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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1800 - 2300 Clear evening becoming quite cool; 9ºC when we packed up. 7 dace, 3 roach (all small) A pleasant social with Paul - sharing (practically) the same swim. Last hour of daylight spent trotting for the silvers followed by 4 hours looking at a near stationary isotope - save for the odd crayfish rattle. Paul, however faired rather better getting this very fat 10lb 10oz barbel in the first hour of ledgering - our only bite of the evening.
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River Kennet - Thatcham 1200 -1400 Warm and breezy - large thunderstorm just missed me! 2 Chub; 3lb 12oz & 2lb 6oz. 5 Dace (all chunky ones!), 1 Roach. One of the advantages of living in the Kennet valley is that within 30 mins of deciding on a quick trip between the showers you can be slipping the net under a 2lb chub! This was a quick trip to Rusty's 'surf float swim' and it's clear from the jungle I had to hack through to get to it that no one has been here since June. Smaller chub was first trot through and the larger one pretty much last cast - between some really nice dace and a half respectable roach.
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Middle Kennet Estate 0715 - 1730 Mild (max 15ºC) with sunny spells after early morning drizzle. River high with more colour than I expected. 15 Chub; all over 1lb - best 4lb 7oz, most between 2-3lb.15 Roach - quite a few 'chunky' ones with the best 2 going 1lb 2oz & 15oz. And err 15 dace. 7 perch; all small except one 'pounder' & 'only' 3 brownies to 2½lb. Usual 'chub fest' at this ever reliable venue though Paul and I started out trying to snaffle the weirpool monster - a large pike that Paul was briefly connected to last time we came here. Alas, whilst we saw loads of pike today - none were playing ball so we were soon into our usual mode here of wandering from swim to swim. Paul had a similar catch return - though reflecting his slightly differing priorities to me - getting more dace and roach (including some really chunky dace) and less chub. Though he did manage the biggest chub of the day at 4lb 11oz. Oh and he even caught a pike - by accident! a small jack snaffled a dace he was bringing in and managed to hook itself! My biggest roach & chub (more pics expected from Paul!) Think I've worked out why I often catch more than Paul - he spends half the time taking pictures! A selection that he took yesterday! And he even took one of a fish - presumably his biggest chub!
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Middle Kennet Estate - Nr Newbury 0830 - 1615 Wild morning - wet and windy. Rain stopped at 1130 to give a bright afternoon with the wind dropping. Mild, 10ºC. 7 Chub; 2 @ 5lb+ - best 5lb 4oz - the rest around 2½ - 2¾lb, one under 2lb. 9 Roach quite a few chunky ones up to 1lb. 1 Dace (8oz). 1 Gudgeon. 6 Brownies to 3lb. 8 Rainbows to 4lb 8oz Another day's fishing, another storm - and at least today I had the River Keeper to thank for staying reasonably dry! We were given permission to fish - providing we kept to the main river - and started at the bottom beats of the fishery. The carriers and the rest of the estate were out of bounds as they were being used for shooting. We were promised a call for when it was safe to progress upstream. All this meant Paul and I made base camp underneath the A34 - at least out kit would stay dry and whilst Paul ventured out to a known hotspot just upstream I decided to start trotting from the dry confines of the bridge! Whilst it may have been 'fairly' dry it was like fishing in a wind tunnel with my float regularly been blown upstream against the current. I was however more than gratified to get some fish from here - a couple of the chub AND the 1lb roach amongst the highlights. The forecast was for a dry afternoon - thankfully accurate - and with the call from the keeper giving us the all clear we made our way upstream. Paul had caught very little for his troubles - and we both fish another known chub slack - Paul getting off the mark and I baggsied another brace of schoolies. I then spent the rest of the afternoon working my way down a long deep run trotting red corn for chub (I remembered to bring copious amounts with me today). Unfortunately the trout/chub ratio was rather on the high side -but at least I was rewarded with a brace of 5lbers the bigger one my best of the season so far. A brace of 5s.
