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(1) Tuesday pm, had another 2 hours to waste my time tossing a lure around, despite the persistent rain throughout. You can't say I'm not keen. The water below the bridge was thick with run-off from the fields, whereas above the lock it is gin-clear through lack of boat traffic, but neither proved conducive, as I didn't get a touch (again). Lure fishing always looks so easy on YouTube. The occasional explosion of bleak suggested the perch were about, but I couldn't tempt them no matter how many times I changed lure, depth or retrieval rate. (2) Wednesday pm. More rain, so hid under the brolly at Willows. A nice afternoon's mixed fishing with a Mirror of 8lb 8, a surprise tench of 2lb 9. bream of 5lb and finishing with 2 x Commons on 7lb 6 and 5lb 6. That was more like it. (3) Friday. No rain, but the gentle breeze was bitter. Nothing from first light except having to watch lovey-dovey grebes necking in my swim, as well as regular shameless duck gang-bangs putting me right off my bite detection. Then a million black gnats hatched and insisted on swarming over my head. But finally, at 2pm, two Commons of 6lb 9 and a stonking 14lb 2 arrived within 5 minutes of each other and suddenly it wasn't a bad day after all. The fun died down again, but there was still time for a 7lb 8-er to make it a hattrick.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1415 - 1715 Bright and VERY,VERY blowy - never see such waves on the canal before! AT 10ºC 4 Perch: a couple of 'pounders' and a couple half that. I ummed and ahhed about what to do today given the conditions and heavy rain around mid-day. Ended up having another fairly fruitless session trying to winkle out a big stripey from my nearest water - though yet again conditions were very sub-optimal. Only had a couple of 2lbers from here in half a dozen trips and they both came on my second visit in November. All the 'action' if you can call it that today came in the first hour under bright sunshine. Dusk brought not a bite - or if there was one it was to subtle to detect in the heavy chop!!!

Kennet and Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1500 - 1700 Overcast and very windy with occaisional (and un-forecasted!) drizzly showers. AT 9ºC. Completely different weather to earlier in the day. 3 Perch; 1¼lb, another one half that and a tiddler. Bites at a premium and a very stiff downstream wind didn't help one bit! No 'witching hour' switch on either.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 1415 - 1645 Cool and overcast. 4ºC 3 Perch: 1lb 7oz, 1lb 4oz and a tiddler. Now this was a real gamble! The upper pegs of this stretch were still frozen over so the water temps would have been very low. However I always fancy my chances in the winter when the light fades - and so it proved. I pater-nostered a lob - to keep it in the same spot adjacent to the common reed and after 2 hours without any indications what-so-ever the float bobbed once and went under at 1620 - the result a 1lb+ perch on the bank. The next 2 casts also produced bites (and fish) but by 1630 the action was all over!

A week of hard, cold weather meaning not much gardening on, but more chances to fish. Wednesday pm - a few hours at the canal. Much quieter than of late, with 17 roach (compared to the recent 50's) albeit the largest a pleasing 4 ounces. Oh, and 3 bleak and a minnow, if you're counting. Spent the last hour on lures hoping for repeats of last weeks perch, but with another frosty night imminent, I think it was just too cold for them. Friday - Minus four at kick-off, with the canal at Eborne was totally frozen over as I made to the northern stretch of the Moors. Fancying a go at chub-bashing, I link-legered breadflake, spending no longer than 3 casts or 20 minutes in each swim, before moving on to the next. Casting to the overhangs, fallen trees and anything else 'chubby', I didn't get a touch in 4 hours. Even the one crayfish that grabbed my bait fell off on retrieve. Spent the last hour on the weir where I welcomed a single blank-bustin' brownie of 2lb 4. Today - No frost for the first time in over a week, and with it overcast I fancied the perch might be hungry in the first hour. If they were, they didn't fancy any of the lures I tried. Swapped rods and set up in my 'roach' swim to have another look for any bigger roach. A euphoric 'no'. In 90 minutes, I didn't get a single bite at any depth on any line. So, to shake the mixer again, I crossed the road, swapped stick float for chubber and trotted the river. I loose fed and switched between maggot and red corn to continue my biteless day. It came to my finishing time at 1pm and I audible sighed 'last cast then', and off it trot like it had fifty times or more up until then. But this time the float dipped and in came a 6-ounce silver. Not just a 'boring' roach or dace, but a beautiful grayling. Cheers, fish gods.

