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Lower Itchen Fishery 0830 - 1730 Bright and breezy save for a shower when I arrived and another torrential shower around lunchtime. AT 10º-16ºC. River at normal autumn levels though it coloured up noticeably after the lunchtime downpour. 30 Grayling; Most around 8-10oz. Biggest 'just' 1lb 5oz with another half a dozen or so a couple of ounces, shy of that. 7 Chub: All well over 1lb - best 3: 4lb 8oz, 4lb 5oz & 3lb 10oz. 7 Brownies 1½- 3½lb. 2 Roach - small. 4 Salmon parr and a flounder (least I think that's what it is - see pic below!). Annual autumn start to my grayling fishing - and whilst they were reasonably plentiful - I couldn't find the big ones - I've already caught a bigger one on the Kennet this autumn! Chub were a nice diversion though, I usually reckon on finding a few here but don't remember getting quite this many before - though they kept turning up in some of my favourite hotspots for the ladies. Flounder was a long way from home (the stretch isn't tidal!).

Dorset Frome - Wool 0730 - 1400 Clear frosty start with rod rings icing up for the first hour or so - proper grayling weather! Sunny morning, clouding over by lunchtime. AT -1º -> 11ºC. River at near normal winter levels - 1.01m on the East Stoke gauge. 9 Grayling; 3 'gooduns', biggest 1lb 11oz. 8 Brownies - all around 6-8oz. A scratchy sort of day on a venue that is never prolific (but which can throw up some huge ladies which is why I keep coming back!) most fish from just a couple of spots - rest and return being the order of the day! There was meant to be a rare pic of me actually holding (well juggling) a fish. I was chatting to another member when I hooked the biggest one of the day - and he kindly landed it for me and offered to take our portrait - he said he took several shots - but there were none on the camera when I got it home this evening! Thankfully his netsmanship was better than his photography!

River Kennet - Speen Moors 1000 - 1530 Bright and mainly sunny after early morning rain. AT around 13ºC all day. River still quite low and clear despite a wet October (109mm and counting!) 6 Chub; 4lb 10oz, 2lb 0oz and 4 in the ½-1lb bracket (of course!). 1 Perch 1lb 11oz. 17 Roach - only one troubled the scales (as I thought it would make a pound!) @ 14oz. 3 Dace. 1 Bleak. 2 Brownies; a 2+lber and a smallun. First hour and a half on Parliament Draft which accounted for both the bigger Chub. Then enboldened by the news that a working party had cleared a path on the back carrier I set off to find a favourite chub swim of the past. Alas, less than 50% of the length had been cleared and after a sweaty 30 mins trying to fight my way through the undergrowth and fallen trees I gave up and headed back to the big weirpool - where I pretty much spent the rest of the session. Chub and Speedia

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0900 - 1430 Cloud, clearing to bright sunshine - with showers to finish! AT up to 15ºC. River low and clear - despite over ¾inch of rain yesterday! 5 Chub; 3lb 13oz & 4 in the ¾-1lb class (They're everywhere!). 3 doz (!) roach - most quite small with 3 or 4 'netters' - I put a couple on the scales and they both went 12oz. 8 Dace; small save for a couple of clonkers at 10 & 13oz. 3 Brownies; 2, 'pounders' and a 3lb+ brute of a fish (already had a kype - which seems rather early!) Fished half a dozen+ swims and had roach from pretty much all of them! Also had a good wander around for my first visit of the autumn - great to see so many silvers in the river - though was rather hoping to get amongst the bigger chub.

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0930 - 1230 Cloud clearing to a bright and sunny morning. AT 14ºC when I packed up. River low. 4 Chub; 2lb 11oz, a couple of around 12-16oz (of course) and a tiddler. 13 Roach, 2 Dace (all apart from one of the dace quite small). 1 Brownie 1¾lb. A couple of hours prospecting for new chub swims which produced nothing but the trout - followed by ¾hr in the ever reliable weirpool which produced everything else!

