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Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0900 - 1630 Frosty and bright, temps around 2-4ºC all day. River low and clear 8 Chub; 4 chublets and 4 over 2lb, biggest 5lb 6oz. 16 Dace; half over 8oz, biggest 13oz & 12oz. 3 Roach, biggest 1lb on the nose. 6 Brownies - biggest 2, 4¼ & 3¾lb. NAA day on this lovely part of the Kennet so had to share the place with a couple of dozen other anglers! Highlight of the morning was seeing Rusty do an impersonation of Nigel Mansell as he raced off to bagsy the weedrack swim and seeing 2 other anglers pull in behind us on the Kintbury rd, unload their car in a blind panic and practicallly sprint off to their swims to ensure Paul and I wouldn't get them!! In truth we weren't at all bothered as we were pretty sure our secret dace swims were safe (as they were!!). All in all, a fairly slow day as you'd expect in such bright conditions. Paul and I both caught decent dace early on though I had much better success in the last hour when I had the 13oz dace and the 1lb roach in consecutive casts. Paul caught more dace overall - he having had a better 'middle' part of the day - again local knowledge playing a big part. Equally my 'banker' chub swim was unoccupied mid-afternoon and trotting 3 grains of corn on a size 8 quickly brought some decent chub to the net - the 5lber was first cast. Paul and I pride our selves in being last off the venue on such days - but Rusty outdid us - we were on our way home when I got a call from Chris - to say he was still fishing!!!!! Pics from Paul (apart from the chub)...

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0830 - 1730 Cool and Sunny with broken cloud 2ºC->7ºC->2ºC. River very low. 9 Chub; 6lb 7oz (new PB ), 5-2, 3-15, 2-13, 2-10, 1-10 and 3 chublets. 47 Dace, of which less than a dozen were under 8oz!!!! 2 fish of 13oz, 3 fish weighed at 12oz but probably had a load more that were close,10 Roach; 4 of which were over 10oz - best 14oz. 10 Brownies and a Rainbow. This was supposed to be a club day on this lovely estate water - except no one turned up apart from me, Rusty and Steve !! Rusty and Steve explored down stream leaving me to have the whole upstream beat to myself!!!! My plan had always been to fish a chub swim that I fish quite a bit but which is otherwise relatively unknown - I've had a hunch for a few seasons that it could hold a quite special chub and this morning it turned out I was right. In the past I've only ever had one or two fish at a time from it so this morning I approached it a bit differently - taking my time - resting and feeding between fish. It certainly paid off as every time I ran a float through (with 3 kernals of red sweetcorn as bait) I had a bite straight away. The 2,2's were followed by the 5lber, in turn followed by the 3-15. Each fish put back some way downstream and each time I dribbled in more freebies for 10-15 mins before recasting. The 6 was the last fish of the morning and the constant feeding obviously paid off as it nailed the bait seconds after hitting the water - I hadn't even trotted down to the 'take zone'. The aggressive take was more akin to a trout but there was no mistaking this for a trout in the clear shallow water. Having already had a 5 I knew this was somthing special and was even muttering could be 7 as it hung in the fast water refusing to budge. The standoff was fairly brief and it was soon being coaxed into a waiting net where it promptly coughed up an enourmous gob of mashed up corn - could have been 6-08 if it had kept it down!! Still at 6lb 7oz it's a new PB by an ounce - I was well chuffed and all the more satisfying for being caught on the float. Next trot through produced a ruddy brownie = one 'killed swim'. I returned for an hour in the afternoon for 1 more chub before the brownies moved in again... If the morning had started splendidly what was to follow was equally awesome. My plan had always been to switch to dace after a morning's chubbing but I hadn't expected to get so many and such quality - and from a swim I hadn't planned to fish. However looking into the water with my poleroids as I stopped for a mid morning drink and chocolate I could see the swim was stuffed with dace - and by the looks of it some really quite big ones. (I don't think I caught anywhere near the biggest in the shoal!). I weighed the first 5 dace I caught, 3 were 12 oz the other 2, 9 & 10oz. Having got my eye in I only weighed anything that looked bigger - and popped a couple of later fish on the scales which both went 13oz but in truth nearly every fish was of the same stamp - I could see bigger dace in the swim - but never got past the 'schooly' 10ozers to catch one!!! All in all a fantastic days sport - feels like two days fishing in one!

