Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Wasing Estate’

End of Season Sessions

Posted in Angling Diary, tagged , , , on March 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »


Although I’m sad to see the season draw to a close, it does make the return in three months that much sweeter.  The banks will be looking fresh again and the flora and fauna have a chance to regenerate and take a rest from us anglers.

I tried hard over those last three days to get a big chub from the Lea.  I was there in hot pursuit on the Monday and Tuesday.  Sadly I drew a blank.  Geoff managed to tempt a nice chub on the Tuesday which was about 4-4.5lbs.  A great result for him as it’s only his second or third visit and its a tough venue.  We bumped into a mate in the car park who had just caught a 13lb 12oz barbel, so his season ended on a high.

The Lea

The Lea

The final day saw us for the last time on the Wasing Estate’s section of the Kennet.  We have taken the rather difficult decision not to re-join next season but instead try our hands elsewhere on the Kennet.  I will miss the tranquility, solitude and the rugged, wild feel that it offers.  Anyways, this time there was Kevin and Dan joining Geoff and I and we decided to try Aldermaston, hoping for a big finish.  It was a nice day.  A little chilly perhaps in the morning but it gradually warmed up as the afternoon wore on.

4lb 11oz

4lb 11oz

I managed to tempt a couple of chub on bread crust, the biggest going 4lb 11oz and a trout on maggots.  Sadly though I couldn’t persuade any of the resident barbel to show their faces.  They just didn’t want to know.  Still we saw a couple of Buzzards circling high overhead, a Red Kite flew past and a startled Roe deer hurtling across the field opposite.  Kevin then witnessed it going headlong into the river and it swam across and clambered out the other side, shook itself off and then legged it.

I think Geoff also caught a decent trout but sadly Kevin and Dan saw no action, unless you include their sandwiches and pack lunch!  So we bid a fond farewell to the Wasing and will no doubt return one day.  Until then, we’ll miss you.

The Wasing Estate

The Wasing Estate

Read Full Post »

2 Pints of Casters and a Packet of Hemp

Posted in Angling Diary, tagged , , , , , on September 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »


After our sojourn to the great Ouse last week, we decided it was time to stick to the job in hand and try to catch a few fish from the Kennet.   I have always liked September on the rivers.  It’s a month which has historically produced some of my best fish.  I’m sure that statement would be borne out by most angler’s experiences.  The barbel are starting to pack on a bit of weight during the Autumn months in readiness for the onset of winter.  I tend to get more doubles at this time of the year than any other, with the exception perhaps of late February and March.

The Kennet

So with this in mind Kevin, Geoff and myself felt that Aldermaston was the place to concentrate our efforts on.  This would give us the opportunity to fish a few hours into darkness on the first night and an early start the following day.  We are getting conflicting information regarding the best periods to fish.  Some advocate night-time, up to 1 or 2 in the morning.  Others are saying their catches are coming early morning up to 9 or 10. So we decided to try both, although we would probably only fish until maybe 11.30 or 12 on the Tuesday night. I do need my beauty sleep, as anyone who knows me will testify, often telling me that it’s quite obvious I’m not getting enough!

I had decided to go all out on the hemp and caster route.  Armed with about 12 pints of hemp and 6 pints of casters for the loose feed and then using 4 casters superglued onto a longish hair.  I hoped that by having a long hair, I’d hook less dace and roach and therefore create less disturbance in the swim.  It’s not a cheap excercise, as casters are £3.25 a pint, but it might prove worthwhile.  We arrived in the lower car park and found it empty.  After setting up camp we headed off to find a few suitable swims.

The largest loaded bait dropper

My intention was to stay put and bait the swim up throughout the duration of the session.  Kevin and Geoff found a couple of swims, but would consider moving if they felt it was appropriate.  I found the swim that I fancied and after bouncing a lead around, just to double-check the depth and weed situation, I used the largest bait dropper to deposit about 2 1/2 pints of hemp and caster into the swim.  I then intended to leave the swim to rest for an hour.  I tied up a new hooklink for my main rod and went about setting up the chair and oh yes the landing net.  Now where is my landing net handle…oh not in the quiver…..must have already taken it out…..er no….not in the car either……ah, think I left it at home.  What a total wazzock!  I had already realised that I had forgotten my fleece top as well.  Things were looking a bit dicey.  It was going to be one of ‘those’ sessions.  Luckily Kevin was just a few yards upstream of me, so offered to stay there during the duration of the session, despite my comments about him and Geoff missing the Junction on the motorway last week!  I just hoped that I wouldn’t disturb him too much.  Well, chance would be a fine thing!

