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River Kennet, Newbury 1600 - 2300 Overcast and breezy with some drizzle. 20º->15ºC but felt a LOT chillier where I was sitting in the breeze! River at normal summer levels and carrying quite a bit of colour 1 Bream; 2lb 10oz An evening barbelling session with Paul to this (once) prolific section of river. Over the years I have come to call this swim THE Banker - I can't remember coming here in high summer and NOT catching a barbel. These days the only certainty about the place is that your almost gauranteed to see an otter! Paul and I saw it here last summer and we saw it 3 times last night. It swam upstream through our swims at around 2000. It did the return journey a little before 2200 and at 2300 poked its head out right underneath my feet - I could have leant down and stroked it - if I'd been quick enough! Given all this its amazing we caught anything! My bream was caught in the fastest stretch of water and gave a very good account of itself - taking line against the clutch. Paul managed a solitary barbel of 7lb 2oz between the 1st 2 otter sightings. So we didn't blank - but 5 years ago we might have reckoned on 10 to a dozen barbel between us from such a session - with perhaps the odd chub thrown in as well - a species which appears to have completely disappeared from the stretch! Home of the otter! Paul's 7lber...

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

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

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1830 - 2315 Chilly evening under clearing skies. Temp plummeted after dark. Down to 10ºC - I felt warmer standing IN the river all evening that Paul who was on the bank!!! 19 Dace, 2 Grayling and 1 each of a chublet, roach, gudgeon and a brownie. Trotted maggot until it was too dark to see the float - last ½ hour of daylight was bite a chuck - very good to see some 'silvers' in the river. Dace were quite small save for 2 or 3 really quite decent ones. Lost a fair sized chub which got up under some brambles on the far bank and shed the hook. A switch to the lead produced very little - a few crayfish rattles (and one which attached itself to the line) and an unmissable wrap around barbel bite at around 2230 which I, err, missed! Paul fared somewhat better after dark with a baby barbel of 2lb and a chub of 5lb 6oz. Some pics...including Paul's chub and me standing in the river clutching a stroppy grayling!

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 0945 - 1315 Bright and sunny after a cloudy start - 16ºC. River low and quite coloured up! 6 Chub; 5lb 2oz, 3lb 7oz, 1¼lb & 3 chublets. 12+ dace, 3 brownies, 1 roach & a gudgeon. Well as I had to go to the tackle shop to pick up some stuff for tomorrow - seemed a good excuse to have a few hours by the river exploring some new swims. Fished 4 swims in all - 2 of which I've never run a float through before - one of which produced most of the dace the other giving up the 3lb chub. Was hoping for a barbel or two but plenty happy with a 5lb chub! A lot of the dace were of a pretty decent stamp too...

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

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0700 - 1230 Mild, mainly overcast and VERY breezy. 17ºC. River very low. 1½+ doz Perch, 4 over 1lb (though 3 not by much!) biggest 2lb 12oz. 1 Chub, 1lb 14oz, 1 Bream 1½lb. 1doz roach, 3 dace and 10 gudgeon. First trip here this season so was a case of having a good wander around - fished 6 swims in total - and had perch from 5 of them. A lot of perch in the 10-12oz bracket - big enough to snaffle a whole lob - small enough to be annoying!!! Was hoping to find some bigger chub - bin a couple of years since I had a decent one from here. Wind made trotting a real nightmare - and as for trying to cast accurately to bushes/trees on the far bank.....

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

Middle Kennet Estate water 0730 - 1630 Mild and mainly overcast with some 'milky' sunshine at times. River VERY low. 7 Chub; 4 over 1lb - biggest 3lb 1oz. 8 Perch; 2 over 1lb - biggest 2lb 3oz. 2 Bream - both circa 1lb. 3 Doz+ Roach - most quite small though 2 warranted the scales - one at 13oz the other a lovely fish of 1lb 4oz. 2 Doz + Dace - all quite small. 20 + Gudgeon. 8 Brownies - most over 2lb - biggest 3lb 8oz. 1 Rainbow - 2¾lb. A lovely day wandering around this prolific water. Low water meant that the fish were shoaled up in the pools - also made them a bit spooky . We saw some really big chub and hundreds of bream but neither would take a bait. Paul caught even more than me and whilst he didn't get any respectable chub had loads of good dace - and was given the shock of his life when a hugemungous pike attacked one of his perch has he was bringing it to the net - alas neither of us had brought any pike gear! A couple of pics - unfortunately the roach is a bit over-exposed and Paul took a couple of arty landscape pics of the moon between the trees which are on the cutting room floor as they didn't come out very well! A couple of 'library' pictures - taken Nov 08 when there was a little bit more water in the river too!

River Kennet - nr Thatcham 0745 - 1015 Cool, overcast and breezy with some light drizzle. Travelling light so forgot thermometer (in other bag!). River low and looking rather threadbare. 2 Chub; 3lb 2oz, 2lb 15oz. 3 Grayling 10 - 12oz+. 1 Brownie c12oz Every year I try and get a chub in every month of the season - so that's December ticked off! In truth I was hoping to make a re-acquaintance with the 5lb+ fish I caught from this swim back in the summer but given the low water a brace of 3lbers will do just fine!! Grayling are packing on some weight - second one I caught was close to a pound - hope they're still around this time next year..... Big gob...

