Search the Community

River Kennet - Newbury 0630 - 0900 COLD, and clear. AT was 22ºF when I arrived WT a whole 20ºF warmer at 42ºF. River clear and quite 'full'. 13 (!) Chub: In order of capture; 3lb 1oz, 6lb 0oz, 2lb 14oz, 5lb 2oz, 3lb 10oz, 4lb 13oz, 4lb 3oz, 4lb 10oz, 3lb 7oz, 4lb 15oz, 1lb 11oz, 2lb 2oz, 3lb 6oz. 1 Barbel 3lb 4oz. 1 Dace. Simply an awesome session!! All fish on trotted double red maggot (to a size 14). I seriously questioned the wisdom of this trip (and my sanity) when I set off in the half light with my car thermometer reading -6.0ºC. I was heading to my all time favourite chub swim but even so I couldn't of dreamed of 50lb of fish before breakfast! My first ever 6 from here - previous best was a 5-15 back in Dec 07. Barbel a real surprise given the water temp!

River Kennet - Nr. Thatcham 1800 - 0000 Overcast, 20º -> 15ºC but felt a lot cooler fishing an exposed swim in a stiffish breeze - had the thermals on by 8 o'clock! River a little on the low side. 3 Barbel: 9lb 12oz, 8lb 5oz, 7lb 6oz. A trio of terrific hard fighting barbel. First fish (the smallest) just after 2100 followed by the biggest just on 2300 with the 8lber on the stroke of midnight as I was about to pack up. All fish on 14mm halibuts - no activity from signals which is always a good sign!

River Kennet - Nr. Thatcham 0700 - 0930 Cool, overcast with light drizzle. 15ºC. River a little on the low side - but was lower this time last year! 2 Barbel; 7lb 6oz, 6lb 13oz. 5 Chub; 4lb 8oz. 3lb 15oz, 3lb 10oz, 2lb 14oz & a chublet. 6 dace, 1 brownie. Cracking little trotting session - one of my bigger float caught barbel. Most fish in the last ¾hr having moved a few yards downstream of where I started.

River Kennet - Nr. Thatcham 1915 - 2345 Clear, still evening with a heavy dew - temp down to 11ºC at midnight. River at normal summer levels - with a little colour. 2 Barbel: 10lb 2oz, 8lb 0oz. 1 Chub 2¾lb Fished a new swim - somewhat surprising as this is my 29th season on this stretch of water and I've fished nearly every inch of it in that time. A fine brace and my first double since 15 Oct 2007 - it will be a lot less than 29 years before I return to this spot!!! Both Barbel in the first hour of darkness. Last hour plagued with plucky bites which I thought were Signals - but given that I eventually caught one - were probably all down to chub.

River Kennet, Nr Thatcham. 0700 - 1100. Bright after a chilly start. AT 4º -> 14ºC. River low and clear. 4 Chub: 5lb 6oz, 5lb 2oz, 4lb 4oz, 3lb 15oz, 1 Barbel; 6lb 3oz, 1 Brownie. Normal service has been resumed with a cracking brace of 5lb+ chub! 3 Biggest chub in 1st hour of fishing (having fed the swim for ½hr without wetting a line). Rested it and caught the other chub from an upstream swim (along with the spottie). Returned for the last ¾hr and snaffled the barbel. All fish on trotted maggot.

River Kennet - nr. Thatcham 1830 - 2330 Mainly overcast and quite breezey. AT54ºF, WT52ºF and both rising. Positively balmy compared to last Monday evening, despite the wind! 4 Barbel: 10lb 7oz, 9lb 5oz, 7lb 4oz, 5lb 15oz Cracking evening in a swim not a million miles from where John, Chris & Steve have been in the last 72 hours! 9lber first cast - all be it ¾hr after casting out and the double right at the end of the session. Biggest barbel for 3 years. All on hair-rigged halibuts. 9lb 5oz 10lb 7oz Just realised I haven't reset the clock on my camera!

