed in tht last reply!!!

Gosh, what a full -if potty-mouthed(!)  answer to a manky couple of questions - thank you. As you know, NAA only has a license to remove a modest number of cormorants (I believe they cage them and post them back to the seaside), and from our perspective, we will live with the pike, but hmm, maybe it should consider feeding pellets in the winter? Certainly on a micro-level, I might regularly feed a few swims next winter with a view to fishing them towards the season end. I really like the look of the Bulls Lock to Widmead stretch and the more people I speak to, the more I hear of a good level of fish in there (barbel excepted, sadly). I understand that having some depth, it's better at holding its pace in flood conditions. I guess it will be too weedy/boat-ridden to fish it without frustration in the summer/autumn, but it is definitely on my list for next year. 

What a fitting spot for Paul's ashes. Who knows, maybe he sends a few of those chub your way when you fish it.

 

 

Like NAA they need a license which specifies the number of cormorants that can be culled - my understanding is they have more than one license!