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This is what a proper Cru looks like! My lake pb for Willows at 3-07 (My pb is 7ozs heavier) Note dorsal & caudal are spot on!

Hi Both, I've been following your blog for a while Chris as I'm trying to learn about and access the Kennet. Really enjoy your reports. On rods, I have two Drennan Acolyte float rods, a 15' and a 17'. Both are wonderful rods and so far I have had no trouble with them despite much tangling with shrubbery. I have also heard of top section breakages, but for me, so far so good after two years. They have a wonderful combination of finesse and power. Despite their featherweight and ultra slim profile they seem to have "muscle" and speed in the tip section, which allows you to hit the most delicate bite. The 17' was bought for my particular style locally on the Thames, where I often stret peg. It has enough length to get just over the drop off into the main stream. If they were fly rods they would be up there with Sage and probably cost £700+. On reels Bayleaf I am a recent convert to the "pin". It certainly takes time and I still haven't perfected the casting, but my advice would be that once you get one leave the fixed spool reel at home and force yourself to persevere. My own confidence grew when I bought and Aerial style with a line guard, which stops the line blowing around in windy conditions. I've spoken to several in the know and was consistently pointed to the JW Young Purist II as good general purpose trotting reel. There are usually decent used ones on Ebay, from about £250 upwards but buyer beware. I am certain one I saw was a fake. I bought my most recent pin from Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques and John Stephenson there was really helpful. I would recommend them without hesitation. Hope that helps.

Hi Chris, I'm the CSAS fisheries officer, and the barbel that were stocked a year or two ago were much bigger than the one pictured (that's assuming your Speedia is the same size as mine!) so this one is most likely naturally spawned. Glad you're enjoying fishing there, wish more people did.

Another tweak to tactics - I didn't put in ANY ground bait or loose feed - hunch that it pulls in the carp more than anything else!

Another session that backed up my little article for the newsletter They just sit in the fastest current with their mouths open when hooked - can take an age to coax them upstream. Seems like these two forgot to close their mouths when they were on the bank!

Martin - have you seen this thread on AN - a little on the old side - was started in 2013 - but might yield some useful nuggets for you in your new home....

Nice! Proper beard!

This would make my fishing year CP, and then I read part 2 - WOW!

Well done - super looking Esox. Signals do appear to be less active when it's really cold - so you do get more of a chance deadbaiting....

Ah, I normally park at the top end side road by the green near the road bridge as I'm not allowed to cross the A4 without an adult. I make my way down towards the Swan end swim by swim from there.

If there's a reasonable prospect of a chub or 2 - which means pretty much every swim at Hambridge - I always start with a 14 (super spade) tied to 0.18mm dia mono. Pretty agricultural - but I'd rather get less bites than lose a good fish - and I reason that in fast water they haven't got much time to make up their minds and if confidence has been increased by sipping in feebies..... If this doesn't work or bites drop off I'll switch down to a 16 to 0.16mm - which is as low as I'll go in fast water...

Fished Bellwood when I was in NAA ,caught a few bream ,fishing light where people had been spoding previously and a few carp on pellets by the aerators ,was a few fun fish washed in from the Kennet A rule was applied apparently ,so much weight of fish per acre or hectare is recommend ,just say 30lb per acre ,so 1x30lb ,or 30x1lb so they stocked with big fish like "Boris" 30+lb and a few big mates ,so more a water to camp at lol ,not for me. tis not like willows

Woohoo indeed! Congratulations!? Thanks for all of the inspiration and here's to the next 1,000.

Woohoo! Just realised this is my 1000th blog post - only taken me 15 years! Not the most auspicious trip to 'celebrate' it - but heyho there's always the next time.

Hi CP. As per my email to you, I've alerted the committee. To repeat what I said for the benefit of any other Anglersnet readers who may have a vested interest, I quote myself as follows: I've spoken (today) to Mr Chairman about the trees this morning and have now sent on your comments and pics. I will do what I can to get things done. I know an exercise starts this month to repair/replace over 50 swims in Knotts, Collins & Dobsons over the course of a few weeks which is taking a lot in both resource and cash, so I can't say how quickly any action would be taken. However I do promise to keep the pressure on at committee meetings and keep you in the know.

