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Showing results for tags 'river kennet'.
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River Kennet, Newbury 1030 - 1330. Mild and overcast. River with a little bit more water in it - probably up a couple of inches or so on 10 days ago. 1 Chub; 2lb 6oz. 3 Perch; 1lb 6oz, 1lb 1oz and a fish of around 10-12oz. 20 Dace, 8 Roach. 2 Grayling, 2 Gudgeon, 2 Brownies. So if I couldn't get a decent perch from the canal - plan B was to see if I could find some chub. Achieved at the 3rd swim (of 4 fished) - though by then I'd already had the perch! Maybe that's where I was going wrong on the canal - I should have been chub fishing!
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1800 - 2300 Cool, calm and overcast. 11ºC river low and carrying quite a bit of leaf litter. 1 Chub: 5lb 2oz. A similar start to my last visit here 3 weeks ago in fact I have a suspicion it might even be the same fish. However as my camera was still plugged into the computer at home I didn't get to take it's portrait for comparison. Only bite of the evening - so no barbel main course after the chub starter. Was subjected to a barrage of twitting from a tawny owl sitting in the branches not 20 foot from my head making a hell of a racket for the first hour of darkness.
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham. 1815 - 2315 Cool, clear evening. River back down to summer levels. 1 Brown Trout; 2lb 10oz. An evening in a swim which provided my best barbel action last autumn (see: http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/blog/82/entry-1237-1-october/ ) - hoping for a repeat performance. Its quite a tight swim between the trees - and as trotting was out of the question a total blank was very much on the cards. And so it seemed until a little after 10.30pm when a classic wrap around bite produced not the hoped for barbel but a ruddy trout! (Bloke fishing not far upstream had 5 brownies on luncheon meat meant for the beards!). Oh hum!
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River Kennet, Nr Thatcham. 1330 - 1630 Bright and breezy after HEAVY morning rain (circa 1inch). River coloured up but dropping. 4 Chub: 3lb 6ox, 1¼lb and 2 chublets. 5 Dace - 1 clonker of 10oz (weighed), 1 Roach, 2 Gudgeon & 2 Brownies - both over 1lb. Post 'monsoon' trotting session. Reckoned the chub might be on the feed - reckoned right!
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham. 1930 - 0000 Overcast with light rain, temps around 16ºC all evening. River up a tad and with a little colour after an inch of rain in the previous 36 hrs. 1 Chub 1lb 14oz. A damp, drizzly evening saw me leave the trotting rod at home and opt for the comfort of my brolly from the off (and to hell with a blank!). As it turned out I needn't have worried - an 'chub rattle' in the first hour resulted in a modest fish. Snailz boilies yet again proving a favourite with the chevins (after trying them for a season and a half I'm still to get a barbel on them!). Alas it proved to be my only bite!
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River Kennet - Nr Newbury 1830 - 2300 Warm evening with clearing skies after heavy rain during the day - giving perfect Perseid spotting opportunities - saw around half a dozen. River was quite coloured up - much more than I expected to see. 1 Chub 2lb 9oz. 8 Dace; 3 in the 6-8oz bracket. 1 Gudgeon. First evening trip to this swim - and might be my last - ledgering pellet produced nothing but crayfish rattles all evening. An hour and a half's trotting produced the usual blank saving fish - and nice to get a chub here too.
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River Kennet - Newbury 1900 - 2330 Warm, overcast and breezy. River very low. 1 Chub; 2lb 7oz. 20+ Dace, 9 Roach. 5 Weeks into the season and not a hint of a barbel so far! At least there appears to be an abundance of silver fish in the river and a bonus chub provided a modicum of action on the ledger rod. No otter sightings this evening - just a family of mink - 4 of them rampaging along the far bank margins!
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River Kennet - Bulls Lock 0700 - 0830 1 Perch; 1lb 6oz, 3 Dace, 1 Roach and a Grayling. First time I've fished this bit of river - trotted a nice long glide which looks like its the sort of swim you can 'build up' - though I didn't really have enough maggot for that. Was hoping for a chub or 2 but quite happy with the perch. River Kennet - Thatcham 0900 - 1100. 1 Chub; 3lb 6oz, 4 Dace, 3 Brownies to just on 1lb. So having re-stocked with bait it was off to have a 2nd attempt at a chub - gratifyingly achieved within 5 minutes of starting to fish! Trout as ever were a pain fighting hard and trashing swims with their jumping - though with low water getting more than one decent fish from a swim was never very likely.
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River Lambourn - Newbury 1030 - 1300 River Kennet - Newbury 1315 - 1530 Overcast after this morning's drizzle. Lambourn; 22 Grayling; 5 over 1lb, best 1lb 9oz. 1 brownie Kennet; 6 Perch; 2 'pounders' best 1lb 7oz. 6 Dace, 4 Roach, half doz Gudgeon and a Grayling. A take it easy day after the exertions of Weds & Thurs (and I'll no doubt be on the bank for 12 hours tomorrow as well)! Biggest 3 grayling all caught 'by sight'. seeing fish come up in the water I fished with the bait 6 inches below the float and watched the fish take the bait!
