Chris Plumb

Lovely lady - I don't usually fish the Lambourn until the first frosts - might have to wait awhile if this mild autumn continues.....!

They're not exactly a challenge though - I'm sure I catch the same one quite often - stupid things are just suckers for maggots especially if they're white ones!

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1500 - 1645 Bright -though getting damp and dewey as the sun set. 3 Perch - all 6-8oz. Inconspicuous end to the day - turned into something of a recce session as both my first two choices of swim were already occupied by anglers! None of the 4 swims I dropped into merit further investigation though heavy boat traffic (very unusual for November) and very heavy footfall on the towpath from walkers, dogs and cyclists made it a less than enjoyable 90 or so minutes on the bank!

River Kennet - Brimpton 1200 - 1430 Warm with bright sunshine. AT 17ºC. River very low (of course!) 1 Chub: 1lb 10oz, 1 Dace. 4 Brownies 2 in the 1½-2lb range and two under a lb. I hate trout! Bright conditions and a low, clear, threadbare river were already very sub-optimal conditions for autumn chubbing. And what I really DIDN'T need were acrobatic brownies turning up 'early doors' in ALL my favourite chub hotspots. Alas, that's exactly what happened. Dropped into the weirpool for 15 minutes just to catch something without an adipose!

River Kennet - Thatcham 0815 - 1115 Warm (very for November) and mainly overcast (clearing for last ¾hr). AT 15ºC. River very low despite 5 inches of rain in the past 3 weeks! 2 Perch 1lb 12oz & 1lb 7oz. 1 Chub 1¼lb, 1 Dace, 1 Roach , 1 Gudgeon, 5 Trout parr. Started off, with worms for a change, in the weirpool as I've (correctly as it turned out) thought for a while that the place screams "Here be Perch!". However I'd caught the chub first cast and had been bitten off by a pike before the stripeys eventually turned up - just in time, as I was considering abandoning the project! Switched to maggot and went exploring my usual chub swims - but not a sniff of one - and 5 trout parr in 5 casts from my most 'reliable' chub hotspot set the tone for what was to come in the afternoon!

I put 3 gentles on a 14....

River Kennet (and Carrier), Marsh Benham 1015 - 1500 Mild and overcast morning, with a torrential downpour at lunchtime giving way to bright sunshine - 4 (well 3) seasons in one day! AT 11º - 13ºC. River still very low. West Berks has had 116.6mm (over 4½inches in old money!) of rain in the past 2½ weeks - since 20 October - the prayers for a wet autumn are being answered - yet very little is making its way into the water course. Hopefully though the aquifers are being topped up and the Kennet will see the benefit of all this rain in January! 1 Bream; 4lb 2oz, 3 Chub; 1¾lb and a couple of chublets, 2 Doz Roach and Dace - in roughly equal nos - slightly more roach. Nothing particularly noteworth apart from one of the dace of around 8oz and a couple of the roach around the same mark. 3 Perch; all small. 3 Brownies; between 2½ - 3½lb - biggest of which had a fresh size 16 in its scissors - one of your's Martin? I've been umming and ahhing all weekend about which day to go fishing scrutinising the weather almost every hour. Had decided on a rare Monday trip - but decided to make the most of a window in the rain. Thankfully had stopped for my lunch when the heavy shower came - other wise a dry day! Usual roving tactics and usual pesky trout showing up in my more reliable chub swims!

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...

Kennet & Avon Canal (flowing) - Thatcham 1245 - 1500 Mild (15ºC) and overcast, quite breezy. 17 Dace - with around half over ½lb - I weighed two at 11oz & 12oz. 5 Roach - all small. 1 Gudgeon. Unexpectedly had a free afternoon - so thought I'd follow up some recent intelligence of this stretch producing good dace and roach. Information I wasn't entirely surprised by as I had this super dace from here a couple of years ago. Biggest dace first cast started proceedings well and whilst I had quite a few more in need of the net none of the roach that showed were in the same class!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1015 - 1345 Very warm - with hazy sunshine. AT a balmy 21ºC when I packed up. River still very low - we've had over 3 inches of rain in October - though you wouldn't know it looking at the river levels! 2 Chub: 2lber and a 1lber. 1 Barbel: 1lb 14oz, 5 Roach, 4 Dace, 3 Gudgeon & a 1lb+ brownie. A change from my usual tactics as my 'modus operandi' when I have a morning at Enborne is to transfer over to Speen but decided to drop down to here instead. A bit of a scratchy morning though the plan included trying to winkle out another float caught barbel - so at least that box got ticked - though I suspect it was a repeat capture from previous vists this autumn.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0745 - 0930 Warm (for late October), calm and cloudy with 3 brief showers. AT 13/14ºC. Perfect autumn perching weather - pity no one told the fish! 4 Perch: best 1lb 13oz with another 2 around ¾lb and a tiddler. Surprisingly subdued session - lots of activity on the surface and I concluded the perch were more interested in chasing fry than having my lobs for breakfast. The smallest perch I caught which was not much longer than the lob it took, had a gudgeon's tail sticking out of its mouth and I'm at a loss to fathom how it managed to take a lob with its gullet already crammed full!

