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Friday - with a week of sub-zero temperatures, the lakes are both frozen and in flood, so I stick with the syndicate water which seems more reliable to my skill level than other parts of the Kennet. This easy option was not rewarded by the fish gods. Finding their prince on Earth, Mr Plumb in the swim I had planned to start in (no prob, CP) I kept walking and trotted the normally prolific carrier swims. Hardly a bite, though I did bump two fish: one small, one larger.The sun was now above the horizon and would be low enough to be blinding all day, and what with all last week's colour dropped out of the water I suspected the fishing might be tricky. Swapped to a less eye-hurting leger and lost four more. It was almost laughable - I was getting them to the net, mainly brownies but also a chub in my aquarium swim, but despite (because?) of a largish bait on a size 8 hook, they bit, they fought, they fell off. Finally one stuck, a brownie of 2lb 2. The final hour clicked and four more came in, all around the 3lb mark. A relief, but a disappointing session. Tuesday - still hard frosts every night and a dusk/evening session at the syndicate on the cheese paste. I'd been told that trout don't care for it, but three of them thought otherwise, around the usual 3lb mark. However, with the new moon and the mist rising, as the temperature fell, I did land a chub of 3lb 4 and all was well with me and the deities. Threefish had arrived in 15 minutes then it switched off for the last hour. Cold, sure, but it was lovely to be out under the stars.

Minus 5 last night, so my gardening work was off. Hung about until 9 when it'd warmed to minus 2 and made my way to the beautiful frosty and sunny syndicate. Water level still high with a few unfishable, I prebaited half a dozen with mashed bread. Legered breadflake smeared with my mystery ingredient. I knew it would attract trout, but it was so cold I was happy to keep catching and, who knew, maybe the temperature will keep them subdued and let the chub in. No such luck. I think the low, bright sun might have contributed to the chub keeping schtum, but the trout certainly didn't care less. Had 5 in the first hour and 14 overall. Nothing else. 2lb 9, 3lb 5, 4lb 4, 3lb 7, 3lb 6, 2lb 4, 4lb 4, 1lb 8, 2lb 10, 2lb 1, 3lb 2, 3lb 6, 3lb 15 and 2lb 12. Not a day for the purists perhaps, but with over 42lbs of hard fighting fish on a January day, well, I wasn't going to knock it.

River Kennet - Hambridge 1300 - 1500 Cold and bright. AT 5ºC. River in full flood - barely within its banks - but crystal clear. 2 Chub: 4lb 3oz & 3lb 6oz. Quick detour on the way home to drop into a swim where the chub to trout ratio was likely to be much better than my morning venue. 2 bites in the first 20 mins were both 'converted' into nice chub - but despite resting the spot for a while I didn't get any more interest.