River Kennet - Newbury 0815 - 1115 Mild and overcast. Battery flat in thermometer so no temps. River up a bit to normal levels and carrying a bit of colour. 1 Barbel; 3lb 14oz. 3 Chub; 3lb 9oz, 3lb 3oz, 2lb 13oz. 2 Perch 1lb 12oz and one just shy of a lb. 2 Dace & 3 Gudgeon. An 'insurance' session!! Meant to be having a day on the middle Kennet tomorrow - but if the weather forecast is accurate I'll probably get up, check the rain radar and go straight back to bed!! So this morning, on the excuse that I had to pop over to Tony's to get some maggots anyway, I thought I'd sneak in a couple of hours or so on the bank as I suspected the river would be in good nick - and so it proved. A barbel on the pin at any time is to be welcomed - all the more so in mid-February. All the chub and the barbel on trotted lobs (and one of the dace!). The rest including both perch on double red maggot.

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 0700 - 1000 Cool, breezey and overcast. One sharp shower followed by an absolute downpour just after packing up!! Max 15ºC 3 Barbel; 7lb 6oz, 4lb 3oz, 2lb 9oz. 1 Chub (unweighed but circa 1lb). 3 Dace, 1 Gudgeon & 2 Brownies one of which went 2lb 14oz. A return to the venue I visited on opening day and as I hoped I had the place to myself! This meant I could fish all ½ doz swims in rotation. Biggest barbel from 2nd swim other 2 from 5th one I dropped in. Brownie was chasing in minnows - so 'spinning' a red/white maggot past its lair induced a take! Session was curtailed by the river suddenly turning to the colour of chocolate with loads of debris coming down. Wandering upstream to investigate - there was a JCB in the tail of the weir re-modelling the the river bed! Given the subsequent rain I'm not too displeased! Pic of the 7lber - which put up a merry battle on the Harrison!

River Kennet - Padworth. 1700 - 0000 Bright and breezey start with clouds clearing and temps dropping. 20ºC->12ºC when I packed up. River at near normal summer levels (perhaps a tad on the low side) and carrying its usual summer colour... 1 Chub; 6lb 6oz (Equals my PB! ). 2 Barbel; 9lb 7oz & 4lb 4oz. Well, well, well! For the 2nd year running my first 'static' barbel session of the summer throws up a 6lb+ chub. From the same venue as last year too - though from a swim several hundred metres downstream. Whereas last years 6lb was a beat up old warrior who fought more like a bream on diazepam last nights was in great nick, fought very well for a chub and gave a very good imitation of a barbel - was real surprised when it eventually surfaced. Don't get many chub here - to put it into context - in 10 years of regularly fishing this venue this is only my 3rd chub of any size - and 2 of them have been over 6lb! Chub was caught 2nd cast (about and hour after starting). Smaller barbel around 2130 - which didn't fight half as well as the chub and the 9lber just as it got properly dark at 2300. The 9lb 'radiated gigantism' fought like fury and I had real difficulty shifting it from the bottom - usually the sign of a good fish. Thought all the world it would be a double - long and lean though - needs to pack on some post spawning weight!!!!!

River Kennet - Padworth 1815 - 2345 Mainly cloudy and quite breezy. 15ºC - Though felt chillier in the wind. River up a couple of inches (judging by the grass growing under water!) 4 Barbel; 9lb 7oz, 8lb 0oz, 5lb 6oz, 4lb 11oz. Smallest one 1st cast - within 10 minutes of arriving! Then followed by 2 hours of crayfish activity - attacking the bait within miuntes of it settling. It stopped at dusk - obviously the fish had gone on the munch, as I quickly had the 5lber a little after 2030. Followed this with the 9 at 2200 and the 8, 45 mins later. Had planned to stay longer - but the crays returned at around 2330 so took this as my cue that action was over for the night!!! The 9 - nice fat specimen - looked all the world as if it would be a double - but lacked a bit of length!

