19th January - River Kennet
So, while watching Chris haul out chub after chub from his side of the river, I was catching the occasional dace, and not much else. Its amazing how concentrated fish can actually be, as we were fishing a section of the Kennet that is around 15 yards wide. There were trailing branches in the middle of the stream, from an overhanging tree, Chris was one side, I was the other, floats at times were no more than 6 feet apart and I didnt get a sniff of a chub.
Having given up on the idea of luring a chub until the end of the day, I went for a wander round the venue to see if I could find some more dace, and failing along the way, but it was a very scenic wander!
A change in direction, back upstream this time to a couple of swims which have held a few fish in previous visits. The swim below usually produces some good sized dace, and did so again today,
Alternating between the above and another swim I was very quickly into the dace, interspersed with a roach every now and then. Final dace tally for the day was 50 fish, varying from tiny up to a couple of 10oz fish, with most around the 4-6oz mark
This swim is always a good bet for a nice roach, although today, whilst looking very pretty, it appeared to be vacant of fish.
After lunch I wandered back up stream to continue the quest for a decent roach, taking a pike rod just in case any were around and hungry. Catching a few more dace, I then saw a large swirl and prey fish scattering in all directions, so, a small dace was lipped hooked and cast out. After 15 minutes of not much happening, the float just simply disappeared and a quick strike was met with a sharp tug at the other end before the fish shot off upstream at a very creditable rate of knots. After a few hectic minutes I slid the pike over the net, which was way too small for a fish of this size but luck was on my side and I managed to get it onto the bank.
A quick call to Chris, photograph duly taken of a new pb pike, 17lbs exactly, beating my previous best of 16lb 2oz, caught way back in December 1991.
I make no apology for you seeing the same fish in two blogs, I was more than a bit happy with my biggest pike for over 22 years!
Fish were still scattering in all directions every now and again, so another dace was cast out. Only a short wait this time before a feisty jack of 4lb 8oz took the bait, and this was followed another 10 minutes later with a very stroppy little specimen that took the scales all the way round to 1lb 8oz !
Final walk down the river in already fading light, and it was only 14:30, I was soon throwing a few maggots into the same swim that Chris had very successfully harvested first thing in the morning. First run through with the float, I lost what felt like a decent chub, but this fortunately didnt spook the shoal and I was able to continue the successful run of fish with eight chub, the smallest a pound and a half, the largest a very pleasing 5lb 3oz specimen.
A celebratory beer was had on the way home, in a pub close to where Chris lives, and a very nice pint of Fullers London Pride it was !
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