Chris Plumb
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Advantages of a slow news day - this was featured quite prominently on the Beeb this morning.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63747838
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Kennet carrier (& main river) - Marsh Benham 0815 - 1330 Bright and breezy with a few light (& one heavy) showers. AT 5º-7ºC. River at normal levels - carrier still a little on the low side for winter. 1 Chub: 2lber. 20 Roach & Dace (slightly more roach - nothing note-worthy). 3 Brownies and a Rainbow - all 2½ - 3½lb - with the Rainbow at the top end of that and possibly pushing 4lb... A morning spent playing (and largely failing!!) at avoid the trout. Got off to a promising start with a chub in the first 10 mins - alas, it would be my only one! Turned into something of a syndicate Christmas social - with over half the membership turning up at some point in the morning!
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River Kennet - Brimpton 1030 - 1330 Bright and sunny. Cooler than last couple of days. AT 4º - 6ºC. River at normal levels and with a tinge of colour. 1 Chub: 4lb 6oz. 2 Brownies; Biggest a brute of a fish - must have been close to 4lb but unweighed - the other around half that size. Impromptu trip based on Jaq announcing she was hitting the sales!! Bright winter sunshine are not the ideal conditions for a spot of chub fishing but I reasoned the recent rise in river levels and turbidity might mitigate this - thankfully I was right. However, and as per usual it seems, I started off with trout - though as both fish chose to hug the bottom as opposed to performing their usual aerobatic display, I was convinced I was bringing in decent chub to the net. Thankfully my 3rd fish of the morning didn't have an adipose fin - and whilst it was a fine chub - as fat as a barrel I was rather hoping to re-acquaint myself with either of the 5lbers I had from here back in the summer - would love to see either at their winter weight! Boxing Day Chub
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Kennet and Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1330 - 1615 Bright and VERY breezy. AT 11ºC 1 Perch; 1lb 11oz That was a bit below expectations to put it mildly - especially after starting with a semi decent perch in the first 10 mins (and in bright sunshine)- it would prove to be my only bite!!! Wind was a nightmare and way stronger than this morning - made accurate casting and good presentation all but impossible. I fished on hoping that the witching hour would rescue proceedings - but it came and went without incident - alas!
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River Kennet - Hambridge 1000 - 1230 Bright and mild after heavy early morning rain (over ½inch). AT 11ºC. River at normal winter levels with a tinge of colour - looked in really good nick - hooray! Was up a good 6 inches on my last visit here . The Kennet is at last seeing the benefits of a wet autumn - the springs on the the downs broke during the recent cold snap (the river gauge at Winterborne Monkton started recording on the 15th Dec) so winter rainfall will now start having more of an impact on flow rates. 1 Chub; 2lb 12oz, 1 Bream; 2lb 6oz, 1 Perch; 1½lb, 4 Dace & 1 Roach (all quite small). 4 Gudgeon Usual pre-Christmas jaunt to use up some maggot so that the bait fridge can be pressed into Christmas duties. Bream first cast was a bit of surprise as I was expecting my obligatory chub after spending the first 5mins or so trickling in maggot.
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Haha - finished it and sent it!
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Martin Duffy https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64038944
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I 'penned' nearly 1500 words on Crucians last night - still work in progress - but should have a first draft to you before Christmas!!! Will do the same for Grayling next autumn!
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One for Elton to fix if he can and if he still looks in here! Pure vanity I know - but its nice to know I get 'some' readers! C.
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River Frome - Wool 0830 - 1345 Bright, milky sunshine - very cold start - the thaw arrived mid morning - which I was very thankful for - line freezing in the ferrules had made for a tough couple of hours prior to that. AT -6ºwhen I arrived ->+6ºC when I drove off. River at normal levels - 1.05m at the East Stoke gauge. 13 Grayling: 8 over a lb - the 3 I weighed went 1lb 14oz & 2 X 1lb 10oz (different fish!) most of the others lbers around 1lb 6oz. 3 Trout - a lber, one half that and a parr. Last minute decision to go - based on tomorrow's forecast for wind and rain. Lovely bit of river and worth the long journey - even if I didn't quite get the hoped for 2lber. Most fish from just 1 swim - which I rested for a couple of hours whilst I fruitlessly searched the upper part of the fishery for another hotspot - though there were 4 other anglers on the beat - which wouldn't have helped the quest! Nearly a 2 - a very chunky fish, similar in length to my 1-12 from the Lambourn last weekend but much stockier!
