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Esther Rantzen https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm3wjwxg3e74o

My blog's just hit 2 Million views (probably the same 2 people a million times! ), so someone keeps popping in!

Wayhay - This blog just hit 2million views!

Aldershot Water (River Kennet - Brimpton) 1130 - 1330 Warm and breezy with hazy sunshine. AT 20º - 25ºC. River VERY low. 1 Chub: 2lb 2oz. 11 Perch: Biggest 1lb 6oz (only one over a lb), the rest all 4-10oz. 2 Doz: Roach & Dace (more roach). ALL a good size. I weighed a couple of the roach which went 12 & 13oz and the rest weren't much smaller, likewise most of the dace were 6-8oz (I weighed the biggest at 10oz). 3 Brownies all ¾-1lb. Super couple of hours in the weir pool at the top of the Aldershot. Put my waders in at the last minute and glad I did. Stood in the tail of the weir pool casting upstream!

River Kennet (and flowing canal) - Colthrop 0700 - 1100 Warm, mainly overcast and breezy. AT 15º - 20ºC 4 Chub: small. A doz+ Dace: ditto. 3 Grayling: one or around a lb and the other 2 half that. 2 Perch: 6-8oz. 1 Gudgeon. Umm - that was interesting - a huge fire overnight at a recycling centre next to the canal meant I couldn't fish some (most!) of my favoured swims - although the fire was out, there was a pall of acrid smoke still emanating from the site. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6dx01v0ppj4o So restricted to swims upwind of the conflagration I had a scratchy morning again failing to locate any decent chub - though it's good to see some juvenile fish in the stetch.

Splendid return for only a couple of hours!

Had a super few hours on the weir pool yesterday. Broke my "decent Chub" duck with a 3lb'er, coupled with a similar sized Brownie. Plus 5 Perch to a 1.5lb, a dozen Roach and a huge dace. Not bad for 2 hours, although I did get mightily wet due to the 15mins downpour. TBH that's the 1st chub I have out of the weir pool all others I have caught further downstream but nothing bigger than a few ounces.

Glad I avoided the trout! Unusual for me not to get a single one today!

Nice bag Chris. I fished the weir pool last night for a couple of hours. Tough going for 3 bites - 3lb rainbow, 2lb perch and a tiny roach. Nowt after the trout trashed the swim. I too tried the enigmatic PD and had plenty of small silvers but now over 2 inches long.

River Kennet - Speen Moors 0900 - 1230 Warm and sunny. AT 16º - 22ºC. River VERY low. 4 Perch: 3 over a lb, best 1lb15oz & 1lb 14oz. 3 Chub: All fairly small. A dozen Roach - mostly small with a couple of netters.. 7 Dace: all small. Part two of 'Perch Friday' somewhat more successful than part 1! Did have a quick dabble on Parliament Draft, but low water and bright sunshine are not a great combination - so sought out a couple of swims that I knew would be in the shade - and which I hoped would have perch in residence. Fished the 2 spots in rotation and had all the perch from the first one - the 2 bigger ones after resting it for an hour or so! Nearly a 2!

Kennet & Avon Canal - Enborne (down) 0645 - 0815 Warm and overcast to start - clearing to bright sunshine! AT 16ºC. 9 Perch: Most around 4-6oz with a couple to trouble the net (but not the scales) at around ¾-1lb. Autumn perching campaign gets off to an inauspicious start! Trod in some dog sh!t on the way to my swim (in the middle of the towpath FFS!) and my humour wasn't improved when an otter popped up in my swim less the 6 feet from my float. This was within 20 minutes of starting and it had been 'bite a chuck' up to that point. Somewhat unsurprisingly it was then some time before I had any further interest with just one of the 'bigger' perch caught 'post otter' with bright sunshine then putting an end to proceedings!

River Kennet - Hambridge (CSAS beat) 1430 - 2130 Warm and overcast. AT 24º - 20ºC. River very low. 20 Dace and Roach: mainly dace - nothing noteworthy apart from one of the roach which needed the net and was probably pushing ½lb. 1 Grayling: small. 1 Brownie c1lb. Another failure on the barbel front. Started off, as usual, trotting for a couple of hours though this time following up on some recently acquired intelligence on a 'chub hot spot' on this stretch. Alas, the only residents were a couple of otters bothering the local water fowl. I saw a big dog otter chase a mallard right across the river. The bird got away but for a while seemed to forget it could fly!!! No excitement whatsoever on the ledger rod - not even any crayfish (or bats!!!)