Chris Plumb

K&A Canal - Woolhampton 1330 - 1615 Bright & breezy - with one very lumpy shower. AT 10º ->6ºC 7 Perch; 5 over 1lb, best 3, 1lb 9oz, 1lb 11oz & 2lb 2oz. Similar conditions to Friday's session though slightly LESS windy. Fished a different swim and had all 3 bigger ones in the last half an hour - getting progressively bigger. All 3 had damaged flanks, seems they've all escaped the attentions of the local pike!

K&A Canal - Woolhampton 1515 - 1615 Mild and breezy with heavy, squally showers. 11ºC 5 Perch; 4, lbers - though not by much - best 1lb 7oz. Left work early for a last minute decision to make the most of the mild snap and have a last hour of daylight on the canal. All the bites came a few minutes either side of 4 o'clock - and resulted in fish of a remarkably similar stamp - here's hoping there are still some bigger ones to be found!

River Kennet - Hambridge 0945 - 1330 Cold (2 - 5ºC) and quite sunny. River high (well over a foot up on my last visit here in Sep) but with very little colour. 3 Chub; 5lb 7oz, 4lb 10oz &1¾lb, 2 Grayling, 1 Dace & 3 Brownies to circa 1lb. Cracking brace of chub from one of my favourite flood water pools. Fish in splendid winter condition. Wished I'd brought a spinning rod with me - a pike kept attacking my float as I reeled in (but not any of the fish!)

Totally agree - and in fact always tie any eyed hooks as if they were spades!

K&A Canal - Enborne 0730 - 1230 Dull, mild and calm. Ideal weather for perch. Canal however was very coloured up which was less than ideal. 1 Perch - small - barely longer than the lob it gorged on! 2 Roach. Bit of an epic fail. Had high hopes for today - milder weather and reports of big stripeys had me setting off full of expectation. Hadn't planned on the canal being so coloured however - and somewhat strangely above Guyers Lock it was clear - enough to see the bottom. Only decent bite of the day proved to be a jack which bit me off as I was bringing it to the net - ho hum!

River Kennet Carrier & Weirpool - Marsh Benham 0900 - 1400 Cool 6ºC, overcast and still - a lovely benign autumn's day! River 'full' with little colour more like late winter levels than late autumn - augurs well for the rest of the season! 6 Chub 5 over 2½lb - best 3lb 8oz. 20 Roach - all a 'nice size' best 13oz with many not far shy of that. 7 Dace. 3 Brownies all 2lb+ and 2 Rainbows - both around 3lb (could have been the same fish!) Very pleasant morning's trotting - great to see so much water in the river so early in the winter - the fish have by and large moved up into the carrier and the summer weeds has gone.

Well done Elton - counter working at last on the Blogs too. All my old blogs are showing tabs where I've changed font/colour/bold etc. - but I can live with at as the new enteries won't....

River Lambourn - Newbury 0745 - 1130 Bright and sunny - river quite full after recent rains - but gin clear as always! 21 Grayling - nearly all over 8oz with quite a few over 12oz biggest 2 weighed in at 1lb 13oz & 1lb 9oz. A doz Brownies - most quite small with a couple of pounders. Usual catch a couple and move on tactics - chasing the maggots downstream! Session was bookended by the two biggest fish - biggest of the morning was on my second trot through and finished off with the 2nd biggest.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 0645 - 1230 Mild, overcast with light drizzle for the first couple of hours. 5 Perch; a couple of pounders but not by much - best 1lb 4oz. 1 Chub circa 12oz, 3 Roach - one of 12oz - on a whole lob and 2 smalluns, 4 Bleak. Had the day off to fish the Frome on the first day of the season (it's open for 4 months from 1st Nov) but rain in Dorset this week put paid to that idea - so it was back to my autumn stripey hunt - which was again thwarted by way more boat traffic than I expected for a weekday in November. Fishing had started promisingly as well with both my 'biggest' perch caught in the first half an hour - but a boat coming through a 0730 (!) stopped bites for over an hour - and after that the frequency of barges meant the swim never really settled down - sigh!

