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Marshall's Mere - Thatcham 1745 - 2145 Warm, overcast and quite breezy. AT 21º - 18ºC. 1 Tench: 3½lb. 3 Carp: 14lb 8oz*, 8lb 5oz, 7lb 13oz. 2 Perch - small. Another evening with an unsatisfactory carp to tench ratio! I started off quite hopefully, my swim was carpeted in bubbles and there was no obvious signs of carp. However after 90mins all I had to show for my efforts were the two paltry perch (though NO carp which was a plus!)! Just as it started to get dark a tench decided it was going to sample my prawn section after all. Alas, if its mates were around they didn't get a look-in. I quickly, lost a carp in the lilies (to a hook pull), bumped one, then lost another after a long (an uneven in the carp's favour) battle to another hook pull. So for the last hour it was out with a stouter rod dapping bread in the margins and hanging on! * Pretty sure this was the same fish I had at 14:14 back at the beginning of August!

Middle Kennet (& carrier) - Marsh Benham 0630 - 1230 Warm and overcast. AT 18º - 24º. River VERY low and threadbare! 2 Doz Chub - most just a few ounces with four or five ½ - 1lb. 10 (!) Barbel - all small, 6oz - 1lb. 4 Doz Roach and Dace; Mainly roach - nothing big. 1 Bream: skimmer c12oz-1lb. 1 Perch: c10-12oz. 4 Gudgeon (Rare for these parts!) That was a fun morning! Barbel from just 2 spots and joined by the very unexpected gonks in one of them! They seemed to come in two sizes, had 6 around 6-8oz and 4 of 8oz or so bigger. Assume they represent this year's stocking and last year's. Couldn't get through the masses of silvers to find the bigger chub but 10 barbel on the float was adequate compensation!

River Kennet - Hambridge 1530 - 2200 Warm, cloudy with sunny spells. AT 21º - 17ºC. River low, but with a tinge of colour. 5 Chub: three over a lb, biggest 3¼lb. 1 Perch; quite small. 2 Doz Dave & Roach (mainly roach): Nothing noteworthy. 3½ hours trotting, followed by 3 hours being plagued with bats and menaced by crayfish! Started by running a float through 3 swims - giving each around an hour and getting a lb+ chub from each of them. Switching to the ledger at dusk didn't produce the hoped for barbel just a blizzard of bats! Never seen so many at once - they were quite low to the water and kept hitting by line. And to cap it all it was crayfish after crayfish for the last hour - I packed up earlier than planned - I know when I'm beat!

I was in good company - two other anglers on the same bank - we all packed up at around the same time - and all fishless!

The stretch behind Pallets ,reminds me of Padworth ,gorgeous scenery and looks full of fish but just isn't (especially the eddies before othe the near 90 degree bend). On the exchange permit waters ,the turning bay at kintbury ,again CSAS (I think) is a very exciting water ,with an incredible mix and huge match weights.

Mitchell 440's were my go to reels along with 300's for more years than I care to mention, unfortunately Mitchell arrogantly thought that the angling world would stay loyal to their monkey metal gearing and poor drag mechanisms, they didn't, which sadly saw Mitchell drift into obscurity in modern reel production, a shame, because the line lay and single handed bail operation on the match only needed a few ball bearings and it would be a top seller now....

Of course - I'm particularly pleased to see the small chub. I wonder if this is the fruits of the Kennet hatchery starting to show some reward. Chamberhouse Farm has been one of their main 'release' points - which is only one weir upstream!

If anyone is still interested, I have a little meat on the bones about Dave Beale and his pins, Dave lived in Dukesfield, a Close off of Stour Way, he bailiffed the lower Stour below Meadowbank Holidays caravan park, his bungalow was just behind the park, he worked in aircraft engineering and was a highly skilled craftsman, I met him through my holidays on the park and he was a knowledgeable angler always willing to give advice if asked, I never knew he made reels, it was a hobby, not a business, he enjoyed trying to improve on his reels and had three brick built shed type workshops, with milling machine, lathe and all the necessary tools and tooling, I found out about his reels from the lower Stour river manager, another Dave, a mate of long standing, I looked at his reels and was impressed so started asking Mr Beale to make me one, after a few years it became pleading to no avail, until my wife asked him to make one for a big birthday, yes I got one, Dave passed away in 2024 after a couple of very sad years and now the reels are highly sought after, the quality of workmanship is second to none and several variants were made but never as a real business.

Fish, eh? Where have all those silvers been? That's a very encouraging report that I'd like to include on the NAA newsletter if poss?

River Kennet - Brimpton 0600 - 1030 Warm and sunny, very breezy. AT 15º - 20º. River looooow! 4 Chub: small - nothing to trouble the scales. 50(!) Dace & Roach (more dace) - most fairly small - apart from one swim where I had over half a dozen dace in the 6-10oz bracket in pretty much consecutive casts. 1 Bleak. 1 Brownie - c2lb. Sole trout from my 'banker' chub swim (of course) then fished around half a dozen spots - and had fish from all of them - can't remember ever catching soooo many silvers from here - great to see.

River Kennet - CSAS stretch Fidlers & Hambridge 1500 - 2200 Very warm, sunny and quite breezy. AT 28º - 20ºC. River very low. 3 Grayling: Biggest 1lb 2oz, though the other two weren't much smaller. 15 Dace: nothing noteworthy. Half dozen Brownies most 10-12oz with a couple a bit bigger. An afternoon trotting a couple of swims on Fidlers (in rotation) for the expected mixed bag (though the dace were much bigger when I fished here last season), followed by an evening looking at a stationary isotope on the Hambridge stretch behind Palletts. Alas, not a hint of a barbel - but no crayfish to bother me either (usually a good sign!). The only times the rod tip twitched was when bats hit the line!

River Kennet - Hambridge 0600 - 1000 Cool (ish) & clear. AT 11º - 15ºC. River very low. 1 Chub: 3lb 1oz. 2 Perch: a 'pounder' and a smallun. 2 doz Roach & 1½ doz Dace - nothing noteworthy. 1 Grayling; 4-6oz. 2 Gudgeon. 1 Brownie C1lb. Started off on worm - which accounted for both perch - though was hoping for a slightly more impressive stripey to put in an appearance! Nearly everything else trotting down to the road bridge.