Back fro a few days away, I walked around the NAA lakes yesterday at dusk to find the Kennet raging through Bulls Lock and the carparks/banks of the lakes submerged. At risk of typecasting myself, I bought a loaf of bread and headed to the syndicate for a bonus 2.5 hour stint. The bread that I didn't nibble at, or mashed up, I legered in the coloured flow for the usual two trout between 2lb 2 and 3lb 10 plus two spiffing chub of 3lb 6 and 3lb 7. Lovely!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1030 - 1430 Showery and very breezy after heavy morning rain (28mm already this month). AT 10ºC. River up again on Monday's levels and with a lot more colour. 2 Chub: 4lb 11oz & 2lb 8oz. 8 Perch; 7 over 1lb, with 5 over 2lb - best 2lb 10oz. 4 Roach - a netter of around 10oz and 3 small-uns, and the now obligatory gudgeon! Quick return to Monday's swim - though better prepared this time for a stripey campaign! Took lobs, and my keepnet made a rare appearance. I have a long held theory that perch that are returned after capture quickly tell their shoal mates of the jeopardy!. So every one caught today was subjected to temporary incarceration. Seemed to do the trick - five, 2lbers was a splendid return - though, as ever, the chub were first to appear on the scene!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1330 - 1500 Bright and sunny. AT 6ºC. River bank high - with a lot less colour than I expected to see after such a wet weekend. 2 Chub: 6lb 5oz & 4lb 13oz. 2 Perch: 3lb 6oz & 2lb 6oz. 4 Roach, 1 Dace - all fairly small. 1 Gudgeon. WOW! Gotta love a good flood swim! Having fished out the Lambourn I thought I'd at least have a look at the Kennet - expecting to see it coloured up and flooded. And whilst it was bank high there was surprisingly little colour - so couldn't resist dropping into a favourite swim when the river is in flood. Even so didn't quite expect what was to follow - especially after a first ¼hr that was biteless. First up was the 2lb perch - sort of what I was expecting/hoping for as they seem to show here when the river is up. I certainly wasn't expecting another at a whole lb heavier which was pretty much next trot through - and a season's best too boot! I'd just put that back when the very next cast produced the big chub - a very stubborn fight - took an age to get in - in fact at one stage I thought I'd foul hooked a big bream as I couldn't budge it off the bottom! As soon as it was in the net I knew it was a 6lber - in fact I was even harbouring thoughts of a new pb - but the needle was a couple of ounces shy of that mark! The silvers and the gudgeon were next up and I was just about to quit while I was ahead when another fat chub decided to put in an appearance - 2 chub for a combined weight of 11lb 2oz - not bad eh? I've fished this stretch for 41 years and in the space of 10 mins caught my venue best chub (only my 2nd ever 6lber from here) AND my biggest ever perch from the venue - wow!

Having suffered a wet day on the Kennet at Speen Moors and Enborne Canal for a solitary 1lb perch which did not merit its own blog entry, but have pictured here, on Thursday I made my way to the more reliable syndicate. As alluded to by the revered CP on his blog, it was a delight to see him and the majority of our small number of members fishing this short stretch between days of pouring rain. Usual disasters for me: firstly, I'd forgotten to pack my boots in my new, smaller car so had to fish in Crocs. Secondly, I opened the new landing net handle purchased after the other slid into the depths last week to find there was no thread on the end. Rats - I'd have to scoop anything in at bank level with the hand held net. On a blustery but not too chilly day, I fished five swims that had no raised bankside. It was half way through the day when two of the syndicate nabobs walked passed and I explained my woes. One put his eye to the top landing net section and remarked that he could see something inside, he gave it a few taps and a 6-inch section of handle fell out, with a thread on the end. The landing net was now complete - but why the need for such a piddly small end section? Anyway. Fish. I lost a big one that bullied its was into the snags. Maybe I need to beef up from a 4lb hooklength and I lost in our game tug of war. I lost another good fish too, in the end all I needed the wretched not for was a 2lber trout and a spiffing 12oz roach. I could have scored three more roach, but these were grabbed by a pike launching out of the water to take them on the wind in. With no bites in the first or last hours, it was a below par day for me on the stretch. Ended up 30 roach, 10 dace, 3 chublets and 2 perch. As a final insult, I discovered that the stupid end piece of the landing net handle was now wedged inseparably from its partner meaning the middle section is now too long to fit the end cap. Doh.

River Kennet - Brimpton 1030 - 1330 Bright and sunny. Cooler than last couple of days. AT 4º - 6ºC. River at normal levels and with a tinge of colour. 1 Chub: 4lb 6oz. 2 Brownies; Biggest a brute of a fish - must have been close to 4lb but unweighed - the other around half that size. Impromptu trip based on Jaq announcing she was hitting the sales!! Bright winter sunshine are not the ideal conditions for a spot of chub fishing but I reasoned the recent rise in river levels and turbidity might mitigate this - thankfully I was right. However, and as per usual it seems, I started off with trout - though as both fish chose to hug the bottom as opposed to performing their usual aerobatic display, I was convinced I was bringing in decent chub to the net. Thankfully my 3rd fish of the morning didn't have an adipose fin - and whilst it was a fine chub - as fat as a barrel I was rather hoping to re-acquaint myself with either of the 5lbers I had from here back in the summer - would love to see either at their winter weight! Boxing Day Chub

