River Kennet - Brimpton

0530 - 1000

Warm, muggy with hazy sunshine. AT 15º -> 22ºC. River very low.

2 Chub; 4lb 9oz, 4lb 4oz & 2 chublets. 9 Dace; 5 absolute chunks all 8-10oz, 7 Roach - variety of sizes but nothing over 6oz. 1 Perch: small, 1 Bleak. 1 Brownie: 1¼lb.

For the second river trip in a row I get to see an otter and this one defintely wasn't shy! I'd eased into position mid-river to get a run through a favourite chub swim, only to get the flippin trout pretty much 1st cast and was thinking I'd better rest this swim and come back, when the family of swans 100m downstream of me started kicking off big time. I guessed it might be an otter chancing its arm with a cygnet - as I've witnessed a swan/otter fracas on this stretch before. My assumption was correct as a minute later the otter popped up in the middle of my swim and proceeded to nonchalantly work its way up the very trotting line I'd just been feeding! Thankfully I didn't see it surface with a fish and as it passed me by, heading upstream, I could have patted it on the head, it was that close!

Hopes of anything from this spot were now zero - however an hour and a half's rest and 20 minutes of standing in mid river dribbling in very small quantities of maggot did the trick. The bigger chub was first trot and a further 30 mins rest and more dribbling of bait produced the second 4lber of the morning! Some super dace from the weirpool at the top of The Aldershot was a nice way to round off the session....