Middle Kennet Estate - Newbury 0700 - 1800 Mild and overcast, breezy at times, temps around 10ºC all day. River still low - though up a tad (maybe a cm or so) on recently. 17 Chub, 6 over 1lb biggest 3lb 0oz. 24 Roach - biggest 1lb 4oz - though quite a few more needed the net. 15 Dace - best 2, 13oz & 12oz. 3 Gudgeon and 4 brownies. A knackering day as we walked the entire length of the fishery TWICE in order to find the fish. My plan was to start off in a known chub swim while Paul started in a nice eddy that requires wading to mid river to fish properly! Having expected chub I was somewhat shocked to start the morning with 2 stonking dace - the 12 oz fish followed next cast by one an ounce heavier - and whilst I caught some more gooduns throughout the day these were the only 2 I weighed. The trekking paid off as we caught in pretty much every swim we visited - and it did mean we could rest some of the hotspots - especially the roach one - where I finished the session with pretty much fish a cast - until Mr Pike decided he'd interfere - he kept returning to hold station right under my feet in order to get the best chance of grabbing a free meal! Paul had a near identical return to me - though his biggest chub was 11oz on from mine - and he did lose one a whole lot bigger. He also had a shed load of gudgeon and a couple of perch - one of which was 2lb. 1st fish of the day... In Bob's footsteps (20 years on) - me poaching Paul's swim with my worming gear (hence no CP!) Chub with an evil eye - Paul sticks his tongue out at a self take!

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

Somewhere in Hampshire (guess the river!) 0815 - 1815 Bright and sunny morning after overnight rain. Clouding over after lunch with more (quite heavy at times) rain after 1530. Temps. 11º-14º-11ºC. 26 Grayling; 12 over1lb, best 3, 2lb, 1lb 14oz, 1lb 13oz. 7 Chub between 2¾lb to 4lb 5oz (2,4lbers). 13 Brownies to 3½lb. Enjoyable (despite the late rain) session where persistence was rewarded. Paul and I only found one prolific swim (and that was mainly full of chub) but if you stuck at it and kept trying something a little new you were usually rewarded with a fish or two. Resting and returning was also a good tactic. Most of my fish were caught on red corn - though not all - the 1-14 was on red maggot. Paul had an almost identical return fishing mainly red maggot. 2 doz grayling to 1¾lb, 6 chub - though 5 of these were 4lbers! and he did better than me at shaking off the trout before landing them - only having to net 6! Oh and he also managed to find a few roach - though I don't think they were particularly big... As usually trying to get a grayling to pose for a pic was neigh on impossible - this was my 5th (and best!!!!!) attempt at my 2lber. Chub on the otherhand are much more accommodating - this is the 'smaller' of my 4lbers. and my bigger one>

Middle Kennet Estate - Nr Newbury. 0700 - 1700 Bright and breezy morning after a frosty start. Clouded over mid afternoon and the wind dropped. (Glad we're not going today in all this rain!). River up on this time last year with good flow - still not as high as I thought it would be.... 9 Chub; All bar 1 over 2½lbs, best 2, 4lb 5oz & 3lb 14oz. 9 Perch; 2lb 3oz & 1lb 10oz the rest all small. 20 dace and a doz+roach (all small though a few of the dace were quite chunky). ½ doz brownies to 2½lb. VERY pleasant days angling. My aim was to get among the chub - achieved first cast with a 3lb fish and it seemed every swim I dropped into gave up a chub or two. Paul had a somewhat different day - many, many more roach than me including a few over ½lb and a best fish of 1lb 2oz (or it might have been 1-03 - I can't recall!), yet at lunch time (soup was roast parsnip) he was chubless - a situation he eventually put right with a couple of 3lbers late in the day. Best comedy moment came straight after lunch when we both took our lobs upto a banker perch hotspot. Nice and sociable we both made 1st casts at the same time - our floats coming into postion no more than a couple of foot apart. And bang on cue they both shot under. My strike met with heavy resistance as the 2lber shot off into the current. Paul's strike - a tiny perch - no bigger than the lob!!! To really rub it in I nearly had 2 for the price of one - we could both clearly see another big perch chasing the one I'd hooked - trying to get the lob that had been blown up the line - it nearly swam into the net as it's mate was landed! We both fished on - but the other biggy didn't return and our LAR (Lobworm Attrition Rate) shot up due to the legions of perchlets, forcing an abandonment to proceedings! Some pics below courtesy of the trips official photographer - Paul! Here be Chub! Autumn Colours A couple of Paul's fish... Paul gets all arty...