River Kennet - Hambridge 1000 - 1230 Bright and mild after heavy early morning rain (over ½inch). AT 11ºC. River at normal winter levels with a tinge of colour - looked in really good nick - hooray! Was up a good 6 inches on my last visit here . The Kennet is at last seeing the benefits of a wet autumn - the springs on the the downs broke during the recent cold snap (the river gauge at Winterborne Monkton started recording on the 15th Dec) so winter rainfall will now start having more of an impact on flow rates. 1 Chub; 2lb 12oz, 1 Bream; 2lb 6oz, 1 Perch; 1½lb, 4 Dace & 1 Roach (all quite small). 4 Gudgeon Usual pre-Christmas jaunt to use up some maggot so that the bait fridge can be pressed into Christmas duties. Bream first cast was a bit of surprise as I was expecting my obligatory chub after spending the first 5mins or so trickling in maggot.

I've been threatening to go evening chubbing for a number of Tuesdays now, and tonight was the night. With heavy rain on Sunday/Monday, the river was travelling faster than last when I came and scouted swims last week, and with no weights over 3/4 oz I could only fish with those with near bank slacks and eddies. I travelled up and down them in turn, spending about half an hour in each, prebaiting the next swim to come with balls of mashed bread as I went before walking back and settling down. Hadn't had a touch all evening when at 6:30 I picked up the rod to wind and a fish pulled away on the end - a good one too. It was a typically subdued night time fight - I'm sure it's because the fish cant see where they're swimming so keep the afterburners off. At 3lb 10 it was shamefully but excitedly an equal p.b. for me. Later I had a couple of trembles that did not connect, but apart from that it had been a pretty quiet evening, but was great fun. Mars glowed throughout and it barely felt the 2 degrees it had dropped to by 8pm when I packed up.

After my morning's gardening customer put me off with a 5:30am email, and with the pint of maggots in the beer fridge taking up room required for festive victuals, I managed to squeeze a bonus 2-hours fishing in. The frosts of the last 2 weeks had been replaced by wind, rain and double-figure temps making me think the fish would be up for a feed. Hmm. Trotted for 45 mins before losing a fairly decent fish after my first bite. The second came half an hour later at the far extreme of the swim and this time it stuck. Expecting it to be a trout - they usually are - I was delighted to land a 2lb 2 chub. I fished deep, shallow and dragging the bottom. I tried shot bunched 6-inches from the hook, half depth and shirt button, but could not encourage any other bites. Still, if I had a decent chub out every session, I think I'd cope.

Friday - Its always a good idea to try and repeat a success isn't it, so back I went to the scene of Tuesday's great pike. Walking across the field it was minus-6 as I crunched through my own frosty footsteps of Tuesday. No one else had been bonkers enough to go there in three days. in the low winter sunshine, I legered a popped-up shad in all areas to my left, and a cheese wafter wrapped in chill-flavoured cheese for chub to my right. Yes, I know I should have chosen one species or another, taken one rod and switched swims every half hour until I found the fish, but I dug in and hedged my bets, thinking that if fish weren't there now, they surely would be at some point in the day, after all, I'd lost quite a good fish here in the summer. Three hours in and I still had this conviction, after four I was starting to question this approach and after six I packed up, having not had a single bite on either rod all day, the highlight being scaring off a cormorant. Ah well, it was still an enjoyable day (honestly) and the temperature had risen to a heady minus two when I got back to the car at dusk. Saturday - having been a good boy and finished my Xmas shopping first thing and having blanked on consecutive Fridays, I had three bonus morale-boosting hours on the syndicate where it's often a fish, or a bumped-fish most casts. I figured that given two weeks of solid frost, if the fish had any sense, they'd be in the deeper water near the weir pool. Wrong! Though I bumped a pretty good fish second cast, there were no other bites in an hour. Started coming back along the usually prolific carrier and albeit the water was very low, I didn't get a bite in any of my three favourite swims, including the 'aquarium'. In my less-favoured wooded section, I trotted-on, but the only fish movement was right at my feet where something reasonably sizable moved in the margin from time to time but wouldn't be drawn out. Suddenly I had a spate of 3 bites in 5 casts, with each (small) fish bumped until finally one stuck- a pale-finned 7 ounce roach. So that's what a fish looks like. That was the end of the bites but I persevered for a final quarter of an hour when out of nowhere I had a bite, a good fight and I landed a fair representative of my fishy nemesis, a 1lb 5oz mermaid-tailed chub. Get in.

