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Would Sir Like his Hat Well Done or Medium?


Rusty

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River Kennet, Newbury, Sunday 25th July 2010

 

My first session in exactly 4 weeks so Saturday evening was spent preparing kit, lubing ’pins, buying bait, making sarnies and all the other stuff which would never get done if left until the last minute. It was to be a dawn raid, I was fishing with Mike (Arbocop) and he would have to work Sunday afternoon so the only way to get a decent session in was to start early. That meant a 3:30am alarm.

 

The venue was the CSAS stretch of the Kennet available to NAA members on an exchange ticket basis. It’s a great arrangement and provides an opportunity to fish a section of the river that members wouldn’t normally have access to. I have fished it once before (alone) and on that occasion chose to explore the entire stretch for future reference, this time the promise of large Chub from banker swims meant that it was likely to be a more static approach focussing on a few swims and fishing them in turn.

 

The day started a bit spookily, Mike arrived a little later than me and so I was sitting in a secluded car park (a clearing in the trees) with no lights other than those on an industrial site on the other side of the canal. Getting out of the car for a wander I noticed movement in the bushes and with recent stories of strange activities in my head I warily approached the perpetrator. There was no sound and no response to my greeting but still the activity continued. I thought the car may be a safer bet so I cautiously walked back and noticed that the movement mirrored mine exactly…it was my own shadow being cast by one of the spotlights on the industrial unit, I’ve never felt so stupid or relieved. With the gentle movement of the bushes and me walking about it looked for all the world as if there was somebody there. There wasn’t but I was still relieved when Mike arrived.

 

Once tackled up we would have set off but I dropped the bait box whilst filling my bait smock. That probably cost me half a pint of maggots, I picked up as many as I could but they just seemed to disappear into the earth. Fast little blighters when they want to be.

 

At last we could fish and I followed Mike to the first hot spot looking forward to seeing my new Reuben Heaton scales needle sweep round to the monster Chub numbers. First trot produced a small Roach, subsequent trots provided Roach, Dace and Gudgeon and whilst it was nice to see these species in the Kennet none would have moved the RH needle very far. Mike was upstream and after 45 minutes of catching silver fish I wandered up and reported the lack of Chub, he was having a similar experience.

 

On to the next banker swim, a gentle near bank glide of reasonable depth (for the Kennet) and ending in a pile of fallen logs. It looked perfect and I could fully understand why it would produce Chub. With the words “I’ll eat my hat if you don’t catch a Chub form there” Mike went back downstream presumably to find the salt and pepper. Predictably I didn’t catch a Chub but continued to be entertained by Dace & Roach for an hour or so, some of the former had me reaching for the landing net when first hooked (none actually needed it though) and were quite good specimens.

 

This was the pattern of the day, no Chub but constant activity and the odd decent sized fish. Talking to a couple of walkers, one of whom I recognised as a NAA committee member, it seems that the Dace haven’t been prolific on this stretch for a couple of seasons so it was good to see them making a return.

 

Mike left just before noon and by that time I’d seen enough swims to know that I wouldn’t need the waders. Chesties were dumped in the car and the next couple of hours spent wandering about in shorts and t shirt in glorious sunshine. The pattern continued with Dace & Roach being caught consistently, when bites dried up I’d move on but they were never far away.

 

I left at about 2:00pm Chubless but not at all disappointed. It was very enjoyable, what you might describe as a general coarse fishing session. In my experience a sure fire way to guarantee not catching a particular species is to guarantee that you will, I hope the hat tasted good Mike.

 

Being a Sunday I was unable to drop the exchange permit back at the tackle shop and I won’t be able to get there until this Saturday. I suspect I might visit a couple of swims Saturday morning before handing the ticket back.

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I did manage a 1lb trout that required the net - first fish - it jumped all over the place and stuffed my swim up! If you go back next Saturday, try bread flake with mashed bread as feed. I don't know what I'll say if that doesn't work!

 

You must be jinxed - it's full of chub and barbel.

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