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The second-last club match of the season, usually when the club visits this venue it is very cold and is a hard silverfish match with no carp caught or just the 1 or 2 carp caught on the whole lake, although there are plenty of carp in there. It was unseasonably mild for the week before so the silvers at least should be feeding ok and perhaps a few carp would show. On the day there was a cold mist which hung around for over half the match. I drew the near bank and deep water, both my rigs were on 0.10 mainline and 0.08 hooklengths. My plan was to use maggot over groundbait at 11m and loosefeed caster at around 6m with a method feeder across to the island for the chance of a carp or bream. On the whistle in went 3 balls of GB laced with a few dead maggots and casters. I was late starting AS USUAL! so about 10 minutes into the match I started on the 11m line. Nothing after a few minutes so I went on the method for a while to let the pole line settle. Alan on my left had caught a carp on the method by now. Nothing for me after another 15-20 minutes so time to try the pole. Some roach had arrived over the groundbait but it was sporadic, all the time I had been feeding a few casters regularly on the short line so when the bites slowed it was time to feed a ball of GB on 11m and go to the caster line, another run of roach and as I would hope they were a better average size on caster. One skimmer put in an appearance and I had one small perch on the 11m line but otherwise it was all roach. I swapped between the two lines which kept a few coming and the occasional cast or 3 on the method brought no bonus. Alan had 4 carp and with 10 minutes to go round went his tip again, producing the 5th and his biggest carp of the day. I felt I had done ok on the silvers but would be beaten by the few who had carp and one who had a good run of silvers including 2 or 3 decent skimmers, that was fairly accurate because 3 anglers had caught a carp plus silvers and Alan won with his 5 carp and a few silvers. Only the one person beat me with all silvers so I was 5th overall with my 9lb 8oz.

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 !