Jump to content

Chris Plumb

Anglers' Net Contributor
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    8518

  • Joined

  • Days Won

    168

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Chris Plumb

  1. Chris Plumb

    23 December (Part 1)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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.
  2. Chris Plumb

    12 December

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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...
     


  3. Chris Plumb

    3 December

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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'.
  4. Chris Plumb

    26 November (Part 2)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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.
     

  5. Chris Plumb

    26 November (Part 1)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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! 😀
  6. Chris Plumb

    20 November

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Speen Moors
    0800 - 1400
    Bright and sunny morning after overnight rain, clouding over with heavy showers after lunch! Cooler than of late 5º - 9ºC River still low. 180mm of rain (and counting) since the start of October hasn't made a blind bit of difference to the river - so far!
    4 Chub: Biggest 3lb 6oz - the others between 1¾ - 2¼lb. 6 Dace - a couple of chunky ones, 3 Roach - all small. 1 Perch c½lb, 1 Brownie c¾lb.
    A successful  morning on the weirpools (so as not to blank!), 😀 before an unrewarding recce session - must have walked a couple of miles,  just to catch a solitary dace!
     
  7. Chris Plumb

    12 November (Part 3)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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!
  8. Chris Plumb

    12 November (Part 2)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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!
  9. Chris Plumb

    12 November (Part 1)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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!
  10. Chris Plumb

    6 November

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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!

  11. Chris Plumb

    31 October

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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!
  12. Chris Plumb

    29 October (Part 1)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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!
  13. Chris Plumb

    29 October (Part 2)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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.
  14. Chris Plumb

    22 October

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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. 
     
  15. Chris Plumb

    17 October

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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!
     
  16. Chris Plumb

    8 October

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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....
  17. Chris Plumb

    3 October

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    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...
  18. Chris Plumb

    21 September

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    Alders Lake - Thatcham
    1800 - 2200
    Calm and cloudy to start with clearing skies and dropping temps for the last hour (and a very heavy dew!) AT 17º -> 11ºC (But felt much chillier in the damp conditions...)
    1 Bream 5lb 2oz, 1 Tench 1¼lb, 1 Rudd; 11oz (looked bigger!), 1 Roach - hand-sized. 6 Perch all smallish.
    Nearly all the excitement in the first 90 mins with the tinca pretty much first cast. The only fish to come after it got dark was the lovely rudd and the roach. Had intended to stay longer but I started catching signals and the cool,damp air was starting to chill my bones (time to dig out those thermal trousers) A complete contrast to the start of the evening!

  19. Chris Plumb

    19 September

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Marsh Benham
    0645 - 1115
    Cool, calm & cloudy. AT 9º -> 14ºC. River VERY low.
    12 Chub; 2lb 7oz and 11 chublets. 4 Doz Dace and Roach - in roughly equal nos (slightly more dace). Most of the roach were a 'nice' size though the star of the show (and the only fish to actually get weighed) was a cracking dace of 12oz. 5 Perch - all small. 1 Brownie c2lb.
    Pleasant mornings trotting. The river is teeming with 'silvers' - which makes finding the bigger chub a bit of a challenge - eventually winkled out one from the swim just above the railway bridge.
  20. Chris Plumb

    17 September (Part 1)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne
    0630 - 0815
    COLD! 🥶 and clear. 3ºC when I left - ice on the car and grass frost in patches on the bank!
    13 Perch: 5 over 1lb - 4 not by much the other went 1lb 14oz.
    Brrrrr that was a shock to the system - thermals and fleece making an early appearance for my first 'double header' of the autumn. Pretty much all fish in the first ½ hour - then suffered a bit of pike trouble (got bitten off) and by 0800 the swim was bathed in sunshine and bites had stopped completely - so it was off to Speen for my first trip there this season....
  21. Chris Plumb

