Big Fish Column

The steady improvement in sport on the smaller rivers continued last week with the extra flush of water doing much to get a few fish moving and feeding, although catches remain decidedly patchy throughout the area.

Prospects