River Lambourn - Shaw 1000 - 1230 Bright and sunny. 11 Grayling; 5 in the 12-16oz bracket. 7 Brownies. Usual catch a couple and move on tactics - most fish from the church stretch.

Northcroft Stream - Newbury 0645 - 0945 Cool, bright and sunny. River up a touch and with a hint of colour. 1 Chub; 1¾lb, 11 Roach - best 14oz. 9 Dace, 1 Perch & a Gudgeon. Trotted maggot. Most fish from the weirpool.

River Kennet - Brimpton 0800 - 1115 Bright and sunny. river up a couple of inches and carrying a bit of colour - looked perfect! 5 Chub: 5lb 11oz, 4lb 14oz, 3lb 5oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 0oz. 3 brownies - 2 over 1lb... Cracking morning's trotting - all the chub from the same swim - took it nice and slow - fed well before my first cast then rested & fed between each fish - certainly paid off as I don't usually get more than a couple at any one time....

Lower Itchen Fishery 0800 - 1800 Rain, rain and more rain - yes pretty much non-stop all day - though thankfully not particularly heavy apart from a few brief 'pulses'! River carrying a tinge of colour but otherwise looked in fine fettle! 3 Doz Grayling with half of these 1lb+. Best, 1lb 15oz with another half dozen in the 1lb10oz - 1lb12oz class. 3 Chub; 3lb 11oz and a brace of 2lbers. 9 Brownies - all between 2½-3½lb. 3 Salmon; 2 parr and a grilse of 5lb - on trotted corn! A soggy day in Hampshire though thankfully there was little wind and regular trips to the hut meant there were opportunities to dry out (a bit!). Nice average size of grayling - the trout though got to be a bit of a pain and meant I stopped using red corn - my usual first choice bait here for the ladies - but the trout were shooting to the surface and snaffling the stuff whenever I threw in free offerings it was if it were trout pellets in a stew pond and to get a salmon on the stuff is - well!!!!!

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 0700 - 1430 Mild, overcast and becalmed - perfect perching weather - pity no one told the perch! 5 Chub to 2lb 2oz. 1 Perch - small, 8 Roach - with a couple needing the net - both just shy of 12oz. 4 Gudgeon & 2 Bleak. Another frustrating day on the canal - this time I had incessant boat traffic to contend with - had hoped to get at least a couple of hours peace but the first boat came through at 0710 when it was still nearly dark! and thereafter it was constant all morning - can't believe it's this busy in the height of summer! So no interest at all from the stripeys, in a swim that proved a bit of a banker last winter, with just the occasional chub (and roach!) snaffling my lobs.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Avington 0700 - 1400 Mild and VERY gusty with drizzle for the first couple of hours or so (lovely - not!) 1 doz+ perch - most around to 10-12oz mark but couldn't find anything bigger (which what I was after primarily). 2 doz+ roach nothing big), 1 Gudgeon (1st of the season), 1 Dace, 1 Chublet and a Skimmer. 'Orrible session! Wind was a nightmare for casting and presentation (and nearly knocked me off my feet twice). Fished half a dozen or so swims in search of a decent perch and pretty much had similar results from all of them - though at the last place I tried they were slightly bigger so might start here next time. I truth though it was a bit of a 'I'll be glad when I've had enough of this session' !! as the wind made for very difficult conditions - my wrist was sore from holding the rod against it - as it was straight downstream.

River Kennet - Newbury 0930 - 1400 Overcast, breezy with some light drizzle at times. River up a couple of inches and quite coloured after yesterday's inch of rain. 4 Chub; all between 10oz - 1½lb. 2 Perch; 1lb 6oz and a tiddler. 7 Dace. 4 Roach. 1 Bream c1½lb. 2 Grayling & a brownie. Was meant to be up on the Trent today at an IAC fish-in - but Jaq and I abandoned our plans for the week (exploring the Lincolnshire Wolds) due to the inclement weather so had to make do with one of my banker swims on the Kennet!

