After a fairly tortuous wait for the new season to start, it finally arrived and soon the glorious 16th quickly passed . Sadly I couldn’t get out until the following Tuesday and Wednesday. I quite enjoy fishing the opening night. The setting up of base camp, the anticipation and excitement and the company. As night draws in you begin to feel the excitement grow, finally as the clock strikes midnight, out go the baits. This year though, work prevented an opening night campaign.
However I arrived at my destination on the following Tuesday, eager to explore a new stretch. After setting up base camp, eventually I managed to tackle up a rod and go in search of a few likely swims. Prior to this we walked the whole stretch and I made a few mental notes of areas that looked interesting. It was quite a warm day and the walk was about 3/4 of a mile, luckily nothing too arduous though.
The weather of late has been decidedly wet, to say the least. It does get a bit boring after a while, I have to say. The upside though is that the river levels were excellent and the general countryside looks so green and healthy. The bankside foliage is full and vibrant. Life is sustained by water and when you get an abundance of the wet stuff at this time of the year, everything looks and feel so incredibly healthy.
The Kennet
It’s always great to see a few Buzzards and Red Kites wheel overhead but it’s also great to see the somewhat demure wildlife that abounds the riverbank environment. I spotted a small bird which I then managed to identify as a Marsh Tit, a first for me and then a Green Finch. Plus of course the humble Bumble Bee buzzing around. I was already lost in a world of escapism and the stress and strains of the humdrum daily routine seem to dissolve away very quickly.
Marsh Tit
This was a new stretch for us and we were keen to explore. The first half of the section appeared to be deeper and a little slower. The levels were good and there was plenty of bankside features in the way of trees, bushes and reeds. Despite fishing through to around 1am, we had only one lost fish between the 3 of us and that was sadly Kevin. So the next day I grabbed a rod and started to plumb the river. I just stuck to the lower half and soon found that a deep channel ran along the nearside margins. The depth varied but in places dropped to 7 feet. There seemed to be little depth from the middle to the far banks, so the margins seemed to offer the best opportunities.
The Kennet
It was tough going. Only Geoff managed a fish, a small barbel of 5.8lbs. Other than that nothing else really happened. It was a scorching hot day and both Kevin and I were sporting rather nasty headaches and so we called it a day much earlier than expected.
Overall it was an informative first visit, but just somewhat lacklustre in terms of the actual fishing. Still in good old Arnie fashion and with heavy Austrian accent; “I’ll be back”. 🙂
The River Angler 
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