I found them!
Entry posted by Rusty
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River Kennet, Newbury, Monday 30th August 2010
The plan today was to fish some of the stretches of this huge venue that I haven’t tried before. As always there was expectation on my part but it was moderated by the fact that most swims would be new to me and I’d have to employ my decidedly wobbly watercraft skills. Still if you don’t put in the legwork any number of hot spots may go begging so with that thought in mind I packed as light as I could (no chesties) and set off fairly early arriving at eight in the morning.
Despite the good intentions I couldn’t resist one more crack at the swim where I’d caught my PB perch. I made a solemn oath that the first crayfish caught would end the session at that swim. I managed an hour before Ronnie & Reggie showed up but that was sufficient time to bank a couple of perch in the region of a pound. Pleasing because it meant that my previous catch wasn’t a complete fluke.
So off I went trying every section of water that I hadn’t yet fished. It was good fun with bites coming regularly, mostly gudgeon or small perch & roach with the odd chublett thrown in but it was enjoyable and kept me interested for a few hours.
I’d saved the longest section until last as it would take a while to walk it let alone fish it. It’s a long straight slow section with a number of fallen trees which hopefully would provide ideal cover for fish. It’s a bit overgrown at this time of year but as matches are held at the venue the pegs are clear. I contented myself with fishing from the pegs, later in the year when Winter’s on my side I’ll do battle with the undergrowth.
I’d thought up a system, a few trots with a lob whilst feeding maggots. If the perch are there they’ll take the lob, if not swap to maggot hookbait and see what else is around. It worked brilliantly at the first swim, the lob laden float drifted downstream and then sort of diverted towards the far bank without going under. The first decent perch of the day turned out to be this;
A bream of 3lb 12oz. I’ve caught a couple of Kennet bream before but never on a lobworm so this was a real surprise.
Onwards I went trying each peg that I came to until I arrived at the end of the stretch. The system had worked well albeit with most fish caught being silvers after switching to maggot hookbait. As a consequence I arrived at this swim with plenty of lobs for a last hoorah;
With the river flowing from the left I chose to stand on the bridge and just drop the float right next to the downstream far bank and follow it down with the rod. There was only a couple of foot of line between rod tip and float so bites were easy to hit. This method fooled loads of small perch and was great fun, mid river trotting produced nothing.
With bait running out I decided to try the upstream side of the bridge in a slack directly beneath the undergrowth on the far bank. Same MO, drop the bait in and keep in touch with the float. Same result, float dipped and errrm a bit more resistance. I didn’t want to let it get back into the undergrowth so I bullied it out midstream at which point it decided to head for the bridge using the flow. Off it went downstream, under the bridge and under me, Mr Harrison was bent double rod tip pointing at my feet and Mr Witcher was screaming in protest. All I could do was hang on and wait for the ‘ping’ or ‘crack’ but between them the dynamic duo took control and subdued the over enthusiastic perch. Truth be known it was all over in 15 seconds but it was quite unnerving playing a fish in that way. The prize? Well a perch of 2lb 8oz which fought well above its weight for a short while.
Forgive the rudimentary dorsal fin holder upper, my perch never co-operate for photos;
And with that I headed back to the car, another potential swim found so a successful day.
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