Search the Community

Middle Kennet Estate water. 0800 -1600 Cold, frosty and bright. -1ºC -> 5ºC. River very low 5 Chub; 5lb 15oz, 2lb 3oz & 3 chublets 2 of which were circa 1lb. 47 Roach; Most in the 6-8oz bracket - the 5 I put on the scales were 9oz, 10oz, 12oz, 14oz & 1lb 2oz but an awful lot weren't much smaller than the 9oz fish - probably had nearly 20lb of roach in all! 2 Dace & 6 Brownies biggest circa 2½lb. Chalk this one up to the river keeper who put us on to the fish - from a stretch of river Paul and I had never fished before. Probably my best ever day roach fishing on the Kennet (for numbers and overall average size of fish) Paul had fewer roach but the same stamp - and he managed to winkle out a couple of decent dace to 8oz. First couple of hours were a real struggle due to the rod rings freezing up - fishing (and catching) became a lot easier once the temps lifted enough for the line to run free. Largest chub was a bit hair-raising on light tackle! More pics to follow - once my 'Official Photographer' has sent them over! And here they are.... Twas a bit nippy when we started... But Dawn was spectacular! And Sunrise was pretty too... Nearly 6lbs.... No fish here! Dusk in the 'Roach' swim.

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0730 - 1630 Mild and overcast with light winds - a lovely benign winters day. 10ºC. River VERY low. 4 Chub to 2lb 10oz. 5 Grayling - all between 10oz - 1lb 6oz, 14 Dace - nearly all over 8oz - 5 over 10oz, best 12oz (had 3 at this weight!), 3 Roach, 6 Brownies to 2¾lb. A lovely day to be by the river - we were restricted by low water levels to where we could fish - but finding a shoal of big dace in the very first swim we dropped in took the 'pressure' off!! We ended up fishing and resting it in rotation all day! Paul had an identical number of dace - and like me nearly all were gooduns (ie ½lb+) his best though went a whopping 14oz. Some pics - all courtesy of Paul...

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 - Nr Newbury. 0730 - 1700 Cool and overcast. -2º ->5ºC Positively balmy compared to recent arctic conditions - WT was a chilly 39ºF though. 8 Chub; 4 'pounders' to 2¼lb and 4 chublets. 19 Dace; most a 'nice' size - only one warranted the scales though; a lovely fish of 11oz. 6 Roach, 8 Brownies to 2½lb. Plan for today was to catch some chub in the morning and then move up to where we'd caught all those roach earlier in the winter. First part of the plan went err as planned with both Paul and I getting amongst the chub and whilst we would have liked a 5 lber or 2 it was actually quite nice to see some smaller fish to come through - I think between us we had 9 or 10 over 1lb yet the biggest was only a few ounces over 2. After lunch it was into the car and upto the top limit of the fishery - only for it to very quickly transpire that the roach had moved on - the 'roach' swim was devoid of anything without an adipose fin. By 1500 we were back where we started - and fishing the swim where I'd caught chub in the morning started to produce some nice dace - including my biggest of the day. Paul had only added 3 trout and a chub to his morning's total when we bumped into the river-keeper doing his rounds. A couple of hints (well one BIG tip really) had us both fishing the same pool for the last ¾hr. If you got the bait in the right place (this was the tip!) it was bite a chuck and Paul was quickly adding to his tally with ,ironically, some nice roach in the 6-8oz bracket - finishing the day with a bristling perch a couple of ounces shy of 2lb. Some pics from yesterday Small chub with a big tail. Paul's perch - looks bigger than 1-13 don't ya think! CY got catty'ed with maggots here... Paul goes all arty....

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!