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0830 - 1300 Foggy - eventually clearing to sunny spells - though bites dried up when the sun appeared so was quite happy with the gloomy conditions. AT 14ºC when I left. River quite low and with a little colour. 5 Chub: 3lb 11oz, 2lb 5oz and 3 around 12oz or smaller (This year class appear to be everywhere!) 40+ Roach and Dace (more roach than dace) - a nice stamp with around half of both species in the 8-10oz class. Biggest dace I weighed went 10oz and biggest roach 12oz but there was a lot of a similar size. 1 Bream: 1lb 4oz. 3 Bleak. 3 Rainbow Trout; biggest 4lb 11oz (did actually weigh this for a change!) A great morning's trotting on my syndicate stretch of river. Most fish from the weirpool apart from the two bigger chub and the troot. Rainbow's were a bit of a menace - as they kept turning up in swims where I'd started off with a chub.

River Kennet - Hambridge 1330 - 1900 Warm (18ºC) and overcast. River low and a little turbid. 2 Chub: both ¾ - 1lb (had quite a few of this size recently - wonder if they've been stocked?) 12 Dace; 3 in the 6-8oz class. 8 Roach; one 'netter' others all small. 1 Grayling: small. 1 Gudgeon. 3 Bleak & a trout parr. A couple of hours trotting followed by 3 frustrating hours ledgering pellet and getting totally annihilated by the crayfish. They were stripping the bait as soon as it hit bottom. Couldn't keep a bait on for more than 5 minutes so aborted what was planned to be a much longer session....

River Kennet - Aldermaston 1345 - 1645 Warm with 'milky' sunshine. 19ºC. River low and sluggish. 2 Grayling; 1lb 6oz & 1lb 2oz (!!). 11 Roach; Biggest 12oz (weighed) nothing else even half that. 1 Gudgeon. Well I wasn't expecting that! First trip here in well over a decade and even when I did fish it more regularly it was usually hunched over a couple of quiver tips waiting for a barbel - I rarely got the trotting gear out on this venue. So a bit of a recce and for the first hour or so it looked like a fruitless one. I'd fished half a dozen or so swims without so much as a minnow bothering my maggots and had wandered a long way downstream from where I'd dumped my gear when I suddenly found some fish - 12oz roach was first up followed by the bigger lady. Pic below is of the smaller one - after I'd retrieved my gear to my new swim. (I didn't move again for the rest of the afternoon). Can't remember when I last caught a grayling so far down the Kennet! Pic of the gonk for Martin's benefit!

River Kennet - Aldershot Water/Brimpton 0900 - 1400 Foggy start clearing to a bright, warm, sunny day. AT 12º -> 21ºC. River very low and a little coloured up - usual for early autumn especially after a dry spell. 2 Chub; both around ¾lb. 15 Dace; all quite chunky most around the 6oz mark with a couple of bigger ones. 13 Roach; all handsized or bigger. 1 Bleak. 2 Brownies - circa ½lb each. A session topped and tailed in the weirpool at the top of the Aldershot - which produced all the fish save the trout. Hacked my way down the path (I'd brought my 'slasher' for the job!) to fish Brimpton proper - but a low river and a bright sun do not good sport make and I could only winkle out a couple of trout (and lost a much bigger one) from the 3 swims I dropped into. All dace and roach were of a good stamp which is good to see.

River Kennet - Hambridge 0700 - 1300 Warm, overcast and quite muggy - though that might just have been all the exertion to hack my way through the undergrowth to my swim - clearly no one has been here since MY last visit back in July! AT 10º - 20ºC. River low with a little colour - typical for this time of year. 7 Chub; 3 over 2lb - the best 2lb 12oz with another an ounce or so under. Other 3 were around the pound mark ± a few ounces. 1 Barbel (!!) unweighed but probably just shy of a lb. 1 Pike; 4lb 8oz. 20 Dace and 8 Roach - nothing of any size. 1 Bleak, 3 Brownies: one of 1¼lb the other 2 around half that (and possibly the same fish!) Well that WAS fun! And for the 2nd weekend in a row I get a Kennet barbel trotting - though this one may have been recently stocked judging by the size of it. In years gone by barbel of this size were quite common here - so much so that I used to call it the Barbel Nursery! I had planned to make this a 2 venue morning - but as it turned out it was a 2 swim session - giving each an hour in rotation. Started off in my usual hotspot and had what would prove to be my biggest chub of the morning within the first 10 mins of fishing after the usual 'bait and wait' tactics at the start of the session. However most of the fish then came from my second swim upstream - one that often only produces in low water conditions (it's usually too pacey). This produced 5 of the chub and the barbel - though the pike was caught back in my initial swim on a plug after it had chased in a couple of the dace.