So after much cursing and coffee drinking, I finally swung the bait out into the swim.  My intention was to bait dropper 3 loads every 20 minutes using the medium sized dropper and re-bait and re-cast every 40 minutes.  In the event of a fish, I would bait dropper 6 loads and rest the swim for 30 minutes.  This is very much a Steve Pope method of fishing hemp and caster.  If it’s good enough for him, it is certainly good enough for me.

6lb Kennet Barbel

15 minutes into the first cast and the tip whacked round.  A strong fish fought like a tiger on the other end.  I knew it wasn’t a big fish, but what a great fight.  The barbel was around 6 pounds and went back very strongly.  I did the 6 dropper thing and enjoyed a coffee.  Out went the bait again after 30 minutes.  A little while after, the rod tip went round again and this was a small but strong fish.  It felt too strong for a roach or chub, so it had to be a small barbel.  It was.  A perfectly formed and pristine fish of about a pound in weight.  Very encouraging for the future.  At about 10.30 the rod tip whacked round again and this time a really nice fish of close on 8lbs resulted.  Both Geoff and Kevin had not had a bite.  Maybe there is something to this hemp and caster lark after all.

A near '8'

At 11.30 we called it a day.  It was still warm and I could have fished on for another hour or so, but we wanted an earlyish start.  So we headed back to camp for a cup of freshly brewed tea and the usual late night chin wag, then off to bed ready for day 2.

Read Full Post »

Big and Fat and I don’t mean Geoff

Posted in Angling Diary, tagged , , , , , on August 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »


This is far from being just a barbel fishing blog, but big barbel have been somewhat elusive so far this season.  I think my best to date has been 10lb 1oz from the Trent.  The Kennet doubles have proven to be even harder to come by.  We normally take plenty of big fish from the Kennet. I think my best day was 3 ’12’s’ two seasons ago.  A season where I managed 14 doubles from the Kennet.  This season has been the hardest start on the Kennet I’ve had in 5 years.  It’s strange because everywhere else I go I seem to catch plenty of barbel.  I’ve had the best part of 140 fish this season and only 15 have been from the Kennet.  Still hopefully it will get better…….!

So it was that Geoff, Kevin and I packed up the tents and moved to Aldermaston.  We know this stretch well and in past seasons have fared well here during daylight hours.  Rather than fish during the day on the other beats, this week we had swapped around a bit.  Fishing the evening and night at Dalston and today here at Aldermaston.  We hoped that this change in tactics might just produce some fish.

Base Camp

The water was still quite coloured and the river an inch or two up, maybe.  The river looked good.  We each headed off up river in search of some likely spots.  I ventured in to a very boggy swim.  Luckily I was armed (or legged) with my Simms waders.  So if I did have to wade into a few boggy spots, I could.  There is a lovely deep gully in this swim.  It’s flanked on one side by beautiful, flowing ranunculus and on the other by lots of overhanging trees and bushes.  It looks perfect.

I started off by putting out about 3 pints of hemp and caster.  Leaving the swim to rest for half an hour whilst I got organized.  The swim was certainly boggy, but I managed to find a firm spot for the chair.  Once that was all sorted a cup of coffee was in order and then I tied up a new rig.  The previous week I had fished casters on the hair, but due the the colour this week I opted for pellets for bait.  Hoping that the additional smell might make it easier for the fish to locate them.  A 3 foot braided hooklink was tied up with a 12 hook and 2 large elips pellets superglued to the hair.  The feeder was a 3 ounce Andrew Witham cage feeder.  This was packed with a mixture of pellets and Hinders ‘barbel bomb’ groundbait.

The bait was swung out into the gully and I sat back to await events.  I took this opportunity to nose through the weekly fishing papers.  A 4lb 10oz crucian carp had been caught from a Verulam AC water.  The picture looked good.  The fish, at a casual glance, looked like a true crucian.  They are not easy fish to identify.  The colour looked pretty good: dark bronze and orange tints to the fins.  The mouth didn’t look quite right, but it was open and extended, so nothing conclusive there.  I didn’t do a scale count, I think I’ll leave that to the experts.   I hope it is genuine and well done to the angler that caught this beautiful fish.