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1130 - 1500 Cool and overcast. 15ºC. River at near normal summer levels carrying it usual tinge of colour. 1 Barbel; 3lb 13oz, 1 Chub; 3lb 2oz. 4 Grayling, 1 dace, a gudgeon and 3 brownies. Bit of a recce session with a lot of walking involved - Paul and I are planning an evening trip tomorrow and we're undecided where to go (or even whether to fish a river or a lake!). Fished 6 swims in total so didn't spend long in any one spot. All fish on trotted maggot and most fish (everything bar one of the grayling and 2 of the trout) from the last but one swim I dropped in....might be back there tomorra night! Chub & a Chris Lythe... ps - Rusty - the 'other' grayling was from your 'banker' swim

River Kennet - Newbury 1830 - 2330 Warm, still evening - really surprised to see the thermometer in the car down to 11ºC when I left as it felt MUCH warmer under the trees - quilted shirt and coat both remained 'unworn' all evening. River LOW (now the norm for this time of year - alas ) and carrying quite a bit of colour. 4 Barbel; 6lb 15oz, 6lb 10oz, 5lb 2oz, 4lb 1oz. Nice to get amongst some 'schooly' sized barbel! Got off to a cracking start with 3 fish by 8 o'clock - basically first 3 casts all produced fish. Had to wait until 2230 to bank the next one but did inexpicably 'miss' a couple of 3 foot twitches in the intervening period. No sign of the otter - which probably explains why the barbel were in residence! Last night's biggest...

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1800 - 2330 Mild, overcast with a soft southerly breeze - really lovely night to be out. River low and carrying quite a bit of leaf litter as you'd expect. WT a balmy 56ºF. 1 Barbel; 9lb 0oz. 1 Carp; 15lb 9oz!! Trick or Treat? Never been so disappointed to get such a lovely looking carp - as for nay on 10 mins I thought I was connected to the mother of all barbel!!! This is my 30th season barbel fishing this stretch of river and in all that time I've never caught a carp - until last night! Barbel caught at 2015 - carp 1½hrs later.

River Kennet - Padworth 1630 - 2230 Warm (ish) and overcast becoming quite breezy and rather cool. River 'full' and looking in very fine fettle. 3 Barbel; 9lb 11oz, 9lb 0oz, 5lb 3oz. 21 Dace. A game of 2 halves! Again I found myself introducing Paul to a new venue on his recently acquired TAA book. The plan was to have 3 hours trotting in order for Paul to have a good explore then fish into darkness on the lead. A plan that was nearly executed to perfection. We both found lots of silver fish - dace were of a good stamp and Paul's catch (he had an identical number of dace) was added to with a roach or 2, a couple of chublets and some gudgeon. The 2 swim's I'd earmarked for our more sedentary half of the evening were both gratifyingly free. These are both swims where I've done well in the past, are quite close together and I really couldn't decide which I wanted, so being the gentleman ( ) I let Paul have first dibs. Unfortunately for him it was an incorrect call! Withing 5 mins of casting out I was into a 9lb barbel - with Paul, still with trotting rod in hand, summoned to witness and assist. Another 9lber next cast, followed within the hour by the smaller fish - with still 2 hours before we were due to pack up (and - usually the best time) I was thinking I could be on for quite a haul - but I had no more bites. Paul, alas, had no bites at all!!