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0700 - 1630 Misty and murky all day, heavy showers for last 2 hours - 7-9ºC. 7 Chub; 5 over 2lbs biggest 3lb6oz. 7 Grayling (!) 4 over1lb (&3 over 1½), biggest 1lb 11oz. 9 Dace; 3 of which were 6oz+. 1 Roach. 7 Brownies to 3lb. Eagerly anticipated trip - nice to see the river full after 4+ years of low water. Of course it meant having to almost completely re-learn the venue! We half expected the fish holding areas in low water conditions might not be the same when the river was full - and so it proved. Our nailed on banker dace swim which has produced really good dace in each of the previous 3 seasons produced not a bite to me today! Paul and I had differing objectives for the trip - Paul wanted to get among the dace - something he achieved with 4 fish over 10oz a couple of which went 12oz. I wanted to get among the chub - preferably big ones - which didn't really show up - though lots of schooly ones for future years is a good omen (Paul had 10 but nothing over 3). The grayling were a very pleasant surprise especially their size. The perch on the other hand appeared to have done a disappearing act. (Maybe they've all moved to Gunters!) As we departed the car park at dawn - in opposite directions - I wished Paul good luck with a cheery 'break a rod' something he'd achieved by the time we met up for morning coffee!! Some Pics...(proabably!) Well that worked with postimage.org - though its now stubbornly refusing to upload any more! At last! Thanks to imageshack! 1lb 4oz dace was once caught here! (alas not by me!) Not a 1¼lb dace - one 8oz lighter! Snaggy dace swim - I had some gooduns from here... I actually don't know where this is - Paul??? Chub & Speedia Where have all the perch gone? Last knockings and not a stripey in sight...

Middle Kennet Estate(s) Newbury (am), Kintbury (pm) 0745 - 1615 Breezy with sunny spells. 7º->9º->7ºC. River 'full' and clear - though within its banks after recent (and very evident) flooding. 5 Chub; 4 over 2¼lb - best 2, 4lb & 3lb 10oz. 3 Grayling - 1lb 13oz, 1lb 2oz & 14oz. 5 Dace, 3 over 8oz - biggest 13oz. 2 roach, a gudgeon and 2 Brownies both circa 1½lb plus a 4lb bream which doesn't count as it was hooked in the dorsal - giving the most almighty battle in a fast current and doing a great impression of a huge chub. Bit of a grueller especially in the morning when we covered miles of bank trying to find fish - and when I did find a few - managed to hook one in the backside! More success after lunch and after a second move of the day - this time a couple of miles upstream!!! Paul struggled even more than me in the morning - but decided he would concentrate on trying to catch big dace in the afternoon - something he managed rather well with nearly a dozen over 8oz. Best comedy moment was seeing Paul trying to get into the 'Bob James Position' with thigh waders when really chesties were needed - he never did manage it - but it made amusing viewing! Some pics One of Paul's Dace - looks like a female already in breeding condition. 2, 13oz dace - both Paul and I caught 13oz dace at the same time - mine is the top one and although Paul's looks smaller in the pic it was a lot thicker... A welcome chub - caught 1st cast after the lunchtime move. Followed shortly after by a nice grayling. Paul gets all arty (again) looking upstream toward dace town! The chub that wasn't...

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0900 - 1630 Cold (-1ºC ->3ºC), bright and breezy. Clouding over somewhat in the afternoon. WT 7ºC (won't stay like that for long). River still very high but quite clear. 2 Chub; 4lb 3oz & 1¾lb, 5 Grayling; 3 over a pound best, 1lb 13oz. 10 Dace - only two of which were below 8oz! . Best 13oz which I achieved twice. 5 Brownies to 4lb and 2 Rainbows to 1¾lb. Club day so the plan was to target dace all day and not really move too far from the likely holding areas. As it happened I had the place to myself as only one other angler turned up! Meant I could give the swim a good rest during the worst of the bright sunshine knowing I would be able to get on them again as it got dark - just as well as 8 of them were caught in the last hour of light. One of the 13oz dace - (note a rare outing for the Witcher Avon Elite ) Fat Chub Wilderness Lady

