River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 7th March 2010

A second opportunity to fish some of the most beautiful stretches of the Kennet.

The day didn’t start well, jumping into the car the thermometer read -7 degrees, good job I’d put the bait in the car boot last night and covered it then. Lobs and Maggots were lethargic but still alive.

The first dilemma of the day was whether to wake the neighbours with the sound of me scraping ice or the sound of a Fiesta idling. It was too cold to scrape so I sat in the car until all of the defrosting devices had done their job.

I started at a different part of the river this time, I was keen to explore more and I wanted to forego the easy Dace swim (more on that later). Things started slowly and although the sun was up it was still very cold so fingers were suffering a bit. A couple of brownies in the first two hours warmed things up but there were no signs of the Dace/Chub/Perch/Roach/Grayling/anything other than Trout which is what I was really after. I tried a recommended Chub swim to no avail (more on that later too) and walked for what seemed like miles until I found myself back at….the reliable Dace swim.

A quick cast and a small specimen later I was on my way again, lost most of the time I have to say but I reasoned that eventually I’d come to a road and be able to get my bearings. I stopped here for lunch, sat on a tree stump and enjoyed the pub’s garden,

Sandwiches finished the pool just begged to be fished. It was very relaxing, the float would just do circuits in the current. All I has to do was stay in contact with it, not go dizzy and a bite was sure to come. It did.

By this time the sun was providing sufficient heat for the day to feel very comfortable but the biting northerly wind was doing its best to spoil things.

On the fishing front things were looking up with a couple of Grayling needing the landing net late in the afternoon but by 5:30pm I was walked out and so headed for home having been very privileged to enjoy yet another day at this venue.

The recommended Chub swim? Nearly forgot, checking on google earth just now it seems I took a wrong turn and didn’t actually fish at the correct place

One more weekend to go.