River Kennet - nr Thatcham 0830 - 1230 Cool (for June) and overcast - with heavy rain for last ½ hour which persuaded me it was time to pack up early and go home for lunch. Heavy overnight rain - but the river was in good nick with good clarity and down a bit on the 16th. 1 Chub; 4lb 10oz. 2 Barbel; 2lb 13oz, 2lb 1oz. 13 Dace. 4 Brownies - 2 circa 1lb. (Rusty's going to hate me!) A quick return to the venue we visited briefly on the opening day in order to get Paul a float caught barbel. Paul had to work today so I was going solo. My choice of todays venue was influenced by 2 factors. 1, I knew it would be pretty quiet and I should get my first choice swims and 2 -, said swims have recieved 6 pints of Rusty's maggots over the previous 48 hours - thanks for the baiting up - Chris!!! I started in the swim I put Paul in last Saturday and within 5 minutes of starting - the float dipped and I was met with solid resistence. A battle, as much with the current as the fish ensued and it wasn't long before I had the chub subdued in slightly quieter water - my biggest from here for over 2 years. I was saying to Paul yesterday at Padworth that it's a pity this venue didn't produce more dace - so of course today I started to catch some - interpersed with the odd trout. My starter swim produced no more rod benders - so I followed the bait downstream and fished another favourite - the Bridge swim. Again success was almost instantaneous - with a hard fighting fish stripping line off the centre-pin on the strike - when I eventually got it under control I couldn't believe how small it was! Half an hour later and the trick was repeated - this barbel being even smaller - great fun though. Chub Baby Barbel

River Kennet backstream, Padworth 1900 - 2330 Warm, yet clear evening. Lovely night to be out - got to see some early Perseids. 3 Barbel; 8lb 7oz, 5lb 3oz, 4lb 6oz. Bit of an exploratory session - fished a couple of new swims - and got stung to blazes by the nettles - clearly 2 spots that have not seen an angler this season!! Fished in rotation - plan was to give each spot an hour or until I caught - whichever was soonest then switch. As it happened both swims produced a fish first cast (the 2 smaller ones) with the 1st swim then producing the 8 after being 'rested'. A useful and informative session - well worth the extra effort (and the stings!)

River Kennet - Newbury 1100 - 1400 Overcast with drizzle. AT&WT both 49ºF. River still high with little colour - has dropped very little in the last month. 2 Barbel; 2¼lb & 3½lb. 2 Grayling; both 8-10oz. 14 Dace a few chunky ones but nothing particularly big. 1 Roach ½doz Gudgeon. Trotting session for what ever comes along - but hoping a barbel or a chub or two would put in an appearance - so jolly happy with a brace. Could have been so much better - as I had a much bigger one beaten on the surface (circa 7lbs) and was guiding it to the net when the hook pulled - the perils of using a size 18 I guess but bit of a bugger when I'd done all the hard work!......sigh! Barbel and Witcher is always a pleasing sight!

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1915 - 2315 Cool, clear evening - though felt quite snug under the trees. River carrying a tinge of colour after recent rains. 3 Barbel; 7lb 4oz, 4lb 13oz, 3lb 10oz. 1 dace, 1 brownie. This stretch of river is certainly 'saving my bacon' on the barbel front this year - and with Paul getting a brace of 9lbers from here last week there are some bigger ones to go at! As usual I started out with the trotting rod and as usual was fairly quickly into a fish (the 3lber). This is the 6th time in as many weeks I've trotted this swim and it has produced a barbel or a chub (or both!) everytime. By 2030 I was staring at 2 isotopes in the gloom and it didn't take too long for one of them to hoop round resulting in the 4lber. A repeat performance on the same rod an hour later coincided with the EXACT moment that I started to pour myself a cup of coffee - resulting in most of it ending up in the river - adequate compensation though for a very hard fighting 7lb fish.

River Kennet - Near Thatcham 1900 - 2230 Clear evening becoming very foggy. Lovely evening to be out! 1 Barbel - 11lb 2oz I've had a pretty patchy summer on the barbel front - a few schooly sized fish on the float have been fun but I was going into the last week of September not having had a barbel over 8lb for the first time since 98/99 season. So at the weekend I vowed to have a concerted effort between now and when the clocks go back to try and get a decent one. Plan was to target some 'reliable' swims of old (though spots which aint produced much recently), go back to using 2 rods and be prepared for a few blanks in my quest. First outing and in fact first cast and its mission accomplished - I feel almost cheated! My biggest barbel for nearly 6 years - since this eventful evening in 2007. Had planned to fish for a lot longer but the arrival of crayfish shortly after 10pm plus the dense fog which was starting to chill the bones made a warm bed and a warm wife a mucher better prospect!