River Kennet - Nr Newbury 0900 - 1600 Cold, overcast with snow laying to a depth of around 3-4inches. Temps hovering around 0ºC all day with frequent sporadic light snow flurries. No wind so wrapped up warm I was quite toasty all day - was actually rather a nice day to be out. River at near normal winter levels and quite clear. WT 42ºC 17 Chub(!); all over a pound with only 4 under 2¼lb, Biggest 4lb 2oz. Most fish in the 2½-2¾lb bracket. 10 Perch; Biggest 4, 2lb 8oz, 2lb 4oz, 2lb 2oz, 1lb 13oz. 16 Dace. 1 Roach, 2 Gudgeon. 4 Brownies including fish of 5lb 1oz and 4lb 5oz. 3 Rainbows to 2½lb. A session that defied logic or at least conventional wisdom as to what constitutes 'good angling conditions'. With air temperatures struggling to get above zero and water temperatures continuing to fall - we expected to struggle - how wrong can you be. I suppose we did have an overcast day and the road salt has yet to get into the rivers - but we considered these mere straws to be clutched! The date had been in Paul and my diaries for some time - we usually try and get a 'special' trip in sometime around my Birthday (which was last weekend). However it was touch and go whether, A we could find a venue that would let us on (or in the case of the Frome was within its banks) and, B we could actually get there. In the end we made the decison at 0700 on the day - and as a concession to the weather opted to arrive and leave in day light. (We usually arrive when it's still too dark to see a float - and leave under the same light conditions!!!!) Any fears that we had evaporated instantly. Paul probably spent most of the morning rueing his decision to turn down my offer to toss a coin for choice of first swim. We both had in mind where we wanted to start - but Paul said 'you can start there'. (well it is MY birthday!) And what a present the river delivered. In the first 1½hours of fishing I had 14 chub to 3¼lb plus the two biggest trout. I don't usually weigh the trout but these were 2 impressive fish. At times the fishing took on Mr Castwell proportions - with the float dipping at the same point in the swim every trot - and yet another 2½lb chub was brought to the net (as opposed to a similar sized trout in Skues' fable). A schooly 2½lber... By the time Paul joined me for mid-morning coffee, bites were begining to dry up - I was almost thankful!! We agreed that we'd rest the swim and that Paul would have first dibs to fill his boots in the afternoon - something he did with aplomb - snaffling another 8 fish including one of 5lb 3oz. I joined him right at the end of the day and was allowed to run a float through a few times. Paul had just announced that we hadn't caught a 4 lber today (a less than subtle ruse to draw attention to the fact he'd caught a 5 methinks!) when bang on cue I get one of just that size. Between the morning and late afternoon chubfests - Both Paul and I had some great predator action. Paul had spent most of the morning catching dace - something I joined in on after my chubby start but after lunch we both decided on seeing if we could get some predators. Paul had his pike gear with him and had seen a fish in the shallows - plus I'd lost a dace to a pike. My target was a perch or two - though that was more in hope than expectation. Sure enough my perch campaign got off to a slow start - chub in cold conditions is a bit of a staple but perch - I must be mad. These thoughts were going through my head after 15minutes of looking at a stationary float when all of a sudden it bobbed twice and slowly went under. A strike met with the briefest restistance and no lob - crayfish? a perch?. The answer wasn't long in coming as my next bait was snaffled even before the float cocked and a nice perch shot out from the slack into the main current - a nice fish of 2½lbs... I'd added 3 smaller ones to this when I had a call from Paul. He'd caught a big pike and could I come and take its portrait with its captor. It was a VERY nice pike short and very fat as trout fishery pike often are and at 17lbs exactly a new PB for Paul.. Paul then caught a couple of jacks and after the hiatus I returned to my Perch swim to continue where I'd left off with a couple more 2lb+ fish and half a dozen smaller ones upto 1lb. 4 O'clock and time to pack up as we wanted to be off the country roads while it was still light. Normally I'd be a bit regretfull at leaving a venue such as this while there was still fishable light - Paul too - but today we were well and truely sated!!!! Paul's 5lber - should be easy to identify again in the future... Winter Wonderland

Middle Kennet Estate 0730 - 1630 Light sleet/drizzle ALL day. 2ºC (ALL day). River high but in its banks (just) and with little colour. 5 Chub; 5lb 8oz, 4lb 9oz, 4lb 5oz, 4lb 0oz, 3lb 10oz. 3 Rainbows to 4lb 7oz, 2 Brownies to 2½lb A day Paul and I had pencilled in for some time (with very light pencil given current conditions!) and the plan had been to invite Chris & Steve and to target monster dace on another stretch of river. Alas permission to fish that bit wasn't granted so we had to 'make do' with this beat. My confidence wasn't high as Paul and I had struggled here once already this season. And this despite the fact the keeper had pointed out a new stretch for us to try. However that didn't dint our collective enthusiasm and I wasn't surprised to see 2 car headlights picking out the track ahead of us when we pulled into the estate - yup Chris (Rusty) and Steve (JV44) had arrived even earlier than us. Cold sleet and a high river was always going to make for a tough session - however flows were down a bit on December - so Paul and I put the other 2 off the scent and dashed up to the top of the fishery to where we'd had some (actually more than some) good roach last winter. Alas, it was still tanking through and the 'roach slack' wasn't slack. So we were quickly working our way down the main river - Paul had spotted a nice 'glassy' run which looked like it might contain chub and was soon putting a float through it. I joined him some 50m upstream though my swim was a lot more boily but at least I had a feature to cast to.... Looking upstream from Paul's swim Paul was trotting maggot - but I had a cunning plan - red/orange sweetcorn - and 2nd trot, 3 kernels on a size 8 was snaffled by my best chub of the season - 5lb 8oz. Don't I look happy! Coloured sweetcorn looks a lot like trout eggs and I reckon chub must see (and eat) a lot - its a bait I have a lot of confidence in on fisheries such as this! A rainbow soon followed and after Paul bade me farewell to go exploring (still fishless) I had the 4.09 rubber lips - which sicked up a goodly mouthfall of Paul's maggots in my net! By the time we met up for mid morning coffee I'd added a small brownie and a 4lb rainbow to my tally and Paul had managed to snaffle himself a chub of around 2 ¾lb. Me & Rusty After coffee Paul and I went to have a look (and fish) the new bit. I wasn't particularly confident as we'd fished the same stream (although further up) a couple of years ago without success. The hut is in the middle of the beat - and upstream looked pretty featureless. And downstream wasn't much better. Still we had to give it a go so we walked upto the top and spent an hour and a half leap frogging swims - for the grand total of a brownie - each! Lunch was then taken - with Jaq's Roasted Squash, Chilli & Almond Soup getting a big thumbs up from two damp anglers. So it was back to the main estate - and this time we re-located ourselves to the bottom of the fishery. To a swim featured in APFA - the one where CY poaches a chub from BJ's swim and gets a catapult of maggots for his trouble! Alas there was no chub here - and by mid afternoon I decided I'd trek back up to the top of the fishery to 'my' chub swim as I figured it would have had a good rest from this morning. The walk is a long one, about 1½miles - shorter as the crow flies - but I'm not a crow! However it was worth the effort. I bumped into Chris on the way - and even landed a chub for him. And what he didn't tell me was that 'my' swim hadn't had quite the rest I'd thought it had - below is the pic of it from his blog!!!! Thankfully Chris hadn't fished with magic beans (well kernels) and the last couple of hours saw me catch 3 more chub and another rainbow - before I ran out of bait - I did have another tin - but it was in the car and that was....1½miles away!

Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham 1300 - 1730 Mild, overcast with some 'milky' sunshine at times. 10ºC. WT bouncing between 44/45ºF when I arrived rising to 46ºF when I packed up. 1 Perch; 4lb 2oz! (New PB ), 1 Chub; 5lb 10oz. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! It is a quest that started in 2005 with an eavesdropped conversation in Tony's tackle emporium when a guy at the till was describing in some detail the capture of a 4lb 11oz perch from the canal while I hung on his every word. I have never stared at wagglers so intently!! Whilst he didn't go on to descibe the swim the general area was given away - and I resolved to give the stretch some serious attention. At the time I'd been following up rumours of 4lbers from Speen and whilst I'd had a smattering of 3s and pushed my PB to 3lb8oz, I'd come to the conclusion that low 3s appeared to be the top weight I could realsitically hope for from there. So it is somewhat ironic that this season has seen me switch back a little bit to Speen and to the canal at Enborne for my perching. In the 8 years since that piece of intelligence I have had 38 perch over the 3lb mark from the Thatcham stretch (I've just looked back in my diaries counting them!) and my PB had edged up to 3lb 14oz - a mark I've achieved twice. But last winter the canal authorities saw fit to rip out ALL the swims on this stretch. Every overhanging bush, branch and tree has been cut down and grubbed out - every holding area for big stripeys gone. Consequently finding the fish this winter has been a real challenge and whilst I have few decent fish - I was still going into the last month of the season not having caught a 3lb perch for the first time in over a decade. So part 2 of yesterday's adventure was to try and make up for the fact I hadn't had a 3lb perch this season (which now I come to think of it I still haven't! ). My season's best before today being a 2lb 14oz fish from Speen back in Oct (see blog for entry 13 October). The swim I had in mind is one that Paul has 'discovered'. He's fished it a couple of times and had a 3lb 8oz perch just the day before. It's also not a million miles away from where Rusty has been catching 3lbers this winter too - so if you can't beat them..... I arrived in quite bright sunshine and the first puzzle was to find the swim - it wasn't at all apparent I was in the right spot - little evidence on the bank so a quick call to Paul to get my barings. I was also surprised that Chris wasn't in his swim - I would have bet money on him perching today - and sure enough a couple of hours or so after I arrived he showed up! I wasn't expecting much action until late afternoon - so the first couple of hours were quite lesuirely - despite arriving at 1 o'clock it was gone 2 before I put a lob out into the swim. The time was spent having some lunch, trickling some maggot into the swim - and even trotting maggot to see if there were any bait fish around (there wasn't!) Eventually I cast a worm out but really wasn't expecting much - in fact sitting on the mossy bank I was actually starting to nod off (the result of a lunchtime beer no doubt) when suddenly my float disappeared and my rod tip wrapped around as a fish headed for the tree roots. This was clearly no perch - I briefly thought it might be a tench before I saw those lips surface - a big chub - by far and away my best ever from the canal - and my biggest of the season. Most unexpected. An hour after this Rusty arrived and shortly after he was installed in his swim I had my second bite of the afternoon - this alas didn't meet with success - a pike, whose love of lobs I have oft chronicled, shot off across the canal with the line parting as I gave it some resistance. And then it happened. Bob, bob, under, strike. It's happened a hundred times before and thankfully it didn't enter my head that this was any different. It did feel like a good un and I was simply feeling pleased that I would have my 3 for the season. As I netted it I even shouted 'a big 3' in response to the enquiry from the angler fishing downstream on the opposite bank. On the bank though it was clearly bigger than any perch I'd ever seen in the flesh, deep and incredibly fat the needle on my scales initially bounced down to nearly 4½lbs before settling on just over 2oz above the 4lb mark - I'd done it! Even better I had Chris on hand to act as official photographer. There was still an hour of daylight left and with Chris quickly getting a decent stripey too we thought we might be in for something really outstanding - especially as there was fry scattering in the margins next to my swim. Alas our floats remained stationary and the surface activity quickly died down so whilst I could have fished on for another 20 minutes or so I reasoned that perch dinner time had come and gone and it was time for my dinner and a celebratory glass or three of Rioja!