River Kennet - Brimpton 0900 - 1300 Warm (for the time of year), with milky sunshine. AT 11º -> 17ºC. River still very low with a tinge of colour the only hint that we've had over an inch of rain in the previous 36 hours! 3 Chub: 4lb 3oz, 3lb 6oz & a chublet. 7 Roach and 3 Dace - nothing particularly impressive though they weren't tiddlers either! 5 Brownies, 2X2lbers, another of around 1½lb and a couple of parrs. Surprisingly scratchy morning - with both big chub first cast fish from the same swim (90 mins apart!) and all my other usual haunts not producing anything without an adipose fin! All roach (bar one) and dace from the weirpool at the top of the Aldershot.

Oooo do tell!

Lower Itchen Fishery 0830 - 1800 Bright and breezy. AT around 15ºC all day. River low and clear despite overnight rains. 30 Grayling with around two-thirds in the ¾lb - 1¼lb class with the rest not much smaller. Biggest 1lb 6oz. 10 Brownies between 1½ - 3½lb plus dozens and dozens and dozens of parr fish - a real nuisamce in the same way minnows can be! Lovely day - especially as I practically had the whole fishery to myself with only one other angler booked in. A real game of 2 halfs - when I stopped for lunch, having worked my way down the top half of the fishery in the morning, I'd caught just 3 ladies and a gazillion trout and salmon parr. This made the afternoon a maggot free zone - and was a case of eeking out what sweetcorn I'd brought with me with the emergency rations that live in the bottom of my tackle bag being pressed into action. Grayling of a remarkably similar stamp - amost every fish a few ounces either side of the pound mark made for a busy afternoon. No chub - though bright conditions and low water might explain that one!

yes - will often twitch it or even recast - often get bites on the drop....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63259738

Many, MANY moons ago I took my bruv fishing on a local lake - acting on some intelligence we were both after perch - he ledgered out in the middle and every minute gave the reel handle a single turn and slowly twitched the bait back to the bank - I thought he was nuts, but he caught way more than I did that day (and lost a few rigs!!!).

Winning enteries... https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/october/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2022-winning-images.html And some of the other enteries (including a shoal of perch!) https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/september/first-look-at-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-58.html

That's what I thought - several £1000s worth of fish they put back!

Now coming to your garden pond... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-63192608

Biggest fish ever from Welsh waters - apparently! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63177729

Yeah - bit of a senior moment - the perils of loading the car the night before to make a quick getaway, and not the first time I've done it either!

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0830 - 1400 Bright and sunny. AT 6º->16ºC. River low (very!). 10 Perch; 6 over lb, best two 1lb 12oz & 1lb 10oz. 6 Chub; 3 'pounders' - two not by much. 20+ Roach - most quite small with 3 or 4 in the 6-8oz bracket. 2 Dace - small. 2 Gudgeon & 2 Brownies - both 1½-2lb. Late arrival as I had to go back for my maggots - doh! By the time I got to the canal it was bathed in bright morning sunshine and after a chilly night I deemed it too sub-optimal for big stripeys so headed straight for the big weirpool on Speen where I stayed all morning. Might not have been the wisest of decisions given the haul of perch it produced! Wandered downstream after lunch to look at the spot BTG fished recently and hoping to get to Egypt Point - but it was too overgrown. Did run a float through a couple of swims which both seemed stuffed with small roach....

River Kennet - Hambridge 0845 - 1245 Sunny spells. AT 8º ->17ºC. River still very low (prayer mats are out for a wet autumn!). 7 Chub; biggest 3lb on the nose, 5 between 1½ - 2½lb and a chublet. 1 Barbel; 1lb 13oz, 13 Dace & 9 Roach (all fairly small), 1 Gudgeon, 2 Bleak & a Brownie c¾-1lb. Super morning's trotting - nice to get another baby barbel for the 2nd trip running here and I might have lost a much bigger one though I think the leviathan that snapped my 6lb bottom like cotton was more likely an oversized trout. Fished every swim on the venue (not that there's that many!) as my usual hotspots were pretty barren - most fish caught trotting under the road bridge. A tree has fallen all the way across immediately downstream - damming the river somewat and giving some extra depth on 'our' side...

Flagged up on the BBC this evening - so went looking for it on YT - VERY sweary!