Middle Kennet Estate 0730 - 1800 Cool and overcast all morning, bright sunshine in the afternoon feeling quite warm despite the thermo only reading 10ºC. River VERY low. 4 Chub; 3lb 4oz, 3lb 0oz, 2lb 11oz and a chublet. 5 Perch; a couple of 'pounders' best of which was just under 2lb - the rest around 12oz. 25 roach - most fairly small though had one 'goodun' of 14oz. 9 Dace. 1 Bream 2¼lb. 10 gudgeon, 4 bleak & 6 brownies to 3¼lb. Usual mixed bag for our end of season jaunt to this prolific water - we couldn't find any of the bigger chub and perch - though Paul's only chub over a pound did go 4lb 3oz. Still twas a lovely spring day and we both found some new swims to fish - and ones we want to have a good go at next winter - perfect way to end the season - wanting more. Paul again had a similar return apart from the dace where he had around 4doz due to me spending most of the morning fishing the usual haunts of big chub here - but only snaffling a few of the smaller cousins! Day was rounded off with some great pub grub and talk of plans for next season!!! Fancy a dip? This 'peg' is called the swimming pool. Fat perch (one of Paul's captures) Where it came from... View from one of the 'new' swims!

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...

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!

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!

Middle Kennet Estate - Nr Newbury 0800 - 1645 Drizzly. 7ºC. Little wind - though enough to blow my brolly into the river when my back was turned! River 'full' with quite a bit of colour - more than I expected - and more than is usual for here. 19 Chub: All over 1lb - though biggest 'only' 3lb 13oz and 'only' 8 over 2lb! Pike; 10lb 11oz. 3 Dozen Dace with many many fish in the 6-8oz class, 9 roach - all small and only 3 troot (2 brownies and a rainbow). A damp gloomy day in West Berkshire - though we got nothing like the amount of rain forecast just 24 hours earlier - thankfully the heavy stuff didn't arrive til after dark. I was quickly into the chub while Paul headed off in search of perch - only to have one snaffled by a very large pike - and he was distracted all morning by trying (and failing) to catch it! He did lose another smaller one which somehow threw the hook - a low to mid-double he said - confirmed when I hooked and landed it first cast on trotted lob (it was holed up in a favoured perch hotspot). Paul went on to get a couple of Pike to 8½lb and whilst he caught less than half the number of chub I did - he did manage the only 4lber of the day. All in all a most excellent days angling - followed up with a couple of pints and a curry at my local - Paul's trousers were literally steaming in front of the log fire! Lob gobbler! Paul's Pike and 4lb chub... Soggy Snowdrops!

Middle Kennet Estate 0715 - 1630 Bright sunshine all day after a frosty start. A lovely benign autumn day, temps up to 9ºC. River low - in fact very low given the amount of rain we've had in the last 6 weeks... 14 Chub; 11 over 1lb - most between 1½ and 2¾lb. 3 over 3lb, best 2 - 4lb 2oz & 3lb 15oz.11 Perch; 4 over 1lb all between 1lb 7oz & 1lb 15oz. 50+ roach and dace in roughly equal numbers (Slightly more roach) nothing worthy of the scales though a few of the dace were quite chunky. A gudgeon. 9 Brownies to 3¼lb and 2 Rainbow's to 2½lb. First Kennet estate trip of the winter saw Paul and me visiting this somewhat 'banker' venue. I was expecting the river to be a little on the low side but was surprised to see just how low it was. Thought we'd struggle given the bright sunshine and low water. However staying mobile and resting swims regularly did the trick. I caught chub from 7 different swims and Paul had a similar number with similar tactics. And nearly all mine were caught in bright sunshine as I spent the first couple of hours fishing for perch before the sun was on the water. Paul had a very similar return overall (minus any decent perch) but did snaffle some half decent roach with a couple of fish in the ¾lb bracket. My best chub of the day. And Paul's best roach. Threadbare back stream in need of some water. Autumn river - though this could be high summer from the greenery! A keeper's work is never done - the bank here had been undermined by signal crayfish.

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!)

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...