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1930 - 2345 Cool (down to 10ºC) and clear - perfect evening to be out watching perseids - and with no moon nature put on a stunning display! River down a couple of inches at least on my last visit here (29 July). 3 Barbel; 4lb 10oz, 3lb 15oz, 3lb 9oz. 1 Chub 4lb 5oz. 4 Dace (all chunky ones requiring a net!), 1 Roach and 4 spotties. Wayhay! So there are still some fish in the Kennet!! Trotted until it was too dark to see my float and all the fish bar the biggest barbel came to these tactics. Switched to ledgered pellet for last 2½hrs and had the 4lb+ barbel at around 2200. Missed another good bite due to spending more time staring at the sky than looking at my isotopes! A couple of obligatory fish plus pin pics...
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River Kennet - Thatcham 0945 - 1215 Hot and sultry - perfect weather to spend the morning up to your thighs in cool river water! 1 Chub 3lb 9oz, 6 Dace, 2 Roach and 5 brownies - 2 over 1lb. Had to go to Tone's to pick up bait and permits for this evening - not that I need an excuse to fish here! Nice to see some dace AND roach putting in an appearance. Chub showed obvious signs of having recently spawned...
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1630 - 1900 Heavy thundery showers. River looked in good nick, reasonable flow with some colour. 1 Barbel; 4lb 9oz. 2 Chub; 4lb 5oz & 1lb 13oz. 7 brownies including one of nearly 3lb! Curtailed trotting session. Had planned to stay all evening and have a couple of hours of darkness on the lead. However I really don't like being out in a thunderstorm and having watched one storm skirt north of me and another south I could tell a third one was heading straight for me - so a hasty retreat was beat - pity as it was turning into a cracking little session. Fished 4 swims each one downstream of the other. Larger chub in the top swim, barbel and smaller chub in the 4th - hence no pic of the barbel - camera was in my bag where I'd started!
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Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0715 - 1800 Cold and frosty start - bright and sunny morning with some cloud in the afternoon. Cool but light breeze. AT -3ºC->6ºC but felt much warmer out of the wind and in the sun! Almost spring like and a vast improvement on Monday (and last Friday!) 16 Chub; Only 1 under 2lb, most over 3lb, biggest 5lb 2oz. Over 55lb in total!. 3 dace - 1 goodun of 11oz, 1 Roach (small), 1 Grayling circa 12-14oz. 7 Brownies to 2½lb. 1 Rainbow c2lb. Ton Up!! Looking through my diary on Wednesday night I realised I needed 9 chub over 1lb to make it 100 for the season - the first time I've ever achieved this!! So today was an all out chub hunt - and I'd reached my target by lunchtime - though 2 of those had obligingly turned up in 'dace swims'! All chub caught trotting with about half caught on red corn and the other half on maggot. Paul's was after monster dace though in the bright morning sunshine he struggled somewhat and had only managed one when we met up for Jaq's Parsnip Soup. Fair play to him though as he stuck at it and managed some crackers in the afternoon - 3 fish totally 2¼lb! in an overall catch of 7 dace. Overall numbers of them seem well down something even the river keeper commented on - and again both of us failed to find any perch - big or otherwise - which used to be one of the highlights of fishing here.... Pic of my 5lber... Most of the dace Paul and I were catching were in spawning condition - males sandpapery, females pigeon chested. However big dace tend to spawn first - and this huge dace caught by Paul was very hollow and had clearly just done its thing - a pity because given the length of it it should have been bigger than the 12ozs it registered on both our scales - we'd love to have caught it a fortnight ago! More piccies from Paul's camera. Dace swim. Walkng the plank? Frosty start.
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River Kennet - Speen Moors 1030 - 1530 Bright, cool (5ºC) and breezy with a few snow flurries on a stiff northerly. WT 44ºF. River still high but down over a foot on my last visit of 5th Jan. This... was halfway up the 6... 4 Chub; 4lb 4oz, 2lb 15oz, 2lb 5oz & a chublet. 5 Roach (all small), 1 Dace & 1 small Brownie. Came with the initial intention of targetting the perch - but my favourite perch slack wasn't. (Slack that is!) So ended up walking around the whole venue (quite a trek). Smaller chub from the weirpool and the APFA swim. Bigger one from a spot I've not fished in ages (due to the length of the walk to get to it - worth the effort though) - my biggest chub from Speen since Oct 04 when I had a 5-11...
