River Kennet - Marsh Benham

0815 - 1115

Mild, calm and overcast. 6º-8ºC. Lovely benign Winter's day. River quite full - though has clearly dropped several inches in the last fortnight - very clear.

2 Chub; 3lb 3oz, 1½lb. 1 Brownie C.3lb and 3 Rainbow's; a lump of around 4-5lb and 2 half that.

If there's anything worse than catching brownies - it's hooking rainbows! A brownie will usually reveal itself straight away - boil on the surface - allowing one to play it hard and hope it comes off! Rainbow's on the other hand stay deep, don't charge around like their spotty bethren and do a damn good job of imitating chub!  Levels had dropped enough to get back on the main river - and conditions were neigh on perfect for some winter's chubbing. And the morning got off to a promising start with the 3lb chevin from my first swim. Alas, swim 2 produced a thashing brownie - which eventually got off and swims 3 & 4 just the rainbows - with the biggest one having me convinced I was connected to a very nice chub indeed - alas not. I'd always intended to just fish the main river and move downstream in the afternoon - but en route back to the car spent 20mins on the carrier at chub corner for the brownie - which didn't get off and the smaller chub!