It was my turn to get lucky. No doubt next time normal service will resume!

Great day!

But Peter, they insisted. Anyway, I did put them back for you.

Of course, though it was such a brute I'm a bit worried it will beat up those unsuspecting 10-pounders.

Ha ha - just seen that the blog has censorship software - its **** out a rude word I typed in tht last reply!!!

Mainly carp, and from what I've seen I would guess that there are about 100 in there. Some roach, tench, crucians and bream and pike. The silver fish (for me) are a struggle to catch, they are easier in Dobsons and Knotts. The water in Dixons and Collins is slow to colour up each year (compared to Dobsons and Knotts) and this effects the fishing.

Hey - you've short-changed me my an ounce! That Chub was 4-10!

I think most fish are cannabalistic to some extent - particularly at the 'micro' level!

Yes, it's a bleak. And, quite a significant specimen!

Was it such a poor day? Conditions were terrible, most people would have blanked, you moved on in your chub hunt with a modest chub banked and 3 good ones hooked (I'm assuming they were chub) and the consolatory trout and bits and bobs. As winter comes on it seems to me we have to be kind to ourselves in our expectations. In my case my last 4 trips weren't blanks, they were valuable experiments!

Good idea, though may be a few weeks for me. Did I ever mention the little side stream that comes off the Kennet on the north side of the river just below the A339? In the little weir pool where it starts I never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bite from a chub, though admittedly that was in summer using meat. Then 100 yds further down, fishing from the south side of the stream, there's a pool. One winter a shoal of 1lb roach took up residence there, but there were also chub out towards the streamy water.

HAHA!! Just checked and that 3 metre square really is just outside the toilet!

Tremendous rainbow ,very strong generally ,whether or not they should be there is debatable ,the Kennet though never prolific for me ,still has the surprise fish element ,caught a weird fish , trout like but silver ,I had a picture and a flyfisher told me it was a triploid. Worst feeling in fishing for me losing one ,without knowing what it was.........because of this I fish thicker lines than most.

What I wouldn't have given for a troot that morning, nuisance or not.

Jeez BL your taking some great pictures of some really ugly fish ,I currently occupy the other end of the spectrum ,really ugly pictures of some great fish. Keep um coming chap

Venue record breakers!! (First ones I've ever had from here!)?

S'OK - I do remember the 87/88 2nd round Littlewoods Cup game. I was at Elm Park for the first leg which we won 3-1, losing at Stamford Bridge 3-2 to go through on aggregate. Think we got to the 4th round losing to Bradford City in a replay. Twas our season for cup competitions though as we won the Simod Cup final in '88 beating Luton (who were top flight in those days) 4-1 in the final. (Simod Cup was a 'replacement' competition as all English clubs were banned from European competition at the time following the Heysel disaster.)

Well played, though not sure Preston North End will be catching many tench this season in fishing terms. The mighty Chelsea netted a nice league win to add to (yet) another European trophy, so we both had good afternoons.

Oh Chris, 2am - you even missed Gogglebox! At least you saw more Perseids than perch.

You're doing the photo all wrong Bayleaf, you have to look down at the fish and look in very deep thought, your photo gives the impression you're actually enjoying yourself heaven forbid. ?

Chris always wondered why you didn't seem to catch the muscled up ,non slimy ,bronze Kennet bream as they seem to follow me from Bulls lock to Padworth and some big ones too ,not to be confused with the slimy ,lethargic ,silver lake bream........as if they are different breeds ? Great picture btw .

The Kennet flows seem to split at Newbury ,low flows west ,higher flows east ,which makes sense ,my day was bad , slippy angled banks were full of slugs/snails and nettles and my box fell in the river ,my banker swim ,which I had convinced myself would fish well when overcast produced my only fish a gudgeon. Have put a ruler in my box ,as I have nothing to weigh grammes with and hope to catch a 6" gudgeon and try to join the Soc'. Glad to see everyone else is doing much better

Crucian-tastic. Well done, Chris - you earned that one. And an early night too!