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River Kennet (Nr Thatcham) 1800 - 2330 Light Showers 4 Barbel (10lb 11oz, 5lb 15oz, 5lb 10oz, 4lb 6oz) Fished 14mm halibut pellet and Meteor boilies - (Had one hour pellet, one hour boilie...). Double on boilie - other 3 on pellet. Paul also caught 4 - all in 3-4lb bracket
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River Kennet, Woolhampton 1815 - 2315 Cool and clear at first - then clouding over. 1 barbel 9lb 5oz, 2 chub (2lb, <1lb), 1 roach, 1 doz bleak, Started with float fished maggot - in order to get my bleak point for the species race. Roach (quite a decent size) on maggot too. Then ledgered with two rods for a change - pellet on one, boilie on the other. A chub to each bait followed rather appropriately at 9.15pm by the barbel - my 1st from this venue.
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River Kennet - Newbury 1900 - 2330 Cool and breezy - clear then high cloud and bright moon. 15ºC --->11ºC (but felt cooler!) 1 barbel 5lb 15oz Mission accomplished! This session was about getting my mate Simon his first ever barbel - a feat he achieved impressively with an 8lb 10oz fish - my 'banker swim' came up trumps again! Simon also had a small >2lb chub, whilst I just about saved my blank though I had loads of sharp taps and knocks all evening - came to the conclusion it was probably signals as the bait (14mm pellet) kept getting stripped from the hair. River up a couple of inches after the morning's downpour and carrying some leaf litter - not as much as I feared however. All fish caught before 2130. Pic below.
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River Kennet - Newbury 0745 - 1215 Cold and overcast - Easterly breeze. AT 38ºF, WT 41ºF 14 Chub (5lb 15oz, 5lb1oz, 4lb14oz, 4lb 6oz, 4lb 3oz X 2, 7 X 3lb - all over 3½, 2<3lb), 1 Barbel 5lb 2oz, 1 grayling, 2 dozen dace, roach and gudgeon (mainly dace). WOW! Cracking session in one of my favouirite chub swims - but one that really hasn't produced a lot for me since the opening week of the 05/06 season - so today was like seeing and old friend again. Barbel fell 1st cast - real surprise given the water temp and it had me thinking that it must be the mother of all chub as I didn't even consider the possibilty of it being a barbel! All fish on trotted single red maggot - took bread and lobs but never used them. 5-15 is my biggest chub for 3 years - picture below (reel is a Chris Lythe).
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Middle Kennet 0645 - 1815 Bright and very breezy after early rain. River at 'normal' levels and quite clear. 5 chub (4lb 13oz, others all around 1lb), 7 perch (3 X 1-1¼lb) 12 dace (just 1 good un - 9oz), 5 grayling (all 10-14oz), 3 small roach, 2 gudgeon & 20 trout to 3½lb. A hurriedly re-arranged trip in the light of Monday's weather forecast (when we were due to go!). Biggest Chub and 4 of the Grayling on trotted sweetcorn. Perch on lobs everything else on maggot. Paul had some nice Perch at dusk - his best a plump 2lb 9oz stripey. Paul's Perch. Where he caught it.
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River Kennet nr Newbury 0645 - 1845 Mild, overcast and calm. Some light drizzle early on (despite being forecast to rain all day!) 11ºC. River at normal levels with just a hint of colour - Couldn't ask for more perfect conditions! 8 Chub (5lb 2oz, 4lb 15oz, 4lb 5oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 10oz, 3lb 8oz & 2 chublets). 3 Doz Dace - handful of 'good-uns' - best 12oz, 1½Doz Roach, best 2; 1lb0oz & 13oz, ½doz Gudgeon, 4 Perch (all small), 2 Salmon Smolt, 2 Brownies, biggest 8lb 12oz* (!!) , 2 Rainbows, biggest 4lb 8oz. Great end to the season. Chub in fantastic winter condition - a fought really well in the fast water. Trout, (a new PB by some way) took an age to land and I then discovered my camera didn't work Paul was at the other end of fishery and I was more keen to get the magnificent fish back in the river - I would not have been popular with the keeper if that had gone belly up!!! All fish on trotted maggot The AnglersNet Centre Pin performing admirably - will be writing a full review of it this weekend. Spent the last 3 hours with the swim feeder and bread flake in what appeared to be ideal conditions for the roach - but only a pesky rainbow showed up. Paul had perch to 2lb, roach to 1lb 5oz & chub to 4½lb. * 6 weeks ago my PB brownie was 4lb 2oz (a fish I caught in August '97 from the lower Kennet nr Reading) I've now had 3 fish over that mark in the past month! Pic below is of the 4-15 chub - and no that's a leaf on my finger not a slug
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River Kennet - Near Thatcham 1800 - 2330 Still breezy and cloudless 18º->12ºC. River 'full' quite coloured with quite a bit of floating rununculus (very annoying!) 4 Barbel 8lb 2oz, 4lb 15oz, 2X 4lbers Fished with Paul who had a 9+, 8+ and a 3. Two of my fish in the 1st hour, two in the last - all of Paul's fish came after 2200. Ledgered Halibut Pellet as per usual!
