Rusty

Nobody here thinks you're an ahole. It'd be one hell of a journey but if you could do it then I don't think you'd regret it. You must try to fish at Wingham just once.

Terrible news Ian, very sorry to hear about that. I hope they didn't take anything of sentimental value, electrical stuff can be replaced.

Yup

I’d be really grateful if somebody could spend some time with me on Saturday marking/spodding a swim. I don’t have the gear for that and have previously relied on fairly inaccurate casting and chucking out balls of groundbait.

Great stuff, thank you Steve.

This is purgatory...I can't access my home e-mail from work so don't know yet. Might have to pull a sickie.

Well yes fishing is all about catching fish, if somebody told me that I’d never catch anything again I would sell up and stop fishing. I think if anglers are honest with themselves most would do the same. Having said that, not catching fish doesn’t detract from my enjoyment provided I find the environment a pleasant place to be and provided the possibility of catching (however remote) is there.

A highly regarded reel by some 'pin heads but they don't come up for sale very often. A new alternative is now available in a much more sensible colour (in my opinion anyway), there are some differences between this and the original but it looks like a nice reel. http://www.summerlands-tackle.co.uk/j-w-young-john-wilson-heritage-centrepin-4-5inch-290g-2bb-4304.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-35917499 I know nothing about sea fishing or the fish and have a couple of naive questions; Had this fish not died after landing could it have been put back? Was its death a natural occurrence or did it possibly 'fall down the stairs'? Given that it died would a cod of that size make good eating?

A nice, simple to navigate site with some great pics Steve. My only suggestion would be to move the decimal point one place to the left for each of the prices . A more practical observation (not a criticism), it's interesting to read about the numbers of carp that are now in the Main Lake. Doesn’t this increase the risk of un-intentional catches and possible break offs? The kit I’ve used on my couple of Wingham, days probably wouldn’t have dealt with a 40lb carp and I always liked the idea of one lake being relatively carp free.

A 'B+' overall but could've done better :-)

That was a brilliant end to this season Ian, well done! My efforts paled in comparison but I was at a lovely venue on the last day which sort of made up for the lack of fish.

Never tried any additives for the simple reason that once you convince yourself that a particular product works then you can become a slave to it. If maggots, lobs, bread, luncheon meat, hemp and corn all stop catching fish then I might try adding something to them. I don't have anything against additives, I'm sure there are concoctions which will enhance the baits I use but I just don't want to spend any time trying them out. Finding the fish and being there when they're feeding will always be the best additive.

Chris, thank you very much for the day out, it was a pleasure fishing with you Sir! A great blog entry, nothing I can add but a photo of my first swim, I was so engrossed it was the only pic I took all day. On reflection going to the weedrack once light levels were up might have been a mistake, we should’ve saved that for a dusk perching session (but then you may not have encountered the big dace). Hope your discussions with the keeper went well.

I'm glad you liked it Ken and really pleased that it brought back some pleasant memories.

The perch came out to play a bit later Chris, had a great dusk session upstream with half a dozen perch to 2lb taking lobs. I was amazed at how quickly both the river and canal had cleared.

Yesterday's rain has really stuffed my end of season plans. Today the Kennet at Brimpton & Colthrop was a mess and the canal at Thatcham was near its banks and too coloured. My favourite section of the Thames is boiling and probably won't recover before the end of the season. Steve Walker, JV44 and I will be out over the weekend, we're just trying to figure out a plan, perhaps Lambourn grayling. The good news is that there's no more rain forecast for the Newbury area so by Monday the Kennet should be looking very good indeed.

River Kennet, Aldermaston Mill, Tuesday 8th March 2016 The clue’s in the title, a blank of biblical proportions with not a single bite coming to the four anglers on the river. The background to this trip was curiosity, I’d read about Aldermaston Mill on the web and seen a few YouTube videos but most of the information I had was quite old. I knew the venue used to be very good for barbel & chub with queues at the gates before opening time being the norm (as was the mad dash to grab a prime lawn swim once the gates were opened) but I’d never fished it so I thought I go and see for myself. Last Saturday I walked the fishery so as not to waste too much time come fishing day. It is a really lovely place and I can just imagine balmy summer evenings pitched up on the impressive lawn. But this wasn’t a summer evening, it was a colder than average day in March and although temperatures were creeping up they were nowhere near where they should be. The main features are the three weirpools, one central large one and two smaller. I made my way to the top pool to begin with, it looked very promising and although another angler had the same idea there was enough room provided we fished opposite banks. Throughout out the day this section was fished by all of us and nobody had as much as a bite, quite hard to believe when you see it; Bread, lobs, maggots, float rod and a quiver rod were all used in various combinations for the two hours that I persevered at this first swim. The realisation that it was going to be a tough day brought lunch forward, I set up on one of the convenient benches and determined that the best plan was going to be to try to find the fish rather than stay in one spot and wait for them; So that’s what I did, by the end of the day I’d fished most swims within the mill complex and the 100 yards or so of the Kennet at the top end. Thankfully the three other anglers were also on their first visit so we rotated around…blanking. Only during the afternoon when it became clear that we’d be lucky to catch anything did the others pitch up in one swim and plan for the dusk session, I hope they did better. I didn’t last that long, it started raining at about 5:00pm and by that time I’d been fishing for nine hours without a bend in the rod, I’d had enough. I enjoyed my day and would go again. It is quite a compact venue and I can see that low summer water levels would reduce the number of ‘good’ swims to a handful, probably on the lawn and main weirpool. The fact that you can’t book means that turning up on the day is a lottery and for that reason I’d make sure I had a backup venue in mind just in case. Some pics. The lawn swims; Main weirpool; Small mill pool (no fish here either); The old mill, it used to be four storeys high;

Aldermaston Mill, I went to have a look on Saturday and there are too many weirpools to resist. The barbel circus has moved on so I'm hoping for a quiet day fishing for whatever's still there.