Lovely pictures of the Rudd and Gudgeon ,such pretty fish ,there are some oversized gudgeon on the Reeds ticket at Thatcham. The vast amount of perch in the lakes are busy at this time of year swallowing up the fry ,not a fan.

Humbled by everyone's generosity - just paid £460 to Sue Ryder - a record ammount for a PG charity fish-in - beating the £400 raised in 2018.

Congratulations, Chris, particularly on the 3.10! I've heard some negative reports on the Kennet over the last 2 or 3 years, so good to hear it's not all bad. I also thought the conditions were OK, here at Didcot. The Thames was up and coloured, but I thought I might do OK in a lock cut, the only one around where you don't need a lock and weir permit, which are not available this year. Alas, the hard-standing that I fish from was underwater!

Changing swims at the very same Speen Moors this morning, I stumbled across my fishing guru, Chris, extracting his line from the branches of a tree, a most ungodlike position I have often found myself in. All retrieved, he regaled me with details of his catch for the morning thus far, pretty impressive considering I'd not even had a bite. He was kind enough to answer all my questions about tactics and methods and allowed me to watch his next few casts, which resulted in 2 of the smaller fish mentioned. but confirmed what I was doing wasn't that wrong, but there were some subtle tweaks I could make. Not wishing to make more of a nuisance of myself than I already had, I left to employ these these to cash-in at other swims. Chris, I chose swims with a glassy appearance: swapped my waggler for a loafer float attached at both ends keeping the shirt button shotting pattern: I concentrated trotting in the main flow, with some casts in nearer or further runs: I held the float back at times, I let it chug through at others: I cast downstream, and mended any bow: with a 16 hook on 4lb line, I tried red maggot, white maggot, double red, double white and one of each: I struck at every dip of the float as it tripped along the bottom: I loose fed maybe a dozen maggots very 2 mins or so down the main channel: I changed swims every 20 mins or so where nothing was happening. Nothing was happening. Not even a bite of which I could be sure wasn't just the line bumping the bottom. When Chris passed me later (soon after the nuisance 2lb trout) he was kind enough to tell me that 'swim 42' was jumping with fish, but only small ones. At the stage where I was happy to settle for a few small silvers, I thanked him profusely and ran for it. Chris, I packed up at 12 after 5 biteless hours. I am impressed and appalled to hear of your latest amazing haul. My fishing hat off to you, I honestly don't know how you do it, and I can't. Surely the chub don't know I don't have a 14ft rod nor centrepin reel? I'm left with one tiny hope that maybe you douse your maggots in hot beefy Bovril or irresistible lime marmalade maybe? I was close to throwing my gear in the water and taking up some other hobby like golf maybe, but unlike fishing, that's a pointless waste of time and anyway, there's always, always the hope that next time I go fishing... Keep up the great work and thank you for being a sport

Ha - it's a bit of a bugger when those double-figure carp won't leave your maggots alone! I hope to share in your bad luck sometime

4lbs of bramble jelly made this morning so it was well worth it!?l

Hi kenj - I recall Paul talking about you - and you're right about the Embrook - I was always very envious that it ran through his garden - not many anglers can rightfully boast of catching had 1lb+ roach from their own gardens! Paul and I last fished together back in Sep though I know his last trip was about a month after this toward the end of October - he died 6 weeks later.....

Rusty's pointed out to me that it must be my biggest chub from this bit of river in a while - and he's not wrong! First 5lber since Jan 2012: http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-822-7-january/ And biggest chub since this awesome session in 2010. http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-452-7-march/ (A reminder on how the Kennet used to fish (at times!))

A very comprehensive blog Paul. Those chub look more like roach, their quality beating the quantity of my slimline chub from the Cut. Access is the main problem with the Emm Brook, but I found one bit with a layby, trouble was, I was out searching on my motorbike at the time, without a rod. Next winter?

Thanks for the offer - though you mentioning B means I'm pretty sure where you've been hauling them out - a swim I usually visit come the Autumn when they start to put on a bit of weight!

Ahh - Paul and I have been baiting it up for you then! ;-)

Wow....a comment from the boss.....where's my "notworthy" smiley gone....ah, just found it....