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River Kennet, Nr Thatcham. 0930 - 1430 Hot and sultry, 24ºC. River clear and low. 4 Barbel - 7lb 2oz, 5lb 3oz, 4lb 14oz, 4lb 4oz, 13 Chub - 8 over 1lb, best 4: 5lb 8oz, 5lb 3oz, 4lb 15oz, 4lb 10oz. 6 Brown Trout - 3 over 1lb best 2, 1lb 12oz (Same fish I think!) A cracking trotting session in seemingly less than ideal conditions - but the usual tactics paid off. Keep trickling in the bait and they will come. First 'decent fish' (the 4.15 chub) came at around 1130. The (next) 3 biggest chub and the 2 biggest barbel all fell in the last hour - before the swim eventually went quiet. Double red maggot to a size 16 on a 6lb bottom. Pics of biggest barbel and biggest chub of session.
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River Kennet - Speen Moors 0700 - 1130 Overcast and windy. AT 14ºC. Water levels VERY low. 18 Perch: Best 2, 3lb 6oz & 2lb 13oz, 4 more around the 1¼lb mark and another ½doz circa 10-12oz. 1 Pike: 5lb 14oz. 6 Roach, 1 Dace, 2doz Gudgeon and a Bleak. Fabulous start to the autumn river campaign. Most perch and the pike on float fished lobs. Went with Paul who didn't find any big perch but had a few goodish dace and a brace of Pike - biggest 8¼lb. My biggest Perch from Speen for 5 years.....
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River Kennet - Near Newbury 0730 - 1630 Bright and breezy - rain from 1500. 4º -> 11ºC. River rose an inch and coloured up a bit during the day. 13 Chub ( 5lb 9oz, 5lb 3oz, 4lb 7oz, 4lb 1oz, 3lb 10oz, 3lb 8oz 3lb 0oz, 2lb 11oz, 2lb 8oz. 1¼lb - & 3 chublets!) 7 Brown Trout - biggest 4lb 14oz, 6 Rainbow trout - biggest 3¾lb, c100 Dace & Roach - in roughly equal nos. Best roach 12oz, best dace 9oz, ½doz Gudgeon! River was teaming with silvers - many dace and roach around the 4-6oz stamp. Most chub - including all the 4lb+ fish from main river - 3 from carrier. All fish on trotted maggot.
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Middle Kennet* 0815 - 1630 Bright and Breezy. River 'full' and carrying some colour - dropping out during the day. 8 Chub - best 3; 4lb, 3lb 13oz, 3lb 6oz, other 5 <2½lb. 13 roach - best 3; 2lb 1oz (Yippee!!), 1lb 12oz, 1lb 10oz, (next biggest 14oz), 10 dace (6 over 8oz - biggest 11oz), 5 Brownies (to around 3lb), 3 Rainbows (ditto!), 1 Salmon Parr and a Gudgeon! Fantastic day! Fished with Paul - who I think had a similar day - catching more smaller fish - though only one chub and 3 1lb+ roach to 1.10. All my fish fell to trotted maggot. Paul's biggest roach fell (eventually) to bread - once he'd fed the Rainbow's off (he had one of 7lb!). Did quite a bit of wandering around as fish quite hard to find at first. First 2lb + roach for nearly 5 years (since Feb 03). * - How the EA classify the Kennet: Upper reach; Source to Eddington Bridge, Hungerford. Middle reach; Eddington Bridge to A34 Newbury by-pass. Lower reach; A34 to the Thames
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River Kennet - Newbury 0630 - 1230 Bright and sunny 7.5ºC -> 19ºC 3 Chub (4lb 2oz, 3lb 10oz, 2lb 13oz) 2 Perch (2lb 2oz, >1lb) 1 Barbel (2lb), 2 Trout (both 1lb+ - probably same fish!) 60+ Dace, Roach & Gudgeon (mainly dace). A morning trotting red maggot for a nice mixed bag. Big perch 1st cast and all the chub came in the 1st 1½hrs otherwise caught steadily throughout the morning despite the bright conditions. River still 'full' though with little colour and some debris - mainly weed coming down.