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1815 - 2315 Cool, clear and calm (despite being a very breezy day - the wind died down at dusk). 9ºC when I packed up but felt cooler. River low with a fair amount of leaf litter - autumn is here! 1 Barbel 6lb 10oz, 1 Chub 5lb 5oz. Again no trotting rod - but still no blank - and I even had my target species (barbel) for a change - only my 3rd of the season. Both fish were caught in the first hour - just as well as I had a couple of otter sightings later on. It mooched downstream at around 2100 and did the return trip an hour later - thankfully just passing through, not stopping to look for a meal. My biggest chub from this venue since 2/10/04. A long fairly lanky fish - be a fair bit heavier next March!

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1800 - 2315 Warm evening - still 17ºC when I packed up. 1 Barbel; 5lb 3oz. 1 Chub (sub 1lb), 3 Dace & 2 brownies both over 1lb. Beginning to get the hang of this! 2 Hours trotting for the obligatory chublet/dace/brownie combo, followed by an expected 3 hours staring at stationary isotopes - but again within an hour of darkness my downstream rod gave a familiar 3 foot twitch and I soon had my 3rd barbel of the summer on the bank - deja vu again...

​River Kennet, Newbury. 1800 - 2315 ​Cool, overcast evening. River down to usual summer levels. ​1 Barbel; 6lb 2oz. 1 Chub 1½lb. 30+ Dace. 1 Roach. Hurray, a barbel at last! Started off with the trotting rod as per usual - and again found a bit of river with stacks of silver fish. Then expected to spend a few hours looking at near static quiver tips (apart from the odd bat crashing into the line). However, just as it got properly dark the pellet rod (fishing a boilie on the other rod) nearly got pulled in and I was in to my first barbel of the summer - and a very welcome one it was too!

Hi, I'm new on here, so this is first post. Last night we were fishing the Trent at gunthorpe for Barbel. No barbel showing but caught this and a few chubb and Roach. not sure if If I'm allowed to post photos , but unsure of the species, looks like may be Chubb even considered Common carp but the shape of the mouth seems to resemble neither. Hey ho will just have to put it down as unsure. oops was going to attach picture but don't think I can do this Cheers Trev

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1815 - 2315 Cool and clear - temp down to 6ºC when I got back to the car! 1 Barbel 8lb 2oz, 1 Chub 2lb. At last a barbel and a decent one too! Quite a few rattles during the first couple of hours - which I'm kicking myself for not hitting - thought they were crayfish - but when I did eventually decide to hit one it turned into a 2lb chub! Rattles stopped when it got dark and at around 2215 had a very strange juddery kind of a bite which when I struck connected with nothing - however on winding in realised I WAS connected to a fish - it had taken the bait and shot upstream - was right under my rod tip by the time I tightened in to it- when it then proceeded to go absolutely mental. Can't remember ever having such a hard fight off a barbel, which when I eventually got it in the net went 8lb 2oz. Un-suprisingly it took a while to recover.

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham. 0930 - 1300 Bright with sunny intervals after early rain. 10ºC. River low and carrying a bit of colour. 6 Chub - all over 1lb, biggest 3¼lb. 1 Barbel; 3¾lb. 6 Dace. 1 Roach & 3 spotties. Well its been a while since I've had a session like that from here! In fact the last time I caught more than 3 chub in a session from this venue was on the first day of the 1993 season! (when I also had 6). Nothing particularly huge, 3 of them were around the 1½lb stamp bur very nice to see some 'schooly' sized fish coming through, All the fish bar a couple of the troot were from the same swim too. Plan for this morning had been to start with a dawn raid on the canal and then switch to a trotting session on the river. Part one of that plan was abandoned at 0530 when I got up, poked my head out the door, checked the rain radar and went back to bed for an extra 2½hours kip! By the time breakfast was over so was the rain so part 2 was put into action. Had planned to cover more water but in the end just fished 3 swims with the bulk of the time spent in just one - really didn't need to move! Cracking sport!