Probably be the same tomorrow despite the predicted south westerly. It won't have time to make any difference to the effects of tonight's hard frost but the allure of a new (to me) Kennet venue has brought with it foolhardy optimism.

It might look warm It might look inviting But trust me when I tell you That bloody wind is biting Put yer feet up until warmer temps come along later in the week. My end of season campaign has got off to a slow start due to the cold, a couple of hours on the Thames yesterday (aborted) and today's plan cancelled in favour of warm, indoor chores.

Brilliant pic Chris, is that from your phone or a proper camera? I agree with your wife.

Thanks Ian, I don't write a blog entry for every trip anymore, just the interesting ones.

I've been out. http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/137-rustys-blog/

Rivers Thames and Kennet, Friday 26th to Sunday 28th February 2016 Three consecutive days fishing, each with a different reason for going. The first day out was Friday, it’d been a chaotic week at work so I took the day off and headed to the Thames for some casual roach fishing. I didn’t want to think about it too much, just take the float rod and fish where I knew they’d be. Water levels were falling and the colour was dropping out so it wouldn’t be long before the roach left the sanctuary of the lock cut and dispersed along the river. Matt Simmons arrived shortly after I’d set up and we spent a very pleasant afternoon catching our target species of roach and pike, we agreed that we were angling gods. Matt did really well breaking his PB on two occasions, the first 10½ lb pike set a new PB but it wasn’t long before it was usurped by this thirteen pounder (note the bloodied hand); Saturday was a social occasion. Steve Walker, JV44 and I met up at the Waterfront Café Benson mid-morning for a full-on cholesterol laden breakfast before driving the short distance to Carmel College. This is a syndicate section of the Thames which hasn’t produced much for me since I joined but its trump card is easy car access to the swims. The first hour or so was spent catching livebaits from a crystal clear pool stuffed with small roach, perch and the odd jack pike (which we failed to tempt with lures). Then on to the main river where a variety of baits were deployed, lobs, maggot, bread and the aforementioned livebaits……..all of these were ignored. We had more success in the afternoon with lures and by the time we all agreed that it was getting too cold to fish we’d each landed a small pike or two. We didn’t set the world alight and we didn’t care, that wasn’t the point of the trip, thanks to JV44 for setting up the day. Sunday was different again, I’d been invited to fish a Middle Kennet Estate water. This is a rare event for me and I really could’ve done with putting on my serious angling head but I don’t have one, the best I could muster was a plan which I hoped would make the most of the day. Other than instructions to avoid the carriers (and hence the trout) we had free reign of the fishery, I knew of several places which would be reliable but wanted to try a new spot made accessible by the construction of a nice new weedrack. Sadly the old structure is no more but it was as rotten as a pear and well overdue for replacement, I’ll miss it though. The small fishing hut is still standing but I fear it won’t be long before this too becomes firewood. The walk was just as long as I remembered, a trek which had put the other guests off so when I finally arrived at my chosen spot I found that I had it all to myself. It is a bit of gamble, if the fish aren’t co-operating there are few backup swims available without a long trudge back to the car, my fingers were firmly crossed. The brisk north easterly wind would’ve made float fishing the usual bank pretty much impossible so being able to cross the river was a godsend, I now had the wind at my back which made it easy to cast to the far bank trees and guide the float downstream; Red maggots were the selected hookbait, everybody tells me how good red corn is for chub but I haven’t caught anything on it yet, the tin in my basket would remain unopened for the moment, if I managed to bank a few fish then I’d give the corn a try. And bank a few fish I did, first trot accounted for this 4lb 6oz chub; Only about ten minutes later the second chub of the day was in the net, this one weighing 4lb 10oz; I really thought I was in for a bumper session but bites stopped as quickly as they’d started. I wasn’t too worried because I could drop downstream and fish the weedrack while I rested the main swim. To be honest it was quite a relief to sit behind a rod huddled down against the wind rather than standing up and being battered by it, behind me the landscape was open fields with very little cover; So that set the pattern for the day, I alternated between the two swims when it went quiet at the first choice. Surprisingly I caught nothing at all from the weedrack, even below it where I know chub reside failed to produce any bites despite trying every combination of bait and tactics I had at my disposal. All fish came from the upstream swim to a moving bait and by the time the wind had beaten me into submission my final tally was six chub. In addition to the two pictured I caught a 3-08, two three pounders (one on red corn!) and a 2-12. I got back to the car with enough daylight left to carry on but I was pretty tired by then and the swims in my immediate vicinity would almost certainly have produced trout. I’d managed to avoid them all day and didn’t want to blot my copybook.