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River Kennet/flowing canal - Thatcham 1530 - 1815 Bright and breezy. Mild. WT a very encouraging 51ºF. 2 Perch; both 'pounders' - biggest 1lb 14oz. 6 Dace - all chunky ones with a couple of corkers at 12 & 10oz. Pike 5lb 5oz. Plan was to have a dusk session after stripeys,though arriving in very bright sunshine I decided to start by trotting maggots and immediately found some really nice dace (biggest 2 were the first two fish I caught). The 2 perch soon followed and though I switched to lobs for the final hour, with high hopes the only bite on worm resulted in the jack.
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne. River Kennet Speen Moors 0630 - 1030 Canal 1045 - 1230 Speen Mild, calm and overcast. River low 5 Perch - biggest 1¼lb from the canal 1 Chub ;1lb 15oz, 2 dace, 2 roach, 3 gudgeon and a brownie from Speen. Frustrating morning's perching - made so by lots of scattering fry but limited action on lobs. If I didn't get a bite straight away the signals snaffled the worm. Had meant to fish longer at Speen but couldn't get access to the swims I wanted to (locked gate).
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River Kennet, Nr Thatcham 1800 - 2300 Warm, overcast and muggy - shirtsleeves all evening! 1 Chub 3lb 7oz, 8 Roach - all small save for one which was circa 8oz, 5 Dace - 2 gooduns at 8oz. 1 Grayling, 1 Gudgeon, 4 Brownies - 3 between 1¾- 2¼lb! Familiar pattern of the summer - an hour's trotting for a good mixed bag - including the hoped for chub followed by 4 hours of crayfish rattles and bat line-strikes (and no barbel!!!). Trout were a bit of a menace - making good imitations of small barbel as they bore deep whilst trying to bring them up in the current. More silver fish in the river than for many a year which is some small comfort!
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River Kennet - Thatcham 1815 - 2230 Warm sunny evening becoming quite cool quickly with a very heavy dew. 21 dace - a dozen of which were 8oz or better - best weighed in at 10oz. 2 roach (small) 3 gudgeon and a brownie. Cracking evening trotting - really good stamp of dace from a stretch of river I've not fished in over a decade. Darkness saw me switch to the lead for a couple of hours - alas the only interest I got was from the signals. Definitely a swim that I will return to soon on the float though!
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River Kennet - Thatcham Warm and sunny. River down to normal summer levels. 0700 - 1015 1 chub 1½lb, 9 dace, 1 grayling and 6 brownies to 1¼lb 1045 - 1300 7 dace, 1 roach, 2 grayling and a brownie. Pleasant's morning trotting on a couple of my favourite venues. Funny how grayling suddenly turn up every couple of years (the 2 caught at my 2nd swim being particularly surprising!). Chub first cast, augured well - pity a bigger one or a barbel didn't show up. A pair of canoeists paddling through my second swim 20 minutes after arriving didn't help matters either!
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1815 - 2315 Cool and clear - temp down to 6ºC when I got back to the car! 1 Barbel 8lb 2oz, 1 Chub 2lb. At last a barbel and a decent one too! Quite a few rattles during the first couple of hours - which I'm kicking myself for not hitting - thought they were crayfish - but when I did eventually decide to hit one it turned into a 2lb chub! Rattles stopped when it got dark and at around 2215 had a very strange juddery kind of a bite which when I struck connected with nothing - however on winding in realised I WAS connected to a fish - it had taken the bait and shot upstream - was right under my rod tip by the time I tightened in to it- when it then proceeded to go absolutely mental. Can't remember ever having such a hard fight off a barbel, which when I eventually got it in the net went 8lb 2oz. Un-suprisingly it took a while to recover.
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River Kennet - Colthrop 1000 - 1100 Warm and muggy. 6 Dace, 4 Roach & 3 brownies - biggest around 1¼lb. Quick trotting session while Jaq picked blackberries. (Blackberry crop not a patch on last year!)A couple of the dace and one of the roach needed the net.
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River Kennet - Newbury 0915 - 1145 Overcast, warm and muggy. River still in great nick for mid-summer - more water than many a year - but now shallow enough to wade out to get a trot to one of my favourite spots! 3 Chub - all between 1¾-2¾lbs.3 Perch; one just over a pound the other 2 not much under. 20+ dace, 7 roach, 3 gudgeon and a brownie. Very pleasant morning's trotting - nice to see some chub back in residence in one of my favourite Kennet swims (and a host of other species too!)
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River Kennet - Newbury 1845 - 2315 Hot and muggy - temp still 21ºC when I got back to the car at 2330! 1 chub; 2lb 10oz, 2 Grayling 1lb 2oz and one not far under 1lb, 7 Roach - 4 really chunky ones biggest weighed in at 14oz, 4 Dace, a perch and a gudgeon (but yet again NO barbel) This is getting a little repetitive! Another decent short trotting session - in fact for half an hour it was like fishing the Kennet of old - almost fish a chuck and never quite know what species would turn up next. I was also extremely hopeful of a barbel after the sun set as I'd seen a couple of flashes in the streamy water whilst trotting - but both isotopes didn't budge in 3 hours.
