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Showing results for tags 'kennet & avon canal'.
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1330 - 1700 Still mild with milky sunshine - clouding over and quite breezy. 9 Perch; 5 over 1lb - 2lb 1oz, 2lb 0oz, 1lb 13oz, 1lb 12oz, 1lb 3oz with a couple more just shy of 1lb. 1 Chub 3lb 1oz, 1 Roach; 14oz. 3 Pike - all between 2-3lb Can't get enough of a good thing at this water atm! Pike were a bit of a pain forcing me eventually to move swims - which resulted in the chub and the roach - both caught on whole lobs.
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- kennet & avon canal
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K&A Canal - Woolhampton 1500 - 1730 Bright and sunny. Mild - 16ºC 4 Perch; 3 over 1lb - biggest 1lb 14oz Another successful dusk session for stripeys - though the biggest one was caught well before the sun had sank below the trees....
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K&A Canal, Woolhampton 1500 - 1715. Mild and mainly cloudy. 3 Perch: 2lb 4oz, 2lb 1oz, 1lb 7oz. Had to make the most of this mild spell with a dusk session for stripeys. Thankfully they'd read the script and whilst bites were at a premium every one resulted in a nice perch.
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K&A Canal Thatcham & River Kennet - Arrowhead 0730 - 1315 Mild, breezy with light drizzly showers. 8 dace - all a 'nice' size (6-8oz class), 1 chublet & a gudgeon. Another fruitless perch hunt, not a bite (at least from something that didn't have claws!) on the canal so finished off with an hour on the river.
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K&A Canal Enborne (& Speen Moors) 0715 - 1230 (with an hour at Speen in the middle) Cool, overcast with drizzly rain for a couple of hours. 1 Chub; 2lb 9oz. Fruitless search for a perch - not a single bite on the canal - and not a lot of interest on the river after the first cast chub!!
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Avington 0645 - 1200 Frosty start with bright sunshine. AT -1ºC when I arrived, 14ºC when I packed up. 2 Chub; both just shy of 1½lb, 7 Skimmers; one of 2lb+ the rest a few ounces either side of 1lb, a doz small roach, 4 micro perch and 3 gudgeon. First autumn perching trip - but I guess a first proper frost and bright sunshine do not perfect perch conditions make. Even so persisted with lobs for the first 3 hours but every time the float went under it resulted in a bream (and both the chub). When I did get a perch they were smaller than the lob they had somehow managed to gorge! An annoying amount of boat traffic (unusual for here) also didn't help!
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1000 - 1600 Mild, overcast and calm - a benign winter's day. AT around 10ºC all day. Canal VERY low - around 18 inches below what it should be - over-wintering barges had slipped their anchorages - clearly someone's left a sluice open somewhere! A dozen perch to 1¼lb (though most nowhere near that size!). 2 Chub; 2lb 9oz & a chublet. Slow day - not helped by the low water and the only barge of the day coming through at 1515 just as bites were starting to get prolific!! (By the time the swim had settled down there was only 10 mins of day light left - still time enough for my biggest stripey of the day!)
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K&A Canal - Thatcham 0700 - 1000 Warm, overcast and still - perfect perching conditions - shame no one told the fish! 2 perch; both 12oz(ish) Slow morning in a favourite swim of old. Next perching trips will be exploring waters new!
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K&A Canal, Enborne & River Kennet, Speen Moors 0800 - 1300 Cool and Overcast, AT 6ºC. River up a bit with a tinge of colour. 3 Chub: 3lb 13oz with the other 2 a couple of ounces either side of 2lb. A frustrating morning on 2 counts. The plan was for a couple of hours perching followed by a day on the river. However, on arrival I was horrified to see that the CRT had been out with their chainsaws emasculating the vegetation on the far bank - bushes and overhanging trees - all gone. I didn't even recognise my favourite spot. Really hard to fathom the rationale for this - they weren't obstructing the boats - being a long way from the main channel. Anyways I fished for an hour or so without a bite - but did spy 4 cormorants - who were probably having a field day now the fish have no cover! My 2nd mis-calculation was not realising that there was a re-arranged match on. I did check before leaving but this was a postponed fixture from a fortnight ago when the canal was frozen. It was a pairs match as well with half the match anglers on Speen - occupying most of the swims I'd planned to visit - doh! Still Speen is a big water - and I headed off to the other end of the venue where I have caught chub fairly reliably in the past - and so it proved again - not many bites in total but when the float did go under my strike was met with solid resistance.