Well, that was a fun afternoon. The plan always was to spend the first half of it with stick float and single maggot on the canal. Despite the morning frost, it was beautiful in the sun, and with no wind or boat traffic, it was like a millpond. Once the fish picked up on the gentle loose feeding and occasional conker of groundbait, the roach came in thick and fast. I stopped when I got to 50 (in less than 2½ hours) , supplemented by six bleak (not dace). Curiously, the roach started small, then I found bigger ones at two ounces, then the three ounce 'big boys' took over. Sadly, that's when the sequence ended, the final three coming in a slow last half hour when no matter how often I changed the line of depth, I couldn't find them again. No matter, cue the second part of the plan. I swapped rods for the 6ft lure rod and tiny reel I'd bought with Xmas vouchers and went started roving the banks. I've never really given lures more than a token toss for a few minutes every now and then, but hey, there are so many lure anglers these days, they must be catching something. It was fun flinging the things around, and using braid, I felt every knock as I jigged them across the canal bed, but all I managed to do was lose three lures pulling in major sunken branches. It started to darken and I was anticipating a second-half blank, when there was a couple of jags on the rod tip and I'd snared a fish! Turned out to be a nice one too, a 2lb 6 perch. With the same rubber-tailed shad, I also managed a 1lb 6 perch in fading light at my 'roach' swim.

Two short sessions squeezed in around Jo's shifts. Sunday - Willows. Why, oh why, do I repeatedly tell myself that lakes are a good idea in winter? OK, the temperature has been double-digit for 10 days with a steady SSW, wind and the water temperature has risen from 5.5 a few weeks ago to 10.5 degrees today, but the water was choppy and seemed dead. Dead enough to put a blank-bustin' maggot out on float for the last hour, but even that was a struggle. Managed just three roach to 3oz when for the second day running, un-forecast rain moved in. Everything got drenched in the next half hour, and presuming the water temp to have dropped, I gave it up. Naturally, as I loaded the car the rain stopped: just like that. I walked to speak to the two other poor souls fishing. Mat and Dan had caught one small carp between them. I'd not met them before and this was only Mat's third trip as a new member, but as I invariably find with members, they were friendly, chatty and keen to swap tips. They were even kind enough to let me use some of our conversation in issue 2 of the NAA newsletter, due out by next week, fingers x'd. Wednesday pm, I gave myself the choice of the Lambourne or 'my' swim on the canal. Sadly, it seems to me there are always too many anglers on the Lambourne, particularly in the afternoons to the point where I feel sorry for the grayling. So while I thought I still might do better there in terms of weight, particularly given the return to minus temperatures last night, I plumped for the canal. It was beautiful sitting in the sun, it really turned when it hid behind the trees and was a chilly 2 degrees when I left at dusk. There was also a fairly persistent westerly breeze causing a bit of a chop which, given the bright sunshine, I couldn't decide if it helped or hindered the fishing. Slower than other trips, I still managed 23 roach, a few bigger than the one photographed, being 3 or 4 ounces, plus three bleak. Sadly no gudgeon. No perch either, though there were a number of surface attacks sending the bleak into explosions of panic. Perhaps I'll take a worm or two next time.

A last chance for a fish in 2021 and a zip down to 'my' swim on the canal, 3 minutes drive from home. With the wind gusting, float presentation wasn't the easiest, and while the roach weren't there in such quantities, the ones that came seemed to have grown. Among the 21 I caught, more than half were over 2 ounces and two were netters (only around half a pound, but I didn't want to lose them). The perch were back too, well, two of them, the larger being 12 oz, and also I was visited by a New Year tiny, shiny gudgeon - what better way to celebrate? Happy 2022 to you and all of the fishes I've encountered and, hopefully, am yet to meet.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1400 - 1615 Bright and breezy after morning rain. AT 10ºC. Canal surprisingly coloured up after recent rains - surprising - as the canalised river below Woolhampton lock wasn't at all coloured! 8 Perch; 3 'pounders' - best 1lb 9oz. None of the rest particularly small - all around 8-10oz class. Dusk session to take advantage of the mild temps and a (temporary) cessation of precipitation! Whilst I wasn't at all confident when I arrived and saw the colour of the water I needn't have worried as bites were immediate and were slow and steady for the duration - with the biggest, first fish caught.