River Kennet - Hambridge (CSAS) 0645 - 1100 Overcast to start with sun breaking through for last hour or so. AT 19ºC. River low and a little coloured up. 2 Chub: both around 1¼lb. 16 Dace: most quite chunky - I'd already weighed a couple at 7&8oz but last one of the morning was even bigger at a shade over 10oz. 1 Roach. 1 Grayling (circa 8-10oz). 2 Bleak. 3 Trout (8oz - pretty sure it was the same damn fish each time!) Plan was to try and get a barbel for the 3rd weekend running so it was off to a swim where I had 5 from last Sep. Alas the Kennet decided I was being too greedy and offered up some nice dace instead. Forgot my camera (so good thing I didn't get a biggy!) so cover pic is an unused one from last year at the same venue.

River Kennet - Thatcham 0915 - 1130 Cool (for August) and overcast. AT 14ºC. River low and clear. 1 Barbel(!!) 3lb 15oz. 5 Chub; a 'pounder' with the rest a ¼ of that - nice to see some juvenile fish in the river. 1 each of Perch (¾lb), Roach, Dace & Gudgeon. Well, THAT's put a grin on my face! A couple of hours trotting to use up some maggot that's on the turn having languished in the back of my bait fridge for weeks! A decade or so ago - this was THE venue to get a barbel on the float - in fact my all time most viewed blog entry was of just such a trip back in 2011. My last barbel caught trotting from here was back in Sep 2013 (actually my last barbel of any description from this venue). There are still some decent chub to be had here and in truth that was my target quarry this morning - and starting off in the weirpool I was soon into a mixed bag of smalluns. I then dropped downstream to fish a swim I had decent chub from back in July - not a sniff of one this time around - but running a float through the glide below produced the barbel - which I suspect had been holding station, mopping up the free offerings. First barbel from the Kennet since 2016 (apart from the smalluns I had last Sep at Hambridge)

River Kennet - Thatcham 1800 - 1930 Hot and humid - with the crash, bang, wallop of an electric storm to finish! River quite low. 6 Chub: biggest 2lb with another couple of around a lb and 3 tiddlers. 1 Pike; 4lb 3oz (on trotted maggot!). 2 Perch; both around the 1lb mark (nice!). 2 Roach; a 'netter' and a tiddler. 2 Brownies - small. Quick return to the venue I had a barbel from recently with the intention of ledgering into the dark to see if I could get another. As usual I started in the weirpool (aka the aquarium) for some blank saving action on the float. And it was fish a chuck for the first 15mins before the swim went suddenly quiet - the reason for this soon became clear when a pike snaffled my double red maggot. Bit jammy to land it as it bit through the line just as I got it to the net - but was able to scoop it up before it realised it was free! By 1915 I was settling over my ledger rod - but within 10 or so minutes was undertaking a very hurried pack up as a thunderstorm approached - just making it back to the car before the heavens opened and the lightening seemed right on top of me - very little time delay between flash and bang!!!

River Kennet - Padworth 1800 - 2200 Warm and overcast. River quite low and quite coloured up (usual late summer conditions!) 3 Chub; all ¾-1lb. 11 Roach - 4 in the 8-10oz class - all the others less that half this. 1 Dace; 6oz (looked bigger!) 3 Gudgeon. Moderately successful trotting sesh (and always nice to see a few gobio gobios turn up) to precede the expected blank on the lead once it got dark. Only 'rattles' were as a result of the signals!