River Kennet & Carrier - Marsh Benham 0900 - 1430 Overcast and fairly warm (18ºC). River low and clear. 6 Chub: Biggest 3lb 15oz the rest all less than half that! 3 Doz Dace and Roach in roughly equal nos. A couple of really nice dace of 10 & 11oz and quite a few roach in the 6-8oz class with a couple bigger ones (best went 12oz). 3 Perch - best nearly 1lb, 1 Bleak. Lovely day's trotting. Did try a couple of hours ledgering - with no returns (not even a crayfish!)

Willows Lake - Thatcham 1900 - 0600 Warm night, quite breezy at times - temps no lower than 14ºC 4 Carp - biggest 8lb 11oz. Slow, fruitless night after this lake's big, elusive crucians. Float fished, so when the float did go under there was some 'interesting action' on light-ish tackle - but not really what I came here for!

Bucklebury Ponds 1500 - 1730 Bright, warm and sunny. A doz roach tp ¾lb. 5 Perch. 4 Skimmers. No fishing this weekend - upto Birmingham to watch the athletics - so a snatched couple of hours at my nearest venue to home - most of the roach were a 'nice' size.

Warwicks Water 1800 - 2230 Warm evening - especially under the trees. 1 Tench; 2lb 7oz. 1 Roach - small. Circa 2 doz perch. Quick return here after the success of a fortnight ago - perch were even more insatiable - but thankfully quitened down when it got dark. Still no crucians - but a nice plump tench will do nicely!

River Kennet - Newbury 0900 - 1400 Bright and breezy - river up an inch or so after yesterday's heavy rain with its usual summer tinge of colour. 18 Chub: Most around 6-8oz, with 5 over a lb, biggest went 4lb 7oz with the others between 1¼ - 2¼lb., 2 doz+ Dace, 1 doz Roach, 2 Grayling, 2 Bleak and 3 Brownies. Lovely morning's trotting - great to see so many silvers in the river - especially the young chub.

Alders Lake - Thatcham 1800 - 2230 Cool clear evening - with a breeze falling off. AT down to 10ºC when I packed up - felt quite chilly! 1 Tench - 2lb 3oz. 14 Roach - all small. Another blackberry picking and tench evening! Roach were a bit of a pain but once it got dark the bites from them subsided and just like last time my solitary tench came at around 2130. Shortly after was then connected to one of the lakes rogue carp which I played for several minutes and was just entertaining the possibility of getting it in (on an 18 to 3lb bottom) before the hook pulled...

River Kennet - Widmead 0900 - 1200 Bright and breezy. River at 'normal' summer levels. 1 Chub: unweighed but needed the net! 1 Grayling 1lb 1oz. 2 Doz Dace & a bleak. Swim I've not fished for 35 years! (last time was Sep 1985 - and I had stacks of dace then too!). Grayling was first cast which was unexpected thereafter it fish a chuck for the first 45 mins.

Warwicks Water 1830 - 2230 Warm and breezy evening (kept the dew and the mozzies away! 2 Tench; 3lb 2oz & 1lb 9oz. 8 Perch ( all small). Annual trip to check on how this lovely little pond is progressing after being remodelled and restocked (with tench and crucians) a few years back. Surprised on 2 counts; firstly to find two other anglers on the water (one of whom had caught a pound+ roach) - and to get a tinca over 3lb - wasn't expecting anything that big. No sign of any crucians but I won't be waiting a year until my next visit!!

River Kennet - Brimpton. 0500 - 0930 Lovely summer's morning - sun rising therough the valley mist - temps a warm15º - rising to a muggy 21ºC when I packed up. River a little on the low side as is usual at this time of year. 2 Chub; 5lb 4oz & 1½lb. 11 Dace - with half a dozen over 8oz (!!) best went 10oz. 4 Brownies - all over 1lb - biggest 2lb 10oz. Cracking morning's trotting - nice to find a pod of big dace - or rather 2 pods as the fish came from different swims.