Nothing to mention on my first hour on the weir at Speen Moors. The rain was distinctly unpleasant, and though my waterproof suit made me look like a terrorist Michelin man, I was cosy and dry, which I could not say for my maggots, who, lubricated, were soon climbing out of their pot and I spent more time fielding them than watching my float. Note to self: don't forget bait apron next time. Having suffered several tangles due to the wind persistently wrapping it around the rod tip, three hook lengths breaking on snags both in and out of the water, being steamed by three boisterous Labradors and having had no bites: the one minnow i caught not even bothering to register on the float (well, at least it won't be a blank today!) I made the walk to the canal earlier than planned. Overcast, warm, wet and gusty but without the Westerly wind that can make float fishing difficult here, I started for pike. I had two runs either side of 1pm. The first gave me a sighting of its long silvery side before spitting out the hook, the second took my mackerel deep into the reeds from which the pike, trace and pike float were not to reappear. With the afternoon progressing and the thought of perch consuming me, I fished red maggot/caster on a light float rig. Great fun, Had 21 of them. None of the big boys showed, though three were either side of a pound. I won't bother telling you of the four small roach and the same number of bleak, but what will delight you almost as me was the arrival of the prince of fish, a beautiful gudgeon. Can there be a better feeling in angling than a Christmas Gobio?

Wednesday: Had a little under two hours to fish before dark, so took a second trip to the canal swim that produced so many (small) roach last week. It had been minus 5 when I started work that morning, and by now had only now climbed to a balmy 2 degrees, but despite being bothered by a narrow boat and canoeists, all of whom I gave hard stares, the roach didn't seem too bothered. The perch didn't show up however, but even so I thought I was going to beat the 50-fish barrier when, having nailed 2 bleak and 43 roach (some tiny, some 3oz, most in between), I added none in the final 20 minutes of light, the exact opposite of what seems to happen a mile upstream at Enborne. Fish eh? Xmas Eve: Temperature now a scorching 9 degrees (water temp 6) and I changed my mind from roving Speen Moors given the revered CP's relatively slow showing yesterday. Plumped for Knotts, in a corner swim where I'd caught relatively decent roach and perch in the past, with enough sinister vegetation to also look pikey. Huddled under my brolly when the rain came, the fish weren't in a Christmassy mood and all I brought in was the half-mackerel I sprayed around the swim. Allowed a second rod, I didn't get a bite either on tiny hook and single/double maggot at ay of the swim's 6ft depth. Ah, well. Saw a few cormorants and two herons, who also received my hardest stare. Did manage to feed a few maggots to a robin who kept coming down to stare at me quizzically. Happy Christmas fish, and the same to you all.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 1400 - 1600 Dull with low cloud and a little drizzle. AT 9ºC 6 Perch; Best: 2lb 6oz, 1lb 14oz. The rest all around ¾-1lb Bit of a gamble - though temps were well up on yesterday I was worried the water temperature wouldn't have caught up. My concerns were unfounded - and as it approached 4pm the switch was flicked for dinner and I had 5 fish in 5 casts. Could possible have had more - but a large pike chased the last one - making an unscuccesful lunge as I netted it - unsurprisingly bites immediately ceased!