River Kennet - Nr Newbury 0730 - 1745 Cold and overcast with a raw easterly wind - though thankfully reasonably sheltered on most swims at this venue. Max temp all day was 2ºC though judging by the times the line was freezing in the rings it was close to or below freezing for all but 2 or 3 hours around midday. WT 43ºF River clear with good flow. 10 Chub; 8 over 2lb, best 3, 4lb 12oz, 4lb 6oz, 4lb 3oz. 18 Perch; all small except for one clonker of 3lb 3oz!. 3 Pike; biggest 7lb 4oz. 22 Dace; 2 worthy of the scales one at 10oz and a really nice fish of 12oz. 1 Bream; 1lb 6oz, 6 Roach; 4 of which in the 6-8oz bracket, 1 bleak; 5 brownies to 3¼lb. Plan C! We had hoped to be fishing further upstream for big dace but we couldn't get the required permissions. We also considered a trip to the Itchen but in the end settled for this venue - which is becoming a bit of a go to when conditions are as sub-optimal as they were today (see also, blog entry for 19 January). The day started with a toss of a coin as both Paul and I wanted to begin fishing where the chub were all holed up last month. As it happened though they were spread throughout the fishery so whilst I won the toss and did get my biggest from the hotspot I also caught decent chubfrom 6 different swims - as did Paul who had a near idientcal return with 7 chub and the same number of 4lbers as me. As usual the day was spent wandering the fishery and dropping into pretty much every likely looking swim (at least twice!). And like last time we took a couple of hours out to hunt for preds - though this time it was me that was after a pike or two - as I'd not caught one this season. My big perch though was a bit of a fluke - caught trotting maggot when after chub - my 1st ever 3 from this venue! My best chub of the day. 3lb stripey Me in the swim where I had my big perch. Under the dogwood in this photo (far bank) was black with chub - we just couldn't tempt them out into the open!

Middle Kennet - Nr Newbury 0715 - 1745 Cold and RAW, with frequent snow flurries and a mini blizzard around lunchtime. Strong and dessicating NE wind. Temps 0ºC or below all day (line freezing to rod ALL day), wind chill must have been minus loads! Spring is here - NOT! WT a balmy 43ºF. 17 (!) Chub; Almost all over 2lb - biggest 3lb 14oz, 4 Perch; 2 'gooduns' at 2lb 2oz &1lb 14oz. 23 Dace - quite a few chunky ones and 2 real corkers; a female fish of 13oz and a male fish of 14oz. 6 Roach - all small. 2 Brownies 1½lb & 2½lbs. Brrrr We must be mad - any other venue and we probably would have cried off - but this is now the third time we've been here in sub-optimal conditions and the place has fished its socks off (see 19 Jan & 22 Feb). Certainly a day for several layers of thermals, hot soup (Jaq's Honey Roast Parsnip) and plenty of coffee. The keeper even unlocked the fishing hut for us - and what a palace it is, full kitchen, lounge, loo, heaters, spare kit. Trout anglers have it cushy! Yet again I won the toss and had first dibs at the chub hotspot and whilst I did get 6 chub from it - all the others, bar 1, came from a different swim in the afternoon - one that hasn't really produced for me in the past. So Paul having lost the toss decided to get his worming gear out and target the perch. Good luck with that says I (somewhat triumphantly it has to be said!) - I think you'll struggle to get perch today. Well what do I know - in the time it took me to get my first two chub Paul had snaffled a dozen stripeys with several fish over 1½lb and a best of 2lb 4oz. I dropped into the same spot in the afternoon and had my two biggies 1st & 2nd casts! Apart from more perch I think Paul's final tally was nearly identical to mine - slightly fewer 1lb+ chub and more trout (and I think he also worried the local bleak and gudgeon populations ). So worth getting out of bed for despite the conditions and whilst the 5lb+ chub appear a bit thinner on the ground here at present it's good to see SO many coming through. Also today I was particularly pleased with my chub to trout ratio - fewest number of trout I think I've ever had here in a day - so the cold did bring some good!!! Obligatory fish plus Witcher pictures. Some Pics from Paul. Our nets were doing this all day - frozen solid! Spring? Dace! From here!