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0630 - 1230 Torrential rain for first 90 mins or so followed by showers (some quite lumpy!). Cool for August (13ºC) and quite breezy - sun eventually appeared for the last hour or so. 2 Chub: 3lb 13oz & a smallun. 1 Bream; 3lb 14oz. 4 Doz Roach & Dace (mainly roach - nothing of any size). 3 Bleak. 1 Rainbow Trout - 3½lb. I read 3 weather forecasts on Friday evening and whilst all predicted a showery weekend they all also said that Sunday would be the drier day. PAH! Didn't get a drop of rain yesterday morning - first shower appeared at lunchtime - and yet this morning it was like sitting through a monsoon. Thankfully I'd just about got set up before the heavens opened and quickly abandoned my trotting for a couple of hours sitting under a brolly, ledgering meat - and almost thankful that I didn't get a bite! Eventually the rains abated enough to resume running a float through various swims. Was hoping for a few more chub - though the bream was a nice bonus and didn't half put up a scrap in the fast current! Also harvested my first blackberries of the summer!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1345 - 1515 Warm (21ºC but felt warmer!), overcast with some fine drizzle at times. River at usual summer levels. 1 Chub; 2½lb. 16 Dace - a few chunky ones but nothing to trouble the scales, 6 Roach - ditto. 2 Bleak. Quick, unplanned session - as the apocalyptic amounts of rain forecast for today didn't materialise! Nearly a chubless session too as the usual tactics of 'bait & wait' failed due, mainily I think, to a surfeit of bleak that were nailing all the free offerings before they had a chance to sink in the water column and drift downstream. Pleased to eventually get one pretty much last cast.

River Kennet - Brimpton 1300 - 1530 Warm, mainly overcast - though with more sunshine than before lunch - very muggy. AT 20ºC and feeling particularly sticky after a longish walk through the undergrowth! River quite full! Think the weir at Colthrop has been opened up more than the one at Crookham - there was a LOT of water coming down the Aldershot - too much to wade out at the tail of the weirpool! 3 Chub; 4lb 5oz, 4lb 0oz, 2lb 11oz. 3 Dace, 1 Roach & 5 Brownies (½lb - 1¼lb) So after a bite for lunch and an age queuing to get across Thatcham level crossing it was off downstream for a few more hours of trotting. I usually fish the weirpool at the top of the Aldershot by wading out and casting upstream - but it was too deep to do that safely! Fished 3 swims - that have been reasonably reliable in the past - giving each around ¾hr or so. Caught trout in all of them (of course!) and all 3 chub from the second one I dropped into - quite a fast streamy section under trees (see feature photo) - which often produces chevin early season (think it might be close to their spawning redds). All were a real battle to bring up against the current!

River Kennet - Thatcham 0900 - 1200 Warm, overcast and quite muggy. AT 20ºC but felt MUCH warmer. River low (but see part 2!) 3 Chub: 3lb 13oz, 2lb 7oz, 1lb 14oz. 2 Dace, 2 Roach & 2 Brownies - both around 8-10oz. Scratchy morning as most of my 'usual' swims here didn't have enough water in them. Fished 9 swims in total but only caught from a couple of them - nearly all fish came from the weirpool - apart from a couple of the chub which were extracted from one of their usual haunts!

River Kennet, Bulls Lock 1330 - 1530 Overcast and muggy. AT 19ºC but felt much warmer. 8 Dace, 3 Roach & 2 Brownies (2lb+ and one of around 12oz) Had to restock the bait fridge so perfect excuse (not that I EVER need an excuse) to run a float through a new swim for a couple of hours. As ever Chub were the intended quarry though the only fish to put a serious bend in the rod had an adipose fin - also lost 2 troot to hook pulls - though trout being trout they were probably the same two I landed!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1000 - 1300 Rain (again!?) steady and persistent but never particularly heavy - thankfully, as I was standing out in it for 3 hours. Cool (only 11ºC), quite calm. River was in great nick - higher than normal for June and with a little less colour than last Thursday. 2 Chub; 5lb 2oz and one of around a pound (unweighed). 18 Dace & 9 Roach - nothing to warrant weighing. 1 Grayling c10oz, 2 Gudgeon (hooray!) & 2 Brownies both over 1lb but under 2lb. Apart from the rain, conditions looked spot on - and as usual I started by just trickling in maggot for the first 10+ mins - supremely confident that my first trot through would produce a good fish. However, first cast produced the bigger trout (around 1½lb) - usually the kiss of death for their swim trashing abilities! Thankfully I managed to bully it away from the 'chub zone' before its first leap - but still thought that my chances had been blown. I needn't have worried - after slipping the brownie back - my float buried on the second run through and a strike just meet solid resistance. This time the perogative was to steer the fish away from the danger of tree roots on the far bank and once I had it in open water the battle was won. I waited until the last week of the season last year to get a 5lb+ chub - chuffed to get one in the opening week this season!