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K&A Canal Enborne 0800 - 1115 River Kennet - Thatcham 1200 - 1430 Murky, mild and drizzly. Canal; 7 Perch to circa 1lb, 1 Pike 4lb 11oz. River: 1 Chub; 1½lb, 5 Grayling, 2 Dace, 2 Perch, 4 Brownies to 2lb+ Had planned to spend all morning hunting stripeys on the canal - but there was way too much boat (or rather canoe) activity for good sport. So switched to a couple of hours on the river - rather surprised to get so many grayling from here....
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham 0645 - 1130 Bright and sunny. AT 6º -> 10ºC. WT 10.4ºC 12 Dace. 1 Perch (small), 1 Pike (tiny!). Fished 3 new swims (for me), the first of the basis of some recently acquired 'intelligence'! In truth it wasn't ideal conditions for prospecting and whilst I did get a little interest in my lobs before the sun was up it was from a small perch and a micro pike! Will be back when conditions are more optimal!
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Thatcham 0730 - 1015 Calm and overcast. AT 13-15ºC. WT 13.9ºC 5 Perch; biggest 2, 1lb 10oz & 1lb 6oz. Perfect perch morning somewhat ruined by early boat traffic. Bites from the off - but after the first barge came through at 0830 I didn't get another touch!!!
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0700 - 1000 River Kennet - Speen Moors 1030 - 1300 Overcast, with some light early drizzle becoming bright and sunny. River (and canal) very low. K&A - 11 Perch; 4 over 1lb - biggest 2lb 2oz. 1 Chub; 1lb (ish) Speen Moors - 1 Chub; 2lb 10oz, 2 Perch; 1lb 8oz and one just under 1lb. 2 Gudgeon and a Brownie. Slow start on the canal - having arrived before it was light enough to see my float I had to wait until 0830 for my first bite - but then had steady action for an hour. Speen was more of a walk than a fishing trip though did get the chub and bigger perch in consecutive casts from the first swim I tried - but in truth it needs more water - looking very threadbare!
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Kennet & Avon Canal (flowing) - Thatcham 0630 - 1030 Cool, clear and bright. River quite low but with a tinge of colour after yesterday's rain. 4 Perch - all between ¾ - 1¼lbs. 13 Dace, 1 Grayling. First perching trip of the autumn and with a bright clear day forecast I wanted to make the most of the dawn light, Consequently I was at the water's edge way too early and had to wait a while before I could see my float. But as soon as I could it went under with some alacrity - in fact there was a lot of predator activity and I was hopeful of a frantic hour's sport before the sun got up. Alas, after 15 minutes an otter came through the swim - working its way upstream to return 10 minutes later - resulting a bites completely drying up! 3 other swims were then visited - and bumped into Rusty who clearly had the same idea as me - as we met at a banker swim from a couple of winters ago - but which hasn't produced since - our first visit to this spot this season - and we arrive within 5 mins of each other!
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Kennet & Avon (flowing) Canal - Thatcham 1400 - 1600 Very mild & overcast. AT 56ºF, WT 52ºF. River with a tinge of colour after yesterday's rain. 5 Perch; 2lb 8oz, 2lb 3oz, 2 'pounders' and one just under. Couldn't resist such perfect perch conditions. Fished the swim where I had my PB back in 2013 but which hasn't really produced much since. All fish caught in the last 45 mins.
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K&A Canal - Thatcham 1515 - 1815 Bright and sunny. AT around 15ºC - a very pleasant afternoon. 11 Roach. Best 12oz, with another fish circa 8oz - the rest all smalluns. Failed perch hunt (part 2)! Paul and I were hitting the canal for the first time this autumn in search of stripeys. Conditions weren't exactly in our favour and the boat traffic was heavier than we would have wished. Plan was to start off fishing maggot and hope that by attracting the silver fish the perch would follow - however we never really got the silvers established before a boat would arrive and neither of us had some much as a sniff from a perch. Paul did at least get a bigger variety of species including a bleak which he needed for the species race we're in this year!
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K&A (flowing) Canal, Thatcham. 1115 - 1600 Mild, overcast a VERY blowy. Rive at normal levels and quite clear. 20 dace. 1 roach. Failed attempt at a big stripey and/or chub. Wind was a total PITA making trotting close to hopeless.
