End of Season Countdown - Day 1
Entry posted by Rusty
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River Kennet, Newbury, Wednesday 9th March 2011
The start of my end of season finale was to be at a Kennet venue which has reliably produced chub for me in the past, in fact my PB of 5lb 8oz has come from this place so it seemed an ideal venue to try out the cheap Shadowlanda centrepin. Hopefully it would have to deal with more than a few minnows and small grayling.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw on arrival, I know we’ve had some rain recently but the high water level and fast flow seemed disproportionate to recent rainfall. I wasn’t exactly relishing the idea of wading but had no choice if I wanted to access the chub swim, reluctantly I got in and gingerly made my way out. It was horrible, even when at the right spot and braced against the flow I had constant visions of being washed downstream like a giant loafer. I stuck at it for a chubless hour, managed a small dace and then decided discretion was the better part of valour as I waddled back to dry land. This was no good at all, plan B was implemented.
Ten minutes later I was at reception booking a lunch table for one, their side of the bargain was to allow me to fish the river bank on the establishments grounds, essentially right opposite where I’d waded to previously but a lot dryer. I fished for an hour before lunch but despite feeling safer and having access to the perfect trotting line I had no bites at all, no minnows, dace, gudgeon, perch, chublets……neither lobs nor maggots produced anything.
It was baffling, the only theory I came up with was that the increased flow had made the swim too uncomfortable for the resident chub and they’d cleared off somewhere else, but where and why was the water so high? The answer came as I made my way back to the restaurant, a chap on the far bank had just caught a decent looking chub and was commenting on how the water level was fluctuating throughout the day. Apparently there was some sort of flow management activity going on at the weir just upstream, the sluices were being opened and closed during the day to drain water from the canal. That explained it but it didn’t exactly help me, the other guy was fishing the only other swim where a slack still existed at 'high water'.
I mulled it over during lunch (only briefly, the duck wrap, goose fat chips and Abbots Ale were too nice to think about fishing) and decided to carry on where I was in the hope that sluices would be closed during the afternoon, then at least all of the feed that I’d put in might bring the fish back. It took a long while for it to happen, I was just thinking that dusk may be my best bet when all of a sudden the water level started to drop. It was sudden too, six inches in as many minutes was quite spectacular and it meant that I had my swim back. I’d like to say that I filled my boots during this window of opportunity (corporate speak that) but although bites were now forthcoming I struggled to connect, a troot and a lost chub before finally this chub was landed. Not very big but he put a good bend in the rod and proved that the Shadowlanda won’t collapse under a bit of strain. It did, however, highlight a fault with the reel which would prevent me using it until I’ve tinkered.
Not long after the chub the water level rose as quickly as it had dropped before. It was good fun to watch the river change character but with that and some lost confidence in the reel I packed up, thanked the very lovely receptionist and drove home.
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