River Kennet - Thatcham 0645 - 1030 Bright and sunny - a lovely spring morning. River still very high though running clear and a couple of inches down on Sunday. 3 Chub; 5lb 14oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 6oz. 3 Perch; 3lb 1oz, 2lb 11oz, 2lb 3oz. Stonking session in the swim I fished on Sunday - though this time there was a bit more flow as the flood water is starting to run off. In truth I hadn't planned to fish here but Paul paid a visit during the week and had a couple of really nice perch (2-09 & a 3) so plans were changed! This swim always looked like it should have perch though until now Paul and I have only caught chub here. Even so with a bright sunny morning in prospect I didn't expect sport (if I had any) to last too long, as it turned out most of the fish came after 0900 when the swim was bathed in full sunlight! Smallest perch on lobs - everything else on trotted maggot. Biggest chub of the season. Pics. of best 2 fish of each species... 3lb 14oz 2lb bigger! Just over 3 - as fat as a football. A bit smaller but better proportioned...

River Kennet - Newbury 0800 - 1115 3 Chub; 4lb 2oz, 3lb 7oz, 2lb 12oz. 1 Perch 2lb 9oz. 1 Bream 2lb 6oz. A doz+ Dace, 5 Gudgeon, 4 Roach, 1 Grayling and 3 Trout parr. River Kennet - Thatcham 1145 - 1315 1 Brownie - 1½lb (caught twice within 10 minutes!) 1345 - 1600 1 Grayling 1lb 10oz. Bright and cool - with a breeze picking up in the afternoon. WT 48ºC. River in perfect winter nick - good flow (but wadable )and just a hint of colour. First trip of 2015 and the plan was to start at a trusty old favourite, have lunch on a nice eddy and finish on last winter's 'hot spot'. With chub a target from all 3 swims. The morning got off to a flyer and took me back a decade when sessions like this were almost the norm on this part of the river. 8 species (9 counting the 2 minnows I had) and my biggest perch from here since 2010 (see blog of 02/10/10 - http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-576-2-october/ ) really turned the clock back. I only had enough bait for the morning so had to shift off to Tone's for replenishment of gentles and then luncheon by my 2nd swim of the day. I nice eddy which has produced chub on my last 2 visits here - alas the trout - or rather A trout - didn't let them get a look in. I landed it twice - and had it on a third time. The result one totally trashed swim. And so off to my 3rd swim of the day - one I wanted to fish as the light faded as it produced some good perch (as well as chub ) last winter - and I had a 3lb 10oz stripey from it back in November. Again, though, neither species was in residence - I didn't blank though - my only bite - within the first 10 minutes. producing a surprise grayling of 1lb 10oz - I think it's my biggest ever grayling caught on the Kennet 'below Newbury' (I've had a few 2's from the middle river in the past). First fish of 2015 - a 4lb chub! Bonus Perch Surprise Grayling

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1900 - 2300 Warm, balmy evening - in shirtsleeves all session - temp still at 19ºC when I got back to the car. Lovely evening to be out! 3 Chub; 4lb 10oz, 4lb 2oz, 3lb 4oz. 1 dace, Another evening NOT catching barbel - but at least some half decent chub kept me occupied for the first couple of hours. Biggest chub and the dace on trotted maggot in the first hour. Other 2 chub on ledgered snailz boilie (an impulse buy when I was in Hinders back in May!! ) in the second hour. All fish caught by 9.00pm. Very gratified to see the margins absolutely black with fry - thousands and thousands of fish - hope they're not all minnows!

Middle Kennet - Kintbury 0745 - 1530 Bright and very breezy with a couple of very brief but very lumpy showers. Torrential rain curtailed proceedings half an hour early. River quite coloured and milky (much more than is normal for here) - the product of the springs breaking on the downs and not yesterday's rain. Middle and upper river has been like this for the past week according one of the keepers I was chatting to. 12 Chub; 9 over 3lb, but only 2 over 4 - best 4lb 7oz. 14 Dace - most quite chunky with 3 really good fish of 10,12 & 13oz (season's best). 4 Grayling, 3 Roach. ½doz+ Brownies to 3½lb. All out chub quest in the morning with 3 out of my 4 chub 'banker' swims producing fish - though 7 came from one spot. All chub on trotted red corn - I hardly used maggot all day. Shame the really big chevins didn't show up - the one swim I blanked in was the one I had my PB from (6.07) in 2012. Last hour and a half was devoted to snaffling a big dace from the carriers - and whilst I had a season's best I also lost a much bigger fish (maggot had folded over the hook point - poo!). Biggest Chub of the day: Biggest dace of the season (so far!)