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River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 1830 - 2230 Sunny and breezey. Temp 16ºC when I packed up but felt much, much cooler in the stiff breeze - intended to stay longer but was under dressed! 1 Chub 2lb 5oz, 2 dace and a brownie of about a pound. Another evening of not catching barbel - looks like I'm gonna have to start stalking Viney! took the trotting rod as always and spent the first hour eeking out a few fish from a couple of swims. Then spent 3 hours getting increasingly cold watching 2 isotopes do nothing in particular save bounce up and down a couple of times when a bat hit the line!
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River Kennet - Colthrop & Brimpton 1000 - 1500 Cool (ish), overcast with drizzly rain at times. River down an inch or two - but still at a good level for this time of year. 4 chub; Best 3lb 6oz. 6 dace. A doz + brownies to 3lb 2oz! Jungle fishing! Travelled light and covered quite a bit of water - looks like I'm the first to visit Cothrop this summer - had to cut my way in through the brambles on at least 5 swims! Trout were a bit of a pain - especially the big one as I thought I was into a barbel! Nice to get a few chub, biggest was from Brimpton - the other 3 all in the 1-2lb bracket from Colthrop.
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River Kennet - Thtacham 1900 - 2330 Warm evening with temps dropping quickly once the sun went down. 9ºC when I got back to the car (drenched in dew!) 1 Chub 2lb 15oz. 11 Dace, 1 Gudgeon. Ever since the winter I've hankered after doing a summer evening in this swim thinking that it ought to hold barbel. First hour and a half it was out with the trotting rod and after a biteless 20 mins I then had a steady stream of dace - including some very chunky specimens - I even weighed a couple of them - both went 10 oz. Around 8.30pm it was out with the ledger rods and I was soon settled down staring at a couple of rod tips. It wasn't long before my first bite - a lovely wrap around - which alas turned out to be a chub rather than the hoped for barbel. Plenty of other half hearted tugs and rattles followed - but nothing hittable.
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River Kennet - Newbury 1830 - 2300 Sunny with temps dropping quite quickly after sun down - but perfectly pleasant under the trees! River still very full. 1 chub 1lb 11oz, 10 dace, 1 roach, 1 gudgeon and a brownie of 2lb 4oz! A quick return to the swim where I had a barbel on the float yesterday - reasoning that where there's one....! However it was a case of watching the float dip with satisfying regularity for an hour and a half, followed by three hours staring at stationary isotopes - which only moved when bats flew into the line which happened every few seconds for 20 minutes or so around 10.00pm. So all the fish on the float - the trout gave a good impression of being a barbel - really quite disappointed to coax it all the way up in the current only to see spots and an adipose fin when I eventually got it to the surface! Had intended to stay till midnight - but my first sighting of an otter in nearly 2 years (it nearly ran over my feet!) decided me on an early exit!
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0630 - 1000 K&A Canal, Enborne 1015 - 1130 Speen Moors 1330 - 1800 River Kennet - Thatcham Foggy morning - clearing by midday to give a bright sunny afternoon. River HIGH and clear. Canal - 5 Perch, 2lb & 1lb 8oz plus 3 little-uns. 1 Chub 1¼lb. Successful dawn raid after a stripey or 2. Chub sicked up a massive gob of brown bread (locals feeding the ducks!) Speen - 2 Brownies 1½lb & 2½lbs More of a walk than a fishing session - but spent 20mins running a float through the little weirpool (though river still so high you wouldn't know it was a weir!) Thatcham - 1 chub - 2lb 9oz. Only fish in the first 20 mins thereafter not a lot despite Rusty arriving to offer tea and encouragement! Missed a few half chances - including an unseen fish I played nearly to the net after he had bade me farewell - but which then somehow threw the hook - ho hum!
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River Kennet - Thatcham 1600 - 1800 Sunny with some broken cloud, Cool (4ºC). River still very high and carrying a bit more colour than last weekend. 1 Perch 2lb 4oz, 3 Roach; 14oz and 2 smalluns, 1 chunky dace of around 6oz. Had a free afternoon so with the forecast heavy showers by-passing West Berkshire it seemed a shame not to visit my new favourite swim! And yet again it threw a bit of a curve ball - no chub - 1st time that has happened - but a smattering of silver fish turning up - also for the 1st time. Perch was literally last cast - almost too dark to see my float - consequently nearly missed the bite when it came!
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River Kennet - Newbury (plus an hour or so blanking on the canal) 0730 - 1215 Bright and Sunny 5-7ºC. River high though not carrying a lot of colour. 4 Perch; 2lb 0oz, 1lb 6oz, 1lb 3oz, 12oz. 5 Dace, 3 Roach & 9 Gudgeon. A morning spent 'sharing' a large Kennet flood slack with Paul. In truth we rather expected more action (Paul only managed ½doz dace and a gudgeon) and hoped a chub or two would have put in an appearance. Still I'm not complaining with 4 fat perch - all of them were particularly plump! Three perch on maggot, one on lobs (the 2 was on double red mag).