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Kennet & Avon canal - Widmead 0645 - 1000 Mild and overcast. WT 55ºF 2 Perch; 1 circa 1lb. 1 Pike - another tiny one of 14oz! Perfect perching conditions - shame no one told the perch. Original plan for this weekend had been a trip down to Dorset for grayling but this week's rain has pushed levels up over 2 feet on the river Frome so with relatively benign conditions in West Berkshire I was hoping to emulate (or even better) last week's perch haul. Bites just didn't come and when they did it was usually from crayfish. I was just about to leave when Rusty came trouping along the towpath and in the time we were chatting I had my clearest bite of the morning - alas it was from the micro-pike!
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K & A Canal (flowing), Thatcham. 0615 - 1115 Cool and overcast with the odd spot of drizzle. 1 Chub; 2¼lb, 1 Perch; 1lb 1oz. 21 Dace - to 10oz, 5 Roach, 6 Gudgeon and 2 Brownies - biggest 2½lb. A morning's trotting - fished half a dozen swims in total, some new and some familiar ones. As ever dace were of a good stamp - though I was also hoping to find some decent chub - especially after getting one first cast!
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne. River Kennet Speen Moors 0630 - 1030 Canal 1045 - 1230 Speen Mild, calm and overcast. River low 5 Perch - biggest 1¼lb from the canal 1 Chub ;1lb 15oz, 2 dace, 2 roach, 3 gudgeon and a brownie from Speen. Frustrating morning's perching - made so by lots of scattering fry but limited action on lobs. If I didn't get a bite straight away the signals snaffled the worm. Had meant to fish longer at Speen but couldn't get access to the swims I wanted to (locked gate).
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0630 - 1000 K&A Canal, Enborne 1015 - 1130 Speen Moors 1330 - 1800 River Kennet - Thatcham Foggy morning - clearing by midday to give a bright sunny afternoon. River HIGH and clear. Canal - 5 Perch, 2lb & 1lb 8oz plus 3 little-uns. 1 Chub 1¼lb. Successful dawn raid after a stripey or 2. Chub sicked up a massive gob of brown bread (locals feeding the ducks!) Speen - 2 Brownies 1½lb & 2½lbs More of a walk than a fishing session - but spent 20mins running a float through the little weirpool (though river still so high you wouldn't know it was a weir!) Thatcham - 1 chub - 2lb 9oz. Only fish in the first 20 mins thereafter not a lot despite Rusty arriving to offer tea and encouragement! Missed a few half chances - including an unseen fish I played nearly to the net after he had bade me farewell - but which then somehow threw the hook - ho hum!
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K&A Canal - Enborne 1415 - 1615 Rain! 5ºC. Canal the colour strong tea - and flowing unusually fast! WT 45ºF 3 Perch; 1lb11oz, 1¼lb and a sub pounder. Paul and I had planned a morning trip - but given the forecast I'd switched to a post lunch session and Paul packed the whole idea in! Was still touch and go whether I went - but with the wind dropping right out I thought I'd at least go and have a look! And when I got there I nearly turned around and went straight home. Normal float tactics were never going to work - the bait just didn't stay near enough to the perchy looking 'features' long enough. So it was out with a plan I've been meaning to hatch for some time. A paternoster rig. Swung out across the canal to as near various features as I dared - it wasn't long before I had my first bite - followed by a couple more - given the conditions I was quite chuffed!
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Flowing Canal (K&A), Nr Thatcham 0645 - 1000 Foggy start, brightening up. 7º - 10ºC 9 Dace - all good uns, biggest 11oz! If the last 2 hours of daylight produced a red letter day - would the first 2 hours be the same? The answer a categorical NO! A couple of half-hearted bites on lob was all I had to show before getting the trotting rod out for the last 45 mins and immediately getting among a really good stamp of dace - though even these stopped biting when the sun came out!
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River Kennet & Kennet & Avon Canal - Newbury 0730 - 1130 Warm with a little light drizzle at times. 14 Dace, 7 Perch - only one of which needed the net but was still well shy of a pound, 1 Roach (12oz). Bit of an exploratory session with Paul - visiting some water I've not fished in decades and Paul hasn't even seen! I fished mainly lobs - trying to find some big perch while Paul picked up stacks of small roach and other 'bits' on maggot. My decent roach was on a whole lob meant for perch! Finished off with an hour on the river for the dace.
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Kennet and Avon Canal - Thatcham 0700 - 1000 Overcast and mild (16ºC) becoming breezy. 9 roach, 1 dace and a bleak! Exploratory session, searching for and spectacularly failing to find some new perch swims. Fished 4 likely looking swims (3 I've never fished before) and didn't get a touch on lobs from any of them - not even from crayfish. Gave each spot a good half an hour on worm then had 5-10 mins on maggot to see if there were any bait fish around (there were every time!) Ho hum - good exercise at least!