Almost a week of consecutive frozen days have put a literal cap on the lakes and canal so I took my deadbaits for a chilly couple of hours on the Kennet. Rather expecting a session of feeding the crayfish, they were pleasantly absent. An hour in the rod tip trembled, making me wonder if my shivering had knocked into it. But then it did it again, quite subtlety. On the third tremble I struck and was into a fish. It didn't feel big, but as a blank-buster I wasn't going to argue, when it woke up to what was happening and roared off down river, heating the clutch up. It made three such excursions before it gave up the ghost and came up to the surface. Wow. Not huge in Essox terms, but for me 14lbs was a personal best and I was thrilled. Half an hour later the same sort of bite. If it had been at all breezyIi might not have noticed it. Again I struck on the third tremble. It was on for a few seconds, but the hooks hadn't set. I was quite calm - two would have been greedy.

I had reason to be in Thatcham first thing so decided on a rare trip to Brimpton. I'd convinced my wife the night before that liquidising a loaf of bread with a tin of corn was a prime use for her mixer, and I delivered several balls of the luscious confection in six chubby swims to fish in turn. The three pieces of betaine-soaked corn link-legered on a size 6 hook would surely be irresistible. Sadly, it was, and no matter how stealthily I moved and cast, I didn't get a bite. The good thing was I wasn't troubled by crayfish either, but then they would have given me some bend in the rod. Frankly I'd half expected this given my awful history with chub, and at lunch time moved to Collins lake to take my chances piking. It was a chilly 5 degrees even with the forecast easterly wind not arriving. I sat there feeding the visiting robin with bits of sandwich when finally, one of the most exciting few moments in fishing started tappen. The bung, which had steadfastly sat squat in the water for several hours spun slowly on is axis. Then it bobbed a couple of times, stopped for a few seconds then started to draw away. I struck hard, prepared to miss a fish than leave it any longer and risk deep-hooking. It may only have been 5lb 7, but it was 5lb 7 of welcome blank-busting meanness and made the whole day worthwhile.

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0800 - 1400 Bright and sunny morning after overnight rain, clouding over with heavy showers after lunch! Cooler than of late 5º - 9ºC River still low. 180mm of rain (and counting) since the start of October hasn't made a blind bit of difference to the river - so far! 4 Chub: Biggest 3lb 6oz - the others between 1¾ - 2¼lb. 6 Dace - a couple of chunky ones, 3 Roach - all small. 1 Perch c½lb, 1 Brownie c¾lb. A successful morning on the weirpools (so as not to blank!), before an unrewarding recce session - must have walked a couple of miles, just to catch a solitary dace!

River Kennet - Brimpton 1200 - 1430 Warm with bright sunshine. AT 17ºC. River very low (of course!) 1 Chub: 1lb 10oz, 1 Dace. 4 Brownies 2 in the 1½-2lb range and two under a lb. I hate trout! Bright conditions and a low, clear, threadbare river were already very sub-optimal conditions for autumn chubbing. And what I really DIDN'T need were acrobatic brownies turning up 'early doors' in ALL my favourite chub hotspots. Alas, that's exactly what happened. Dropped into the weirpool for 15 minutes just to catch something without an adipose!

