As usual my inability to stick to a plan and go off on a completely different tangent didnt pay off.

Originally i had two stretches of the kennet in mind, the first involved a ticket swap and traffic back towards it was a nightmare but on my way to my second choice i, for some unknow reason, decided to turn off early and fish a different stretch. As it turns out this stretch is not ideal for winter chubbing as it is very shallow and fast in most of the pegs that have access to them. I found a few slacks and likely looking holes but nothing wanted to play ball (or wasnt there in the first place). I made my way back to the wierpool and fished the slacks, not even ronnie or reggie wanted to play!

Not wanting to blank and to see if other fish would be interested in my homemade paste i scaled down to a size 16 and cast back out to the same area my freebies were in. Less than a minute later the tip pinged round and my blank saving gudgeon was landed, shortly after it was time to get home to a beer and dinner!

As ever today was full of small valuable lessons;

when walking through overgrown areas move your legs slowly to prevent falling flat on your face if your foot becomes tangled

a single ssg is enough to hold a bait in a shallow fast running stretch

saw many barbel swims for next summer

if things arent going as planned, make changes to catch fish

dont fart in waders then crouch down

and i now know the basic ingredients and measures for my paste mix to get the consistency i want and can start playing around with flavourings