Wednesday, and I had the chance to fish for an hour or so before dark. I thought I'd give lure fishing ago given the number of guys marching up and down Speen Moors last Friday with their 7ft rods and multoplier reels. I dug out an old 9ft rod from the garage, and popped into Tony's for some artificial crayfish, rubberised worms and some wire traces. Thus kitted, I wound in fast, slow, jaggedy and twitchingly, but after an hour in various swims, all I'd landed were sunken leaves and submerged branches: very frustrating. I reached Bulls Lock and managed to cast into an overhanging branch on the far bank. First yank shook the branch but the lure remained in the foliage, so I tugged again and again, each time increasing the tension hoping to pull it clear... The crack of the line was inevitable. I looked at the branch - the lure was no longer snagged there. I starting to wind in the slack and immediately realised my rod was shorter than it had been moments earlier. But it hadn't snapped: that would have been careless, no, the end section had simply disappeared! I saw no splash in the water in front of me, nor did I hear it thrash into the trees behind me. I hunted until pitch black to no avail. It had gone. The only conceivable conclusion I could draw was that it had disintegrated into a million billion atoms. I stomped back to the car very peeved, cursing myself for not ditching this ridiculous sport and threatening to take up golf, if not embroidery. Two days later, my mental wounds had healed sufficiently, combined with continued unseasonably warm weather, to make my way to Willows with renewed enthusiasm. Not a touch in four hours, so I decided to go and float fish the canal. As I picked up the rod to pack the bite alarm it was resting on, it jumped in my hand and I was into a fish! It was only a 4lb 8 Common, but it brought a huge smile to my face. If I'd have picked the rod up 10 seconds earlier I'd have blanked. Ahh, fishing, eh? After a wasted 30 mins hoping for a repeat, I went to the canal to dangle a stick float for the remaining couple of hours of daylight. What joy. 50 roach (to a max of 4 ounces), and 10 bleak. I hoped that the roach's bigger brothers would turn up at dusk, but while they didn't, two perch of 12 ounces renewed the hope of a bumbling angler suffering the hurt of several recent blanks

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1415 - 1615 Mild, overcast with drizzly showers. AT a mild 12ºC 4 Perch; 3 smalluns and one of around 14oz-1lb. Quick couple of hours to make the most of the sudden rise in temperature - though the 'witching hour' came and went with not so much as a hint of a bite - all 4 fish coming in the first ¼hr!

Ah, Storm Arwen approacheth bringing strengthening winds and dropping air pressures. Having blanked in a 3-hour cold stint at Willows on Wednesday that didn't even make a blog entry (you really didn't miss much), I decided instead to humiliate myself on the river once more. Started off at the weir, and scraped a dace, a roach, two minnows and, at last, ... a chub! All 6 ounces of it. I also lost three much better fish, one that I thought was a snag before it torpedoed off, each one dropping off the hook. Size 16, fine wire maggot hook, microbarbed - I still cant work out what I do wrong to suffer so many losses. Maybe I strike funny. Parliament draught next, particularly well-named as the westerly wind blew straight down the channel so hard you could have surfed on it, I persevered for an hour but bait presentation was tricky and only a single small roach fell for it. Off to the freshly cut back northern straight, where hit by a hail shower, I kept my hands warm in my pockets as I switched from trotting and legered cheesepaste in a few chubby spots. Nothing - but frankly, I didn't expect anything. Back at the weir in the sun, I legered the rest of the cheesepaste at the end if the main flow for a 1lb 12 brownie before turning back to float where yet another fish threw the hook before a 1lb 6 perch remain snagged. Off the nearby canal for twilight at Enbourn where apart from a six-ouncer, the perch weren't showing - unless you count the dead 2lb+ one on the bank, a victim of otter attack. I managed to get irreparably tangled three times in that last hour and brought another disappointing river trip to an appropriate close, when driving home, in a steamed-up car wondering why I keep doing this to myself, I got stuck in race day traffic. Bleuggh.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0710 - 0835 Mild, overcast with an annoying (and unforecasted) fine drizzle. 11ºC 5 Perch; A couple of 'pounders' - though not by much. Disappointing little session by recent standards (and expectations) - especially as all fish came in the first 10 minutes or so - and I then went well over an hour without a bite. In truth I'd have preferred a dusk session as I have more confidence that perch feed more at dusk in the winter months - regardless of how mild it is - but Reading were at home this afternoon and I wanted to get another trip in before the weather gets colder tomorrow.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1515 - 1645 Mild, calm & cloudy. 11ºC - A lovely, benign, autumn afternoon. 12 Perch; 5 over a lb - best three: 2lb 6oz & 2lb 3oz & 1lb 8oz Another quick, post work, session to make the most of the mild weather before next week's cold snap put the stripeys off their food for a while. Had bites for most of the 90 minutes but the dinner bell rang for the bigger ones at 1615 - when I had all my best three in consecutive casts!