River Kennet - Thatcham 0815 - 1115 Warm (very for November) and mainly overcast (clearing for last ¾hr). AT 15ºC. River very low despite 5 inches of rain in the past 3 weeks! 2 Perch 1lb 12oz & 1lb 7oz. 1 Chub 1¼lb, 1 Dace, 1 Roach , 1 Gudgeon, 5 Trout parr. Started off, with worms for a change, in the weirpool as I've (correctly as it turned out) thought for a while that the place screams "Here be Perch!". However I'd caught the chub first cast and had been bitten off by a pike before the stripeys eventually turned up - just in time, as I was considering abandoning the project! Switched to maggot and went exploring my usual chub swims - but not a sniff of one - and 5 trout parr in 5 casts from my most 'reliable' chub hotspot set the tone for what was to come in the afternoon!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1015 - 1345 Very warm - with hazy sunshine. AT a balmy 21ºC when I packed up. River still very low - we've had over 3 inches of rain in October - though you wouldn't know it looking at the river levels! 2 Chub: 2lber and a 1lber. 1 Barbel: 1lb 14oz, 5 Roach, 4 Dace, 3 Gudgeon & a 1lb+ brownie. A change from my usual tactics as my 'modus operandi' when I have a morning at Enborne is to transfer over to Speen but decided to drop down to here instead. A bit of a scratchy morning though the plan included trying to winkle out another float caught barbel - so at least that box got ticked - though I suspect it was a repeat capture from previous vists this autumn.

River Kennet - Brimpton 0900 - 1300 Warm (for the time of year), with milky sunshine. AT 11º -> 17ºC. River still very low with a tinge of colour the only hint that we've had over an inch of rain in the previous 36 hours! 3 Chub: 4lb 3oz, 3lb 6oz & a chublet. 7 Roach and 3 Dace - nothing particularly impressive though they weren't tiddlers either! 5 Brownies, 2X2lbers, another of around 1½lb and a couple of parrs. Surprisingly scratchy morning - with both big chub first cast fish from the same swim (90 mins apart!) and all my other usual haunts not producing anything without an adipose fin! All roach (bar one) and dace from the weirpool at the top of the Aldershot.

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0830 - 1400 Bright and sunny. AT 6º->16ºC. River low (very!). 10 Perch; 6 over lb, best two 1lb 12oz & 1lb 10oz. 6 Chub; 3 'pounders' - two not by much. 20+ Roach - most quite small with 3 or 4 in the 6-8oz bracket. 2 Dace - small. 2 Gudgeon & 2 Brownies - both 1½-2lb. Late arrival as I had to go back for my maggots - doh! By the time I got to the canal it was bathed in bright morning sunshine and after a chilly night I deemed it too sub-optimal for big stripeys so headed straight for the big weirpool on Speen where I stayed all morning. Might not have been the wisest of decisions given the haul of perch it produced! Wandered downstream after lunch to look at the spot BTG fished recently and hoping to get to Egypt Point - but it was too overgrown. Did run a float through a couple of swims which both seemed stuffed with small roach....

River Kennet - Hambridge 0845 - 1245 Sunny spells. AT 8º ->17ºC. River still very low (prayer mats are out for a wet autumn!). 7 Chub; biggest 3lb on the nose, 5 between 1½ - 2½lb and a chublet. 1 Barbel; 1lb 13oz, 13 Dace & 9 Roach (all fairly small), 1 Gudgeon, 2 Bleak & a Brownie c¾-1lb. Super morning's trotting - nice to get another baby barbel for the 2nd trip running here and I might have lost a much bigger one though I think the leviathan that snapped my 6lb bottom like cotton was more likely an oversized trout. Fished every swim on the venue (not that there's that many!) as my usual hotspots were pretty barren - most fish caught trotting under the road bridge. A tree has fallen all the way across immediately downstream - damming the river somewat and giving some extra depth on 'our' side...

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0845 - 1300 Bright and sunny - with a cool northerly breeze - though felt very warm in full sun! AT 17ºC when I packed up, River very low. 5 Chub: 2X 2lbers and 3 in the ¾-1lb class. 5 Perch; All over 1lb, with 4 over 1½lb, best three 2lb 3oz, 2lb & 1lb 13oz. 30+ Roach - various sizes with around half a dozen 'netters', I weighed one of these at 13oz and the others were of similar stamp - great to see! 1 Dace: a real good-un of around 10oz. 1 Gudgeon, 1 Bleak, 1 Brownie - unweighed but a real lump of at least 3lbs and probably pushing 4! Super morning's sport from the large weirpool. I had started by fighting my way up the overgrown banks of Parliament Draft - getting soaked in the process from the heavy dew to be greeted by a cormorant working the water - not the welcome I'd have liked! I did run a float through a couple of swims but was further dispirited when an otter plopped into the river from the opposite bank! Within ¾hour I was working my way into position on the large weirpool where I'd stay for the rest of the morning - a super mixed bag and my biggest perch from Speen for 10 years - which was a real surprise. Not a great pic(alas) of the biggest perch - a real fatty!

River Kennet - Brimpton 0700 - 1100 Cool (compared to lately) and mainly overcast. AT 11->16ºC. River still low but up a good couple of inches on my last visit here in July. 4 Chub: 5lb0oz, 3lb 6oz, 1lb11oz and one <1lb. 5 Roach & 1 Dace - all a 'nice' size circa 6oz. 4 Brownies; a lber and the others around half that. With 1½inches of rain already this month (nearly as much as the whole of June, July & August!) I was hopeful that the river might have perked up - and so it proved. Fished 4 swims and had 'A' chub from each of them! The 5lber - my second of the season from here, came from a spot that rarely produces - which was just as well as my usual hotspot was trashed by a first cast trout!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1730 - 2145 Warm, clear evening. AT 23º -> 16ºC. River very low. 3 Chub: 4lb 11oz, 2lb 13oz, 1lb 12oz. 1 Barbel (hooray!) 2lb 1oz. 7 Dace, 2 Roach (all small). 5 Bleak. Been a while since I did an evening here - used to be a banker swim for ledgering for a barbel - so much so I've even brought a couple of my 'occasional' angling friends here in the past to (succesfully) catch their first barbel. Those were in pre-otter days (who made an appearance again this evening!). Now such trips are always preceded by a couple of hours trotting to inoculate me from the risk of a blank. And once I'd got through the bleak and small dace I managed to find some decentish chub from an unfamiliar spot, before a real treat in the shape of a small barbel turned up. This is now the 3rd season running I've had them from this general area - the green shoots of a recovery - lets hope so! Dusk brought the ledger rods out which produced no further fish - the only excitement to my isotopes being caused by crayfish or bats crashing into the line!

River Kennet - Thatcham 0630 - 1000 Bright and sunny. AT 14º -> 20ºC. River VERY low. 10 Chub; 3 over a lb (two not by much - the other around 2lb) all the others small - 4-6oz. 6 Roach - all around the same size as the small chub (and occupying the same swim). 2 Gudgeon - a rare sight in these parts. 1 Ruffe - a MUCH rarer sight. 3 brownies - all small. I first fished the Kennet in 1969 at the age of 8 when I was taken to a weirpool on Lower Benyons by my Great Grandfather. Using a tank aerial rod and a wooden starback reel I caught a 1½lb perch - needless to say I was in heaven! The following season after some very intensive sessions of swimming lessons I was allowed out on my own! (I have a propensity for falling in to this day!) I've fished the Kennet every year since and in all that time I've never caught a Ruffe from the river - until today! In fact I've only caught the species on two occasions before, once in the mid 70s (8th Oct 1976 to be precise) when Paul and I bunked off games at school to 'guest' on the Loddon and more recently on the canal at Avington. So a lively and productive morning - great to see some juvenile chub in the river again - has been a feature of the last couple of seasons. And was rather hoping against hope to see a barbel on the bank as I've heard of the odd one being caught from here this year (plus I had one myself from here last August). I guess that was just being greedy!