    17 September (Part 2)

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Speen Moors
    0845 - 1300
    Bright and sunny - with a cool northerly breeze - though felt very warm in full sun! AT 17ºC when I packed up, River very low.
    5 Chub: 2X 2lbers and 3 in the ¾-1lb class. 5 Perch; All over 1lb, with 4 over 1½lb, best three 2lb 3oz, 2lb & 1lb 13oz. 30+ Roach - various sizes with around half a dozen 'netters', I weighed one of these at 13oz and the others were of similar stamp - great to see! 1 Dace: a real good-un of around 10oz. 1 Gudgeon, 1 Bleak, 1 Brownie - unweighed but a real lump of at least 3lbs and probably pushing 4!
    Super morning's sport from the large weirpool. I had started by fighting my way up the overgrown banks of Parliament Draft - getting soaked in the process from the heavy dew to be greeted by a cormorant working the water - not the welcome I'd have liked! I did run a float through a couple of swims but was further dispirited when an otter plopped into the river from the opposite bank! Within ¾hour I was working my way into position on the large weirpool where I'd stay for the rest of the morning - a super mixed bag and my biggest perch from Speen for 10 years - which was a real surprise.
    Not a great pic(alas) of the biggest perch - a real fatty!

  22. Chris Plumb

    10 September

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Brimpton
    0700 - 1100
    Cool (compared to lately) and mainly overcast. AT 11->16ºC. River still low but up a good couple of inches on my last visit here in July.
    4 Chub: 5lb0oz, 3lb 6oz, 1lb11oz and one <1lb. 5 Roach & 1 Dace - all a 'nice' size circa 6oz. 4 Brownies; a lber and the others around half that.
    With 1½inches of rain already this month (nearly as much as the whole of June, July & August!) I was hopeful that the river might have perked up - and so it proved. Fished 4 swims and had 'A' chub from each of them! The 5lber - my second of the season from here, came from a spot that rarely produces - which was just as well as my usual hotspot was trashed by a first cast trout!

  23. Chris Plumb

    2 September

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    Willows Lake - Thatcham
    1800 - 2300
    Warm and overcast with a few spots of rain at times (the showers missed me whilst I was on the bank, though it had not long stopped raining when I arrived!) AT 22º -> 16ºC
    1 Tench: 2lb 3oz. 3 Carp: 9lb 0oz, 8lb 7oz & 7lb 11oz.
    A very frustrating evening trying to avoid the carp who were very active when I arrived and I'm sure where bullying my taget species (basically anything that wasn't a carp) out of the swim. I didn't actaully hook any on the float but bumped/pricked several - probably striking at liners. Each time this happened bow waves radiated from my swim as the carp scarpered in every direction and it was during a lull following one of these episodes that I got my only lift bite of the evening resulting in the modest tinca.
    By the time it got dark I was in 'if you can't beat them, join them' mode dapping bread in the margins and hanging on!
  24. Chris Plumb

    31 August

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Hambridge
    1730 - 2145
    Warm, clear evening. AT 23º -> 16ºC. River very low.
    3 Chub: 4lb 11oz, 2lb 13oz, 1lb 12oz. 1 Barbel (hooray!) 2lb 1oz. 7 Dace, 2 Roach (all small). 5 Bleak.
    Been a while since I did an evening here - used to be a banker swim for ledgering for a barbel - so much so I've even brought a couple of my 'occasional' angling friends here in the past to (succesfully) catch their first barbel. Those were in pre-otter days (who made an appearance again this evening!). Now such trips are always preceded by a couple of hours trotting to inoculate me from the risk of a blank. And once I'd got through the bleak and small dace I managed to find some decentish chub from an unfamiliar spot, before a real treat in the shape of a small barbel turned up. This is  now the 3rd season running I've had them from this general area - the green shoots of a recovery - lets hope so! Dusk brought the ledger rods out which produced no further fish - the only excitement to my isotopes being caused by crayfish or bats crashing into the line!

  25. Chris Plumb

    27 August

    By Chris Plumb,


    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Marsh Benham
    0630 - 1130
    Bright sunny morning. AT 12º -> 23ºC. River very low with a hint of colour.
    14 Chub: A 'pounder' and a baker's dozen of small-uns. 30+ Roach & 25 Dace: nothing particularly note-worthy apart from 3 or 4 dace of around 8oz, 5 Perch; all fairly small. 6 Bleak.
    A trip to my syndicate stretch in the hope that Thursday's rain may have gingered the river up a bit and whilst it was still very low there was a little bit of colour. Loads of 'silvers' in every swim I dropped in though the bigger chub must still be sulking somewhere inaccessible. Great to see lots of juvenile ones again - bodes well for a few years time!
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We and our partners use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences, repeat visits and to show you personalised advertisements. By clicking “I Agree”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent.

  I accept