Middle (just ) Kennet Estate. 0900 - 1645 Bright afternoon after a soggy morning. AT up to 11ºC. River quite full but with little colour. 28 Chub; nearly all in the 2½-3½lb bracket. Only 2 under 2lb and only one over 4lb (and that by just 3oz). 2 Dace. 7 Trout (6 Rainbows & a Brown) up to 2¾lb. Treated myself to a late birthday trip. Keeper directed me to a carrier that he said was 'black' with chub back in the summer (but warned that the extra water might have pushed them out). He (and I) needn't have worried. First 6 trots all produced chub and I had a dozen in no time at all. Rested it in favour of another chub swim on the main river - and that was pretty much the pattern of the day - rest and return! Most fish (around 2/3rds) on trotted red corn - the rest on trotted maggot. The swim on the main river.

Middle Kennet Estate 0730 - 1645 Bright and sunny - a lovely, benign autumn day - glad we didn't go yesterday! River still low and clear despite yesterday's monsoon! 12 Chub; Most around the 2½lb stamp - biggest 3lb 11oz. 60 Roach & Dace (2/3 roach,1/3 Dace). 8 Perch; a 1lb fish and 7 smalluns. A gudgeon, 2 Brownies to 3lb and a 3lb+ Rainbow. First 'estate' trip of the winter and it didn't disappoint - there were fish everywhere - though we failed to connect with some of the venue's bigger specimens. (I blame the bright sun and low water for that!). Paul and I put quite a bit of effort into snaffling a big stripey - but without success (Paul also had a pounder) despite there being a LOT of predator activity for the first hour or so. My other aim for the day was to get amongst the chub so that box got ticked - and Paul wanted to snaffle a pike or 2 - and he managed a jack of around 4lb. All in all a cracking day. Misty Morn Autumn Gold

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0830 - 1630 Bright and sunny after biblical amounts of rain in the 1st hour (and the preceding hours of darkness). River though was clear and still quite low! 8 Chub; All over 2lb with half over 3lb. Best 4lb 4oz. 4 Dace; All gooduns - biggest a shade over 12oz! A doz+ brownies to 3½lb and a rainbow. A day that was booked off work with the intention of heading down to Dorset in search of a monster grayling. A plan that was abandoned mid-week after the Frome rose 51cm in under 48hrs! So Plan B was quickly tee'd up and Paul obtained the required permissions to fish this stretch of the Kennet (with certain restrictions as to where we could go). The forecast was for a wet start followed by bright sunshine - which is exactly what we got - and we arrived in monsoon like conditions - so waited in the car for half an hour on arrival waiting for it to stop. With the rain easing we were soon trekking across the fields to our chosen swims only for the heavens to open again - and we fished the first hour in lashing rain. I daren't even get my maggots out in such conditions - so trotted red corn for the 1st hour - which brought the first of the chub. Eventually the rain desisted and within 20mins I had warm sunshine on my back! The morning was spent wandering from swim to swim - and the highlight was a first trot through a small pool where we have found big dace in the past - and sure enough it produced again - my 12oz fish imitating a small trout - until Paul exclaimed that I had a big dace! After lunch we decided to move down to the bottom of the fishery - and I was surprised to see the famous weedrack - is no more - though it has been replaced by a smart new bridge. All in all a good day - all my chub fell to trotted red corn. Paul managed a bigger variety - getting some roach and even 4 grayling to over 1lb in his tally for the day - though he was somewhat frustrated at losing a big chub at dusk. A Kennet Chub No Weedrack! More pics to follow (including , hopefully my big dace!) And here they are: View upstream from the 'old' weedrack. Where Paul lost his chub. Sunset over West Berkshire.

Middle Kennet Estate - Newbury 0815 - 1600 Cool, bright and breezy, with showers for first couple of hours. River quite low. 10 Chub; All over 2½lb, with the majority in the 3lb+ class. Best 2, 4lb 1oz & 4lb 4oz. 7 Roach, 2 Dace. Around 10 brownies to 3lb & half a dozen rainbows to 4lb. A fine days chubbing in the company of Paul & Chris (Rusty). Rusty was travelling up from Devon and we didn't expect to see him til mid morning so of course I got a call when we were 10 mins away from the venue to say he'd already arrived!! His keen-ness was well warranted - and the day turned into something of an unofficial chub match between him and me which I just shaded 10-9. Rusty however will no doubt invoke a 'Perch count double ruling' to claim the spoils - as he definitely had bragging rights with a large stripey in the morning. Paul also had a good haul of chub and found more silver fish in a rarely fished carrier - which the keeper said had thrown up big perch the previous week though they didn't appear to be in residence today! All in all a great days angling. A couple of my biggest chub.. No chub here! A real Mr Crabtree swim - but one of the few NOT to throw up a chub! The rarely fished carrier.