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Middle Kennet 0845 - 1745 Bright and sunny after a cold (-7ºC) start. River still 'full' with nearly all colour dropped out. 3 doz Dace - best 10oz. 3 Perch (2lb 2oz, 1¼lb), 1 Chub 3lb 11oz, 7 Brownies to 2lb, 1 Rainbow 1½lb. 1 Roach, 1 Grayling. Usual day of playing 'hunt the fish'. Fish quite spooky in bright conditions - necessitating many swim moves - though the dace in the 'keepers cottage' swim were positively suicidal at times! Dace are close to spawning condition - caught quite a few sand-papery males. Perch on lobs.
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Middle Kennet 0800 - 1730 Bright, calm and sunny after a frosty, misty start. River still high with most colour now dropped out. 10 chub (3lb 7oz, 1¾lb & 8 chublets), 40 roach (best 1lb 3oz, 3 or 4 others ½ decent - most very small), 20 Dace (4 'good-uns', best 10oz), 7 Brownies - biggest 4lb 11oz*, 1 rainbow 2½lb, 2 gudgeon. Most - actually nearly all apart from the 3-7 chub and a couple of brownies - fish caught in first and last couple of hours. Walked miles in between times looking for fish prepared to feed in bright conditions. Biggest roach on trotted bread flake in first hour - though most fish on red magg (trout seem to like bread even more than maggots!). Saw remarkable sight of 5 buzzards circling and calling in the same thermal (right above us). Paul had 2 or 3 dozen - mainly roach plus the obligatory brownies and a 2½lb chub. *2nd biggest ever - would have been a PB but for last Monday!
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1830 - 0100 Warm overcast night - light drizzle from 2200 - temps never below 15ºC. River up a bit and carrying a bit more colour than of late. 1 Barbel 9lb 11oz A very pleasant and 'educational' evening on the river in the company of Paul. The plan was for both of us to fish a couple of new swims which neither of us had ever fished before on one of our favourite club stretches. I struggled with both my choices - struggled to find clean gravel in fact. Paul on the otherhand hit the motherlode with his 2nd swim and ended up with 5 barbel - smallest just under 5, biggest just under 9 and included a brace of 8lbers. Being the gentleman that he is he invited me to share his pitch for the last hour or so just time for me to snaffle out the biggest fish of the session - cheers Paul!!!! And thanks for discovering a swim which will get a bit more attention from me this autumn.
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River Kennet - Nr Newbury 0700 - 1800 Bright and breezy - with heavy afternoon showers - becoming really quite windy. Max AT 10ºC. River 'full' and carrying a bit of colour, 7 Chub - best 3; 6lb 6oz (new PB) , 4lb 5oz, 4lb 0oz) 70+ Roach and Dace in roughly equal nos. - all small save for one lovely roach of 1lb 1oz, ½doz Gudgeon, 1 skimmer Bream, 1 small Perch, 5 Brownies - biggest 4lb 4oz, 1 Rainbow 2½lb. A day of the river with Paul. All fish of trotted maggot (single reds mainly). Big chub (my 4th 6lb+ fish) from weirpool - just as it started raining. Paul had a succesful -if rather different day. Had no chub - despite us fishing the same swims (I had my 6 from a swim he'd not long vacated! ) He did manage a couple of pike. A brace of ½ decent perch - and last cast of the day - a surprise common carp. (From my 'banker' chub swim!!). Both his biggest pike and carp weighed exactly the same - 9lb 6oz.