Kennet & Avon Canal - Woolhampton 1530 - 1645 Mild (13ºC), overcast & breezy. 6 Perch: 3 over a lb - biggest 1lb 11oz. Bunked off work an hour early to make the most of some ideal autumn perching weather - alas the 2lbers stayed away!

The plan was to go for the perch on the canal at first light, then walk to the nearby river for the rest of the session. It turned out a day of three halves: 1st: Having bruised my knuckle opening the stubborn metal gate, the first chilly morning of the year (3 degrees) helped stem the blood flow. The perch were still reasonably active, with six coming in the first hour of daylight ,with two about a pound. 2nd. I made my debut fishing the weirpool, squeezed between two alder stumps for a few tiny roach and one clonking great dace. After an hour I moved on to a straight stretch of the river known as parliament drive. Here I managed to get a shoal of roach feeding, and had nine, two of which were a good half pound+. I lost a few, then added hemp to the loose feeding to hold them. But then the west wind fired up, creating quite a chop and making me think my presentation via a 4AAA loafer was not as controlled as it had been, and the bites stopped. 3rd. I moved swims, and while baiting it up, managed to stick my hand into excrement, which I told myself at the time was not human, but I strongly suspect was. There were no bites here either trotting the maggs or after switching to a legered lob. Back to my 'roach' swim, there was nothing going despite prebaiting again with maggs with the odd ball of mashed bread for 15 minutes before recasting.. With the prevailing wind still prevalent, I moved again, to a more sheltered section with a footbridge. I prebaited judiciously, but not a single bite on the trot, or the legered worm. I'm starting to think that the chub are laughing at me, I just can't seem to catch one.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0715 - 0900 Mild,calm & overcast after a prolonged shower. Lovely, benign autumn's morning. AT 9ºc on arrival. 11 Perch: biggest four: 3lb 2oz, 2lb 12oz, 2lb 9oz, 1lb 12oz - with nearly all the rest in the ¾lb - 1¼lb category. 1 Tench; 3lb 0oz. Splendid start to my autumn perch campaign - 3lber was first fish caught - and all the bigger ones came in the first half an hour - fish (apart from the tinca) got progressively smaller as light levels increased! A brace of 3lbers.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne 0700 - 0845 Cool (8ºC) and overcast. 14 Perch; 5 in the 1lb-1¼lb class the rest half that. Quick dawn session on Dog Sh!t Alley as hors d'œuvres for my first trip to Speen this season (see pt 2). Nearly all fish came in a 20min period either side of 0730.

A sneaky 90 minutes fish on my local canal section. Spent the first 15 minutes loose feeding then in. Trotting braid on the centrepin, holding back a chunky loafer float was great fun, but I wasn't troubled by too many fish. As per normal, I lost more than I banked as they shook so violently to get off - I must get those micro-barb hooks, eh Chris. A couple of roach and a handful of dace (even if one was a clonker of 8 ounces or so), was scant return. But there was final cast excitement when the dace I was winding in was attacked from out of the bankside vegetation by a pike, it's long body giving me a flash of silver as it let eventually go. The dace was half the weight it could have been, it's back half had all but been torn off and the poor dace already departed for the great pikeless canal in the sky. I dangled the fishy remnant back in the water and sure enough, the pike immediately took it. The rod hooped over for a few seconds before the hook length gave and it made off with the other half of its breakfast.

With an afternoon off and a pint of maggots bored in the fridge, I took them to Hambridge for a quick session. Having been dry and sunny all day, the heavens opened as soon as I got bankside and left me soaked, making every bend down to toss in a few maggots in the swim an exercise in soggy bottomed unpleasantness. It got the fish feeding in order with a 1lb 2 brownie sandwiched between 4 small roach and 7 dace to a hunky 7 ounces. The last of the maggots coincided with a final lashing from the rain gods. This was my first expedition using braid (thanks, Chris) and apart from the biggest fish I hooked shaking himself off, everything else stuck, which was a big improvement on recent losses.