River Kennet - Hambridge (CSAS Stretch) 0800 - 1300 Warm, overcast & sultry. River at normal summer levels and carrying a bit of colour. 5 Chub; All 'schooly' sized (1-2lbs) - biggest 2lb 13oz. 11 Dace; a couple of 'good-uns' which went 9oz each. 1 Brownie c10oz. Failed plan to try and repeat my success here last Sep of getting some float caught barbel. I did actually see a few on the shallows and they were showing more interest in each other that what was for brunch. So had to make do with ever obliging chub which came from 3 different swims.

River Kennet - Marsh Benham 0430 - 1230 Warm and sunny (though very misty at 0430!). River at normal early summer levels and clearer than below Newbury. 6 Chub: 4lb4oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 10oz, 3lb 5oz & 2 'pounders'. 40 Roach & Dace in roughly equal nos - slightly more dace. A few chunky ones but nothing to worry the scales! 3 Bleak. Lovely to be back on the river on a glorious summer's morning. Great sport trotting my 'base camp' swim too. I fished around dozen swims in total - but this became a tactic of simply resting my weirpool spot which produced all the chub and most of the rest. Gratifying to not be bothered by trout as well! A brassy 4lber

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0815 - 1745 Cool, overcast with milky sunshine at times. AT 0º - 10ºC. river at normal winter levels - looked in great nick. 35 Chub - with nearly 2doz over 3lb(!) Had 11 over 4lb of which 5 were over 5lb (!). Best 5lb 9oz. 18 Dace some quite chunky ones but nothing particularly noteworthy. 8 Roach - all small apart from one 'netter'. 6 Brownies 2½ - 3½lb - with most at the upper end of that range! Wow! This has become my annual chub fest - I had 20 in each of the last 2 seasons and 2 doz the season before that. I usually accumulate those sorts of numbers by roving between hotspots, today was different in that I had all bar one from one spot (apart from chublets that kept turning up in my dace swims). As usual it was copious amounts of redcorn that did the trick, feeding little and often AND not recasting for 5mins or so after each fish, resulted in a veritable conveyor belt of big chub! Rested the swim for a couple of hours around midday when I had my lunch and went exploring a new swim based on some intelligence from the river keeper (which produced a more modest chub first cast followed by an acrobatic trout second). I always like to have an hour or so around dusk here fishing the carriers as they can produce big dace (I've had fish of a 1lb in the past) so I was almost thankful when around 1530 I connected with a large trout which got off but not before totally trashing my chubspot. A biteless half an hour confirmed my fears so I was off to try an get some big dace - alas the only 'pounder' that turned up in my dace swims was yet another chub!

River Kennet (& Carrier) - Marsh Benham 0830 - 1345 Milky sunshine to start - clouding over - very breezy. AT 5º ->10ºC. River in good winter nick - full with a slight tinge of colour. 3 Chub: All over 2lb - best 3lb 6oz. 1 Pike: 4lb 11oz (On sweetcorn - took it on the retrieve!). A doz Roach; various sizes - one worthy of the scales went 14oz. 2 Dace - small. 1 Rainbow - 2½lb & 2 Brownies: 1½ - 2lb. Last day trip to the venue I started my river season back in June. Was hoping to reacquaint myself with the 5lber from last weekend - or rather its big sister and I had a handful of red corn left over from Monday's chubfest. Alas, my first bite on corn was a brownie - which went airborne and threw the hook, second bite was the rainbow - which didn't and stayed on and then I had a flippin pike take my corn as I reeled in to recast - who needs fancy lures when you can make do with 3 kernals of corn! I did eventually find some chub by switching swims and bait (back to red maggot). So no big last day chevin but a pleasant enough morning - especially as I had the place to myself - really expected to bump into some fellow syndicate members as it was the last day.

River Kennet - Hambridge 1330 - 1600 Bright and sunny. AT 12ºC. River 'full' and gin clear. 2 Chub 2lb 7oz & a 'pounder'. 5 Dace - 3 real clonkers (for dace!) the one I weighed went 11oz the other 2 probably an ounce or so under that. 2 Grayling - both small. Had to make the most of what might be my last chance at the Kennet this season - if the forecast for tomorrow is to be believed! 6 fish in the first 10 minutes followed by nearly two hours without a bite! (bright sun and a clear river are hardly ideal conditions). Thought that there'd be more action once the sun was off the water - but only managed to winkle out the 2 ladies and the smaller chub.