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River Kennet - Newbury 0430 - 0800 Clear and sunny. River at near normal summer levels and carrying its usual summer colour... 11 Chub; All quite small with a couple slightly bigger (just over 1lb). 3 Doz+ Dace, 1 Roach. 4 Brownies to 1lb. Lovely morning's trotting and home in time for brekfast. Really nice to see some juvenile chub in the river - augur's well for the future....

River Kennet - Brimpton 0530 - 1130 Hot and sultry. AT 19ºC when I left home at 0445! River still seeing the benefits of a wet spring. 6 Chub: 4lb 3oz, 4lb 0oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 10oz, 3lb 9oz, 3lb 2oz. 10 Dace - 4 over 8oz - best 10oz. 10 Brownies - mostly small - with 3 over lb. Lovely morning'c chubbing - the more so as I spent most of it up to my thighs in cool Kennet water. Nice stamp of fish which came from 3 separate swims.As ever, these days the trout were a bit of a pain - often killing a swim with their antics when hooked.

River Kennet - Brimpton. 0500 - 0930 Lovely summer's morning - sun rising therough the valley mist - temps a warm15º - rising to a muggy 21ºC when I packed up. River a little on the low side as is usual at this time of year. 2 Chub; 5lb 4oz & 1½lb. 11 Dace - with half a dozen over 8oz (!!) best went 10oz. 4 Brownies - all over 1lb - biggest 2lb 10oz. Cracking morning's trotting - nice to find a pod of big dace - or rather 2 pods as the fish came from different swims.

River Kennet - Newbury 0900 - 1400 Warm (for late October) and mainly sunny. 15ºC. River very low and threadbare. 6 Chub; 5 over 1lb. All in the 1-2lb range save for a 4lb 4oz fish. 30+ Dace most quite small apart from one clonking fish of 12oz. A doz+ Roach with around half in the 6-8oz bracket (nice!), 4 Gudgeon, 1 Bleak & 3 Brownies to a pound and a bit. Unexpectedly had a free day and with Jaq out all day it seemed the perfect excuse for a bit of autumn chubbing! I fished 6 swims in total, starting at the spot which has produced my only float caught barbel of the season and quickly had a 1¾lb & 2lb chub. Low water meant spooky fish so moving swims was the order of the day and this was the only swim that produced more than 1 chub. Lots of silver fish atm which is very pleasing especially the stamp of some of the roach - and no pike trouble which also helped matters! Nice Dace - will be even nicer in 3-4 months!

River Lambourn - Newbury 0830 - 1100 Mild and windy with some drizzle in the wind (Storm Dennis approaching!). River VERY full with just a hint of colour which is unusual for here. 8 Grayling; 4 'netters' biggest 2 went 1lb 7oz & 1lb 5oz. 2 Brownies - both around ½lb. This weekend had been pencilled in for months for an IAC fish-in. I'd booked Lower Itchen Fishery and filled all the places with folks coming from far and wide to attend. Unfortunately Storm Dennis had other ideas and the event was cancelled - pity as I was really looking forward to my annual late winter trip here. The day like all fish-ins' I organise these days was a charity event in memory of Paul and with no fishery to pay and most of my rods asking that their monies go straight to the charity - Storm Dennis will at least have benefitted Sue Ryder! So with the storm not quite arrived (the rain at least)and to ward off cabin fever - I sneaked a couple of hours on the Lambourn - so that I wouldn't be denied a grayling this weekend!

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury 0800 - 1600 Bright and very windy especially on the meadows. River high and carrying quite a bit of colour - much more than is usual for here. Mild, around 10ºC all day. 18 Chub (!!): Only 1 under 2lb, most around 3lb with 6 fish over 4lb - biggest 5lb exactly (over 63lb of chub). 2 Grayling 2lb 5oz (!) & 1lb 3oz. 9 Brownies to 3lb+. For some time now Paul and I have had 2 dates pencilled in over the Christmas period to go fishing - 23rd & 27th. Dates of 2013's pre & post Christmas storms!! As Monday's trip was cancelled we kept a very keen eye on the next weather system and were gratified at its early arrival - meaning the day would be at least dry - if somewhat windy! However Monday delivered over 2 inches of rain and last night another third of an inch. The river wasn't flooded but it would be very coloured up. The river keeper thought we were barmy - but permissions were granted!! We agreed that we'd at least turn up have a look and if need be get back in the car and go somewhere else (though we really didn't have a Plan B!)We were pleasantly surprised at the levels - not at all flooded and whilst it was quite coloured we could just make out the bottom in fast shallows runs. So we concurred it was not completely hopeless - and set off to find some sheltered (from the wind)swims. Expectations were lowered somewhat - Paul even said we wouldn't get any grayling today!!! Any worries that it would be a struggle we quickly dispelled - fishing float fished red corn in a known chub spot I had 30lb of them in the first hour! Paul got off to a slower start so I invited him to run a float through said swim and sure enough the float dipped at THE spot and he was soon bringing a chub to the net. Eventually the bites dried up and I agreed to rest it 'til then end of the day and for Paul to finish off there - though when he did there were rather more trout than chub in residence! After this fantastic start it was off to explore some of the other favoured swims at the venue. The place used to be excellent for big perch - though the hotspot for these hasn't produced a decent fish for a few years - as was the case again today. After this Paul and I went our separate ways until lunch - Paul seeking out dace me just fishing for whatever! Just above the 'perch' swim is a trot where I've had chub in the past so I decided to trot maggot through it for a few minutes. Sure enough I was immediately into a fish - taken just where I expected a chub to be laying. The fight was somewhat prolonged and I was beginning to think it was a trout when up through the milky waters popped up a rather large grayling. I've caught bigger ladies from the Itchen and Dorset Frome but this is my biggest ever Kennet fish. Most unexpected and most welcome! The rest of the days was spent on the windswept meadows trying to eek out my supplies of sweetcorn. Highlight of the afternoon was 4 X 4lb+ chub in 4 casts - again all on red corn - they were really having it today! Paul managed to find some dace - I think he had a round a dozen with fish upto 10oz plus his chub count got into double figures. I don't think either of us expected such a good day's angling! Some Pics. No Perch here! One of Paul's Dace. Despite blowing a hoolie - Paul finds a quiet spot!

River Kennet - Newbury & Thatcham 0430 - 1700 Warm (Up to 22ºC), mainly overcast and quite breezy at times. River in summer mode - ie low! 3 Chub; 4lb 10oz, 3lb 6oz & 3lb 2oz. 50+ dace with many in the 6-8oz class - biggest 9oz. ½doz Roach, 1 Grayling and several brownies to nearly 1lb. 4 different venues and a total of 11 swims fished - a day for travelling light. Just took rod, net, bait and food (and drink!). Started in Newbury and basically worked my way downstream! Dace everywhere - but I was hoping for something a little bigger - eventually achieved with a trio of nice chub from my last 2 venues. Was hoping for a float caught barbel too - but I guess that's just being greedy!

River Kennet - Newbury 0515 - 0745 Cool (5ºC when I started) and clear. River with a little more flow and quite clear for a change. 1 Chub; 5lb 13oz. 30 Dace. 20 Roach. 6 Gudgeon. 1 Grayling. Cracking dawn trotting session and home for breakfast! Chub were the target and I was at the head of the swim before 0500, trickling in maggot for 20 mins or so waiting for it to get light enough to see my float. Sure enough the trick worked and first trot through the float buried and I was connected to a lump of a chub - which thankfully I managed to keep out of the various obstructions on offer to it to effect an escape. After such a great start I was hopeful of some more chevins - however it soon became clear that Mr Esox was in residence (or probably MRS Esox judging by the size of it) and after its brekkie so I dropped downstream 60m or so and fished a fast streamy run for the rest of the morning - where it was practically a fish a trot.