Anyway back to the barbel.  At last I had what looked like a persistent chub bite, so decided to hit it.  It was a chub, about 3 1/2lbs.  Then  a little later, another persistent chub bite, so I hit this one as well.  This time though it was a chub on steroids, 3 shredded wheat and a tin of Popeye’s spinach.  What is technically known in fishing circles as a barbel.  Not a big fish, but a really good fight.  A fish of about 6-7lbs.  Later on I had the full on 3 foot twitch.  It felt like a good fish on the other end.  It stayed deep and thumped around for a few seconds before snagging me on some unseen obstruction.  Steady pressure from numerous angles and plenty of swear words usually does the trick.  Sadly though everything went slack and the hook had pulled out.  At least I got all of the tackle back and the fish had escaped safely.

The rare Wasing lesser spotted Kookaburra

The warm weather was having a soporific effect on me and I kept drifting off into a world of naked women and British record barbel.  What a combination! Luckily, this was interrupted by the phone going and an excited Kevin on the other end informing me of a very good barbel in his landing net.  Assuming it hadn’t swam in there of its own accord, I hurried down ready to do the David Bailey impression, although I was sober!

Kevin lifted the fish out of the water and we were confronted by a very big, fat barbel.  It looked about 12lbs and this was confirmed on the scales, as she went 12lb 2oz.  A new PB for Kevin and the smile said everything.  Well done buddy, great result.  It was nice to see a big fish on the bank at long last.

Kev's PB Barbel 12lb 2oz

Despite a move, on Geoff and my parts, we couldn’t muster any further action.  So we ended the day with 2 barbel, plus the 5 from the previous day. 7 barbel and a new PB isn’t a bad couple of days fishing.  Oh and we also stopped by the road side to watch 2 Red Kites and 2 Buzzards sharing the same air space.  Lovely to watch such impressive birds glide and swoop just overhead.  Ah well, until next time. As Arnie would say “I’ll be back”

Read Full Post »

Hemp and Caster

Posted in Angling Diary, tagged , , , , , , on August 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »


Kevin and I decided to have another crack at the Kennet this week.  Geoff had gone AWOL, using some sort of family holiday as an excuse. Mind you when I spoke to him on Wednesday he was trying to catch roach at Britford.  Hmm, family holiday? My foot!

Anyway the real anglers headed to Aldermaston and were taught a very valuable lesson.  Don’t pretend to be real anglers when you can’t catch fish! Unfortunately it was another tough session here.  One or two fish rolled, just to prove there was some life down there.  I was fortunate to catch a barbel of around 7-8lbs and that was my only bite.

I did change tactics this week.  I dropped the pellets (they went everywhere!) in favour of a more traditional approach.  I cooked up some hemp (peace, man) and mixed in a good helping of casters.  I superglued 4 casters onto a hair and masked the size 14 Pallatrax ‘The Hook’ with another one.  I then coupled this with a longish hooklink and a 2.5 ounce Preston blockend feeder.  This was then filled with the hemp and caster mixture.  First part of the attack was to bait dropper 10 loads into the swim.  Leave it for 45-60 minutes and then fish over the top.

It did produce some interest early on when a really nice dace pulled the rod top round and then a little while later a barbel  did an impression of  Usain Bolt and ripped the tip round whilst tearing off down stream.  The fish put up a good fight and looked around the 7-8lb mark. It was an awkward swim to fish and I decided as dusk was approaching, I would move into an easier swim.

Kennet Barbel

I adopted the same tactics but this time nothing was forthcoming.  I decided to call it a day about 10.30pm as I was totally cream crackered.  Kevin was happy to turn in for the night as his rods had remained motionless since arrival.

The next day we decided to move to one of the other beats.  Again, adopting the tactics of the night before I decided to be a little more patient and move a few times into baited swims.  The first swim which is a really nice shady spot only produced a few dace and a roach.  The next move proved more productive.  Just as I opened a packet of crisps and took a bite out of my Tuna and sweetcorn sandwich (and you thought I was unhealthy) the rod tip slammed round and my lunch went about 7 feet into the air! The result was a small barbel of about 2.5-3lbs.  Nice result and I moved on feeling a little more pleased with myself.

The 3rd swim had a lovely big bush opposite.  This time I decided not to use the bait droppers.  This was a small, narrow section and I thought it may cause too much disturbance.  So I kept recasting a smaller feeder out at regular intervals, to keep some bait going in.  This seemed to work, as over the next couple of hours I had 3 more barbel to about 5.5lbs.  Then the swim died.  I would have moved but the heavens had opened and it was tipping it down.  So at around 8pm we decided enough was enough and we packed up and headed back to Kent.

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: