Haven't Blanked this Season
Entry posted by Rusty
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River Kennet, Thatcham, Thursday 17th June 2010
Second day out today but with a later start. I don’t think I can cope with two consecutive dawn raids, particularly when dawn occurs so early at this time of year. So today it was brownie point earning first thing and off to the river mid morning, the venue being one of my favourite trotting swims and the only place where I’ve caught Barbel (only three and tiddlers at that).
Armed with plenty of bait this time the plan was to sit it out at this swim and try to bring the fish to me, I had no intention of roving. The car cark was busy when I arrived but most people fish static baits at this venue so I wasn’t surprised to see ‘my’ trotting swim vacant.
A bit of pre-baiting and a cup of tea later I took to the water. First cast produced a brownie of about a pound, second cast another much smaller brownie, third cast…...well you get the picture. Nice though it was to see Trout thriving in the Kennet after two I’d had enough of them. They, apparently, had not had enough and continued to devour red maggots with gusto.
Time for a cheeseburger and another cup of tea.
I’d only been there a couple of hours and was already re-thinking the plan. I stuck with it though and to my relief once I re-entered the water the Trout had moved on, so had everything else (if it was ever there). It must have been about 1:00pm when the bites just dried up, no Trout, no silver fish, nothing at all.
I rested the swim for an hour and just used bait dropper to keep the maggots going in. I got through a couple of pints during this time but to no avail, when I started fishing again nothing was interested.
I knew that it wasn’t the right time of day for Barbel but I couldn’t figure out why there appeared to be no other species about. It’s something I’ve noticed about the Kennet over the past year, there are no shoals of tiny Roach, Dace or even Bleak to pester you when you’re targeting a particular species. I can remember as a kid going home disappointed if all I’d caught were small Roach, I’d be pleased with that now.
I carried on to about 6:30pm at which point I had to pack up. The closest I got to a Barbel was a large piece of weed which behaved exactly like a fish. It ’swam’ across the current and downstream as it collected debris. I got all excited until it spat the hook, the penny dropped as I retrieved a loafer with the SSG and hook covered in large clump of weed.
Tomorrow will be a refinement of today’s plan, I’ll be able to fish well into the evening so I’m not going to start too early. An afternoon on the Kennet much further down is on the cards.
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