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0830 - 1645 Cool (1º - 4ºC), overcast with sunny spells in the afternoon. River quite 'full' and carrying more colour than is usual for here - quite 'milky' in appearance - possibly the result of springs 'breaking' on the downs. 11 Chub; Biggest 5lb 7oz with only 3 under 3lb. 32 Dace; Biggest two 14oz & 12oz with around another dozen in excess of 8oz - I weighed another 4 at 9, 10, 10 & 11oz - but quite a few of similar size went un-weighed! 2 Grayling, a doz brownies to 3lb. Birthday outing! And the plan was to go all out for Chub and Dace - so both those boxes got well and truly ticked. Dusted out my 'short' float rod which hasn't seen the light of day since the 80's to fish the small streams and carriers for the dace. And fished some of my favoured swims on the main river for the chub. All chub caught on trotted corn except the smallest of the day - a 1½lb fish which turned up in one of my dace swims 10 minutes after slipping the 14oz fish back - never been so disappointed to see a chub in the bottom of my net! Paul had a similar return in terms of numbers - though I think his best chub was a 3lber and best dace around 11oz. Safely in the Net! Big Gob! 5½lb Chub Typical Dace swim. Nice Dace

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0715 - 1800 Bright (very) at first with some welcome broken cloud in the afternoon. AT around 8ºC all day after early frost. River not quite as full as expected and no colour despite yesterday's rain. 12 Chub; Biggest 3lb 14oz, 19 Dace - though only 2 real gooduns - biggest 13oz. 7 Roach, 4 Grayling. A doz+ brownies - biggest over 4lb - though also had quite a few parr fish. Given the time of year - the plan was to go all out for a big dace (after some early chub fishing). Everything went according to plan in my banker chub swim - but Paul's was occupied by nothing but trout - so I let him run a float through my swim so that he knew what a fish without an adipose looked like. (The swim duly obliged with a 3lb 10oz chub). We knew the bright conditions would make the dace in the shallow carriers spooky and hard to tempt - but were hopeful that the increasing cloud cover and setting sun would make them bolder. In truth though I don't think we found them - certainly not in the same numbers as our visit here in January.(See blog entry of http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-1273-18-january/ ). Paul and I both had a decent fish or two for our efforts - but it wasn't quite what we were hoping for. 13oz Dace Paul the Poacher!(of 'my' chub swim!) Rickety Bridge. Here be Dace?

Middle Kennet 0730 - 1800 Mild, bright and sunny morning clouding over after lunch with some light drizzle at times. river lower than expected and very clear. 16 Chub; All 'schooly' sized; biggest just over 3¼lb. 6 Perch 1¼lb and 5 around the 10-12oz mark. 3 Doz Roach and Dace - in roughly equal numbers 2 Biggest roach 1lb 2oz & 1lb 1oz (!) no others troubled the scales. Most of the dace were quite chunky - but none were over 8oz. 2 Grayling (1st ones ever from this venue!), 1 Bream (skimmer), 3 Gudgeon and just a couple of Brownies to 2lb. First day of my end of season extravaganza got off to a slow start - bright morning sunshine certainly put the fish down and when Paul and I met up for lunch we'd had less than a dozen fish each (though I had caught the bigger of my 2 roach by then). Thankfully the sun went in (and the forecast rain stayed away) resulting in a great afternoon's sport. Think final tallies were very similar Paul shading the dace and roach numbers - and me doubling his chub tally! Dawn A Keeper's work.... Paul's Best Chub of the Day (3-10 I think) A nice brace of roach...