Northcroft Stream & River Kennet - Newbury 0615 - 1000 plus an hour at Hambridge*. Bright, frosty start. Soon clouding over. River full, pacey and gin clear! 2 Chub; 4lb 8oz & 2lb 11oz. 5 Dace & 2 Grayling* Chub were the initial target and thankfully it paid to get bankside early (it got rather busy later). Both chub in the first half an hour. Spent the last hour trying to catch a large (12-15lb at a guess - got a good look at it) pike which repeatedly was attacking my trotting float. Unusually for me I had some deadbaits with me (for Plan B later in the morning) so put on a dead roach and trotted that through the swim - only for the pike to keep attacking the float on the retrieve and not the bait!!! - it happened half a dozen times yet also showed no interest in a floating plug when I switched to that. Plan B was to fish a large slack on the river proper with trotting gear and pike rod - but already 2 other anglers in occupation so I was left with a short trot in 3rd choice swim for a couple of grayling. Frosty chub - covered in black spot - though pic's a bit over exposed so can't really pick them out...

River Kennet - Thatcham 0930 - 1230 Overcast and mild with squally showers. 9ºC. River up 3-4 inches on last visit (Boxing Day) and quite coloured up. 1 Chub; 4lb 4oz. 8 Dace - most normal dace size with a couple of clonkers that warranted the scales - 12oz & 10oz. Possibly my biggest ever from here. 1 Roach, 1 Grayling. Plan was to get a chub - achieved within 10 mins from a reliable spot but unlike 2 weeks ago I couldn't winkle out another one - this is probably the same 4lb Rusty's had out recently! Then found a nice slack where I had all the rest of the fish from. Three other anglers here and none of them had caught a thing - so feeling quite smug! Same as your's Chris?

River Kennet - Newbury & Thatcham 0430 - 1700 Warm (Up to 22ºC), mainly overcast and quite breezy at times. River in summer mode - ie low! 3 Chub; 4lb 10oz, 3lb 6oz & 3lb 2oz. 50+ dace with many in the 6-8oz class - biggest 9oz. ½doz Roach, 1 Grayling and several brownies to nearly 1lb. 4 different venues and a total of 11 swims fished - a day for travelling light. Just took rod, net, bait and food (and drink!). Started in Newbury and basically worked my way downstream! Dace everywhere - but I was hoping for something a little bigger - eventually achieved with a trio of nice chub from my last 2 venues. Was hoping for a float caught barbel too - but I guess that's just being greedy!

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 - Newbury 0515 - 0745 Cool (5ºC when I started) and clear. River with a little more flow and quite clear for a change. 1 Chub; 5lb 13oz. 30 Dace. 20 Roach. 6 Gudgeon. 1 Grayling. Cracking dawn trotting session and home for breakfast! Chub were the target and I was at the head of the swim before 0500, trickling in maggot for 20 mins or so waiting for it to get light enough to see my float. Sure enough the trick worked and first trot through the float buried and I was connected to a lump of a chub - which thankfully I managed to keep out of the various obstructions on offer to it to effect an escape. After such a great start I was hopeful of some more chevins - however it soon became clear that Mr Esox was in residence (or probably MRS Esox judging by the size of it) and after its brekkie so I dropped downstream 60m or so and fished a fast streamy run for the rest of the morning - where it was practically a fish a trot.

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0645 - 1815 Bright and sunny - cloudy for final couple of hours. AT up to 14ºC. River at near normal levels. 19 Chub; 17 over 2lb (14 over 3!), Best 6: 4lb 9oz, 4lb 7oz, 4lb 4oz, 4lb 2oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 12oz. Circa 60lb of chevins! 12 Dace; Best 2 11 & 10oz. 12 Roach (all small), 10 Brownies to 3lb. End of season chub-fest on this lovely corner of West Berkshire in the company of Rusty. All chub from just 3 spots and all on trotted red corn (plus a couple of chublets on maggot). Fished on into dusk hoping for a big dace as per last year - but only managed to significantly up my trout tally in the final hour - oh hum. A wonder if Mr otter as been worrying the chub - about a third of the fish I caught had bite out of their tail fins! A couple of pics of damaged chub - both 4lbers...

Northcroft Stream 0445 - 0715 Warm (19ºC when I packed up) and overcast. 2 Chub 3lb 15oz & 1½lb. 2 doz + dace, 6 roach and 6 gudgeon. Pre breakfast trotting trip - mainly after the chub - though I did hear of a few barbel coming out on the float from here last summer - which would have made a very nice bonus - alas not to be! Nearly all the silver fish from the weirpool - both chub further downstream.