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...

River Kennet - Speen Moors 1230 - 1600 Bright and sunny start followed by a heavy shower. AT 5-7ºC. Forgot to take WT! 1 Pike; 15lb 3oz (!!!). 4 Perch 1lb 9oz and 3 smalluns. 2 Roach. 2 Dace. 8 Gudgeon. Rather hoped that the weather would have held to what we'd had in recent days (mild and overcast). Bright sunshine and a sudden drop in temperature is not what the angler ordered and I ummed and ahhed all morning about whether or not to go. However with opportunities somewhat diminished for the next couple of months at least (yes a job at last!) it was a case of you won't catch owt mooching about at home. So rather than the canal I thought I'd have a wander round Speen - drop into a few favourite spots and with ½ pint of maggots left over from last week was sure to catch something. The plan was then to spend the last hour of daylight trying to winkle out a perch or two from a couple of spots that used to be very productive (but have been less so for the last couple of seasons). Part one went as planned, fishing one of the weirs I had 3 of the perch including the bonus 1lber - but was somewhat gudgeoned out. I was really after a chub so moved down to the APFA swim but only caught more gudgeon! Then who should I meet - but Rusty who was just finishing off a bread based blank in the larger weir. I walked back with him and dropped into a swim en route which quickly produced another perchlet, followed by a roach - and after Chris had bade his goodbyes, 2 dace and a further roach. Having arrived and fished the first couple of hours in bright sunshine, the skies suddenly blackened and for 20 minutes it absolutely tipped it down. I very nearly packed up there and then - but a bright line on the horizon signalled that it was to be just a shower so it was off to the 'perch' swims.... The low water levels didn't fill me with much anticipation but I thought fading light should encourage any fish to feed. The first swim produced nothing and I'd made around ½doz casts in the second swim when the float bobbed once and just slid away purposefully. I wasn't prepared for what happened next. I struck and realised in an instant that this was no perch. Pike love lobs and are a bit of an occupational hazard when perching - and I was seriously out gunned by this beasty! My record on landing pike on worm is pretty good providing you have hooked it clear of teeth - however I really didn't expect to get this one in. The initial strike had turned it away from danger only for it to shoot off down stream in the current. Again I managed to turn its head and headed up stream. In the shallow water I could see it clearly - and realised it was going to be a challenge for my 24' pan net - however on its next pass I placed the net behind it and it turned tail and shot straight in with the current. A really fine fat specimen hooked in the outside of the scissors - how lucky is that. Tis my biggest ever worm caught pike - beating the 14lb I had 2 years ago, my biggest ever from Speen, and my biggest since my PB of 18-10 in Feb 01. Landed on a size 8 to 6lb mono and my trusty Harrison float rod! Having photographed and slipped her back I returned to my perch fishing. Alas the perch weren't in residence and the next 2 bobs of the float both produced crayfish - so whilst there was still some daylight left I decided it was time to call it a day!

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)...

River Kennet Newbury 0800 - 1045 COLD and clear. AT -9ºC when I drove off confirmed by a reading of 16ºF when I arrived on the bank. WT a balmy 35ºF - coldest day I think I have ever been fishing. However dressed appropriately and standing IN the river for warmth I was really quite toasty apart form the thumb and index finger on my right hand -which kept 'sticking' to the metal of my Witcher. Thought that frozen rings would be a mare but in fact the water froze on the line so quickly it was solid before it got to the rings - bit of a nasty grating noise when I caught a fish though! River very clear and very low (and very cold). 1 Chub; 2lb 13oz. 2 Brownies; 2¼lb and a tiddler. 5 Dace - including one clonker of 10oz. 1 Gudgeon. Chub first cast which I took as an excellent omen and anticipated a morning's bagging up in the cold. Alas the bigger trout was pretty much second cast and went absolutely mental, jumping ½doz times and completely killing the swim - so my morning's chubbing was over 5 minutes after it started! Rested the swim hoping they'd return but only caught dace after the hiatus. Unfortunately I'm not the only one who knows of this hotspot.....

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!

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

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

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

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0630 - 1100 Bright and sunny after a cool start - not quite a frost but down to 3ºC. River running low and clear. 7 Perch; 3 over 1lb (though 2 by not much) best 2lb 2oz. 2 Chublets, 1½doz roach - including some 'gooduns' 3 in the 8-10oz bracket and a 12oz fish, 5 dace, a doz gudgeon. A pleasant mornings trotting and exploring familiar haunts. First hour or so on lobs switching to maggot once the sun was up. Fished 10 swims in total and had fish from 8 of them......

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0700 - 1130 Sunny spells. 3->10ºC. River up a touch with a little colour after this week's rain - looks in really good nick. 3 Perch; 2lb 14oz, 2lb 11oz and sub pounder, 5 Chub all between ½-1lb - good to see!, a doz dace, roach & gudgeon all small! Successful dawn perching session - both caught from a new swim - or at least a swim that hasn't produced big stripeys in ages, followed by an hour's trotting maggot. Nice to see some juvenile chub coming through.... 2-14 2-11 (plus camera strap )

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...