River Kennet - Nr Thatcham 0445 - 1200 Hot! 17º at 0430 when I left the house 31º when I got home. River quite coloured as it always is in summer and at near normal summer levels. 7 Chub: 5lb 10oz, 5lb 4oz, 4lb 7oz, 4lb 2oz, 3lb 14oz, 3lb 8oz, 2lb 15oz. 4 Dace, 2 Grayling, 10 Brownies - half over 1lb to 1lb 9oz. Standing in the middle of the Kennet watching the sunrise on a warm, still June morning whilst trotting under the far bank trees - what's not to love! Chub we're very much the target today so that boxed got well and truly ticked - a brace of 5lbers was way more than I could have expected - though the bigger one was very hollow - sure to be a 6 in the winter! Was hoping to get amongst the dace a bit more but the trout were a bit of a nuisance at times - more so for jumping and trashing swims! Fished 7 swims in total - none of which had seen an angler in the opening week - jungle fishing - the first one had head high nettles! A brace of 5's

River Kennet - Brimpton 1800 - 2045 - Warm, with sunny spells. River at normal early summer levels. 1 Chub; 4lb 14oz, 3 Dace, 3 Brownies to 1½lb. Pleasant evening's trotting - pleased to get such a nice chub so early in the season - was in surprsingly good condition too.

River Kennet - Newbury 0930 - 1345 Bright and cold start, clouding over. AT no higher than 5ºC all day. River at normal autumn levels (actually slightly up on some previous autumns) and carrying a LOT of leaf litter. 4 Chub: 3lb 4oz, 3lb 1oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 10oz. 5 Grayling; Best 1lb 3oz. 13 Dace (quite a few in the 6-8oz bracket), 5 Roach and 5 small brownies. A morning's trotting in the cold - this venue is starting to return to it's old productive self (just need some barbel to show!)

River Kennet - Brimpton 0800 - 1115 Bright and sunny. river up a couple of inches and carrying a bit of colour - looked perfect! 5 Chub: 5lb 11oz, 4lb 14oz, 3lb 5oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 0oz. 3 brownies - 2 over 1lb... Cracking morning's trotting - all the chub from the same swim - took it nice and slow - fed well before my first cast then rested & fed between each fish - certainly paid off as I don't usually get more than a couple at any one time....

River Kennet - Hambridge 0945 - 1330 Cold (2 - 5ºC) and quite sunny. River high (well over a foot up on my last visit here in Sep) but with very little colour. 3 Chub; 5lb 7oz, 4lb 10oz &1¾lb, 2 Grayling, 1 Dace & 3 Brownies to circa 1lb. Cracking brace of chub from one of my favourite flood water pools. Fish in splendid winter condition. Wished I'd brought a spinning rod with me - a pike kept attacking my float as I reeled in (but not any of the fish!)

River Kennet - Newbury 0900 - 1400 Bright and breezy - river up an inch or so after yesterday's heavy rain with its usual summer tinge of colour. 18 Chub: Most around 6-8oz, with 5 over a lb, biggest went 4lb 7oz with the others between 1¼ - 2¼lb., 2 doz+ Dace, 1 doz Roach, 2 Grayling, 2 Bleak and 3 Brownies. Lovely morning's trotting - great to see so many silvers in the river - especially the young chub.

River Kennet - Hambridge 0900 - 1200 Bright and sunny after a frosty start, had to scrape ice off the car which was a shock to the system after a week away in Lanzarote! River up a touch and with a bit of colour. 6 Chub; Best 2, 4lb 15oz & 3lb 14oz all the others between 1¼lb - 2lb 6oz. 10 Dace - with 4 in the 8-10oz bracket, 2 Roach, 3 Brownies - all over 1lb - biggest nearer 2. Cracking little trotting session was hoping for a chub or 2 so to get half a dozen was great. Was intending to rove the whole section - but ended up just fishing one swim.

So i'm looking to buy a closed face reel for fishing the river don in Sheffield. Any thoughts on which one to get.