River Kennet, Newbury, Thursday 30th September 2010

Today was a last minute opportunistic session prompted by the fact that I’d been working from home during a nice sunny afternoon. As I was about to turn off the laptop I wondered whether 2 hours fishing was worth a 40 mile round trip. I always get the same answer to that question so I threw a minimal amount gear in the car and set off for Speen Moors via the bait shop. ½ a pint of maggots, a small pot of small lobs and a leisurely trundle down the A34 saw me arrive later than I would’ve liked but it was lovely evening so it didn’t matter.

I chose a swim close to the car park in readiness for the walk back (still no headtorch), chucked a few loose maggots and then trotted a lob around in a sort of circuit. What followed was a highly entertaining hour where most casts produced perch, the majority could be swung in but a couple warranted the net. During that time though they displayed a knack of ejecting the half lob into the water just as I thought I’d get it back, as consequence I started to run out of worms pretty quickly. A switch to maggot hookbait immediately halved the size of perch caught and I was very much into tiddler territory. It also brought the roach into play and I spent the rest of the session alternating between small roach and perch.

The best roach though I was very pleased with, not big enough to weigh but the largest example I’ve caught in a long while.

Dusk approached and surprisingly all bites dried up, not even whole lobs (I threw caution to the wind when it started getting dark) would tempt a perch. So the session ended with me feeling like I was fourteen again, the days when you’d rush home from school, strap the gear to the pushbike and pedal like mad to try and beat the inevitable fading light. I suppose that the only difference now is that the daytime occupation and the mode of transport have changed, the feelings are exactly the same.

Tomorrow’s another day out and I have bait in the shed. Not sure where to go yet but a repeat trip to Speen Moors is very tempting, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of fishing that venue.