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Drat it - the view counter has 'broken again'!
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Ah Ha! Never got a penny! My contribution was submitting a log book of catches for 8 years from 2001 - 2009 - see page 28 onwards on the above report. Of those 82343 grayling logged, 1297 were my catches (nearly 16% of the total!)! These would have been from the Itchen, Kennet & Lambourn - I didn't join Dorchester &DAS to fish the Frome until 2011. Happy to pen a few paras on on one of my fave species - though think it would sit much better with NEXT winter's newsletter, they are very much a winter species in my eyes! The Grayling Scoiety continued an online version of this logbook scheme - in truncated form - after this initial research period and I have logged all my Grayling catches with them ever since!
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13.12.22- Speen Moors
Chris Plumb commented on Bayleaf the Gardener's blog entry in The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker
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....- 1 comment
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- newbury
- newbury angling association
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Martin - my catch returns (nearly 1300 ladies over the survey period - via a log book scheme) contributed to this paper: https://www.wildtrout.org/assets/files/news/Grayling-Conservation-Guide_2018_v2.pdf
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Yeah - done that for years - even participated in providing data to a research project around 15 years ago....
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Thanks - twas a fun session....
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River Lambourn - Newbury 1045 - 1445 Cold and cloudy. AT around -1ºC all day. River low 14 Grayling; 8 over a lb and as they got progressively bigger throughout the session I ended up weighing 5 of them - at 1-06, 1-07, 1-09, 1-10 & 1lb 12oz. 1 Brownie - small. I love days like this - wrapped up warm against an iron hard frost - which froze my landing net between each fish landed! As ever the Lambourn Ladies were very obliging despite the cold - fished the length of the venue twice (with a lunch break in between) - so most of my regular hotspots produced again after a good rest. Nice to see some good sized fish in this part of the river again..... Biggest two of the day...
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River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0900 - 1400 Cold and overcast with a chilly breeze. AT 4º- 6ºC. River still low and threadbare. 3 Chub; 2lb 7oz and a couple of chublets. 3 Dozen Dace & Roach (mainly dace - all quite small). 1 Perch; small. 3 Brownies - a couple in the 2lb class and a brute of a fish @ 4½lb (with a size 12 in its gob)! 2 Rainbows both around 3lb (and I suspect were the same fish!). Brrrrrr Winter's here, though the cold, alas, hasn't suppressed the trout's appetite! A very disappointing chub to trout ratio - though the one I did get was immediately after the two smaller brownies so it, thankfully, hadn't been put off by the usual commotion. Spent most of the time on the main river, then worked my way up the carrier for the 'silvers'.
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29.11.22 - A mixed week
Chris Plumb commented on Bayleaf the Gardener's blog entry in The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker
Where's this River Lamborne you keep going on about? -
Christine McVie https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63812952
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Thanks Dave - I remember as a young boy catching (by net) both species of loach from The Witham when we lived in Grantham - will dig out what Mark Everard has to say about them in his Little Book of Little Fishes!
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River Lambourn - Newbury 1230 - 1430 Mild, dull and overcast. 11ºC. River low. 18 Grayling - with around half a lb or better - the two I put on the scales went 1lb 8oz & 1lb 6oz and had a few more not far shy of these two. 1 Brownie - small. With 3 other anglers working the venue I was very pleased with this return - clearly managed to find a few spots that hadn't already been visited and like this morning's session further upstream managed to get a couple of shoals competing for freebies.
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River Lambourn - Shaw 0900 - 1230 Mild with milky sunsine - clouding over.AT 7º - 11ºC. River low and clear (of course). 15 Grayling with 5 an ounce or so either side of 1lb with the rest half that or smaller. 3 Brownies; 1½lb and a couple of parrs. Whilst the rains have had little impact (so far) on the local chalkstreams they have certainly stuffed up the Frome judging by the river gauges so whilst I had planned a trip to Dorset this weekend I had to make do with bothering the local ladies and make my first visits to the Lambourn this winter. Most fish from the church stretch - with nearly half coming from just one spot as I got a shoal competing for freebies which appeared to make them less cautious to gentles with a hook in!
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Wilko Johnson https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63728503
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-63707394 C.