Well, that was a bit rubbish. A fifth consecutive day of temps around 30 degrees with unbroken sunshine has been truly horrible for temperate people like me and fish alike. Thinking that the lakes would be hard with the fish not bothered with feeding (my first mistake?) I headed for Speen Moors with 15ft rod, centrepin, a couple of pints of maggots and bags of enthusiasm. The river looked fab, though reasonably slow paced, and I appreciate todays conditions weren't conducive and it was still scorching and 25 degrees when I packed up at 9:15 when I was already sporting two angry insect bites and felt more would otherwise be endured, and two swans ploughed through my swim. However, it was usual story for me on Parliament draught, though I did catch my first fish in three visits: 2 dace (one a nice 7oz), 2 roach and a large bleak. I still don't know what I'm doing wrong, but the fish hate me, and I don't think I'll ever catch a chub over a pound. I trotted a large loafer, held it back, let it run. I fished high, I let it drag the bottom, I fished midwater. I loose fed each swim (6-10 maggies in mid stream every 1-2 minutes of so) for 15 mins before casting. I scaled down from a size 14 to size 16 microbarbed hook as advised by a much revered local angler. (I've ordered the braid you advise - it can only help). As usual, I bumped off more than I caught, though this time nothing of any size. With the centrepin I believe my line was always tight, I think my strikes were neither too fierce nor too namby-pamby and mainly fishing the centreline, I don't think I jumped around sufficiently to spook or outstayed my welcome (max 30 mins) in each spot. Having run out of swims, I made it cross country to fish the planked footbridge to find it fully occupied by teenagers in reduced amounts of clothing, firing a barbecue and smoking something funny. As unwelcome as they were, they were polite and charming, making room for me to cross and offering to help me over the stile (I must have looked knackered, sweaty and fed up). I decided on nearby Enborne canal. Mercifully, there were no boats (only a trio of those horrid paddle boarders in bikinis). There was fish life everywhere, and on the pin and light tackle, and pretty much using the long rod as a whip, I must have had a million good, positive bites. I missed 999,991 of them - either bumping the fish or missing them altogether. Having read that a way to address missed bites is to shallow up, but even at 6 inches deep, I kept missing. To be fair, 4 of the 8 perch I caught were barely bigger than the maggots, despite the bites being strong enough to keep the float underwater. So I shall try and explain this example of my ineptitude mainly down to my 16 hook just being too big for them. I did eek out a tasty 6oz roach, and perch of 7 and 12ounces, but that was that. Having packed up in the near dark, as I walked back along the canal , I saw what I thought was a little white dig chasing a bigger brown one over Guyers Bridge. They turned onto the bank when the brown dog leapt into the lock crashing into the water maybe 20 foot below canal level. I ran over and saw it was a deer. Four people walked over the bridge and I explained what their white dog had done. They were horrified, the 2 girls quite panicky. There was nothing much we could do. Without lock keys, we couldn't move the lock gates to change the water level, and though one of the guys climbed down the lockside steps into the chamber, the deer, swimming/running up and down the fairly shallow water, was never going to go nowhere near him, and even if it did, how do you grab a panicked deer with one arm and carry it up 20 of so steps? There were two small areas of raised ground above the water on the corners of one end one end that the deer climbed up on a couple of times and tried to jump out, failing the required height by about 10 feet. At least it had a chance of not drowning. With the girls screaming, and the man hanging from the steps, I felt we were causing it more panic without having any chance of getting it out. I thought it's best chance was for us to leave the poor thing, where it could potentially spend the night on the raised 'islands' and take it's chances with the first passing boat on the morning. The girls were phoning the police as I left. Oh well, if I'd had a pretty crap evening, it was much better than those of the dog owners and that deer. Maybe next week I'll stick to the lakes.

When I rediscovered fishing last year after a 20-odd year hiatus, I had a couple of short sessions on this very shallow stretch of water about 250 yards from my front door. There is only one swim, two maybe when the weeds die down for winter, and I'd never seen anyone fish there in the 10 years or so I've lived nearby. Foolishly, I didn't pack my centrepin which would have been ideal, but in an hour and a half trotting an 18-inch deep rig, managed3 roach (to 4 ounces), 2 dace (similar), 7 bleak and 2 minnows. My 2lb hook length was also snapped by a nice chub after a very exciting fight. Mind you, I lost a good 30+ other fish, their shaking their heads so vigorously that I hooked and lost them. I wound in fast, I wound in slow, I changed hook size three times and hook pattern twice but could not make them stick. It's barbless hooks only for me, so maybe I'll just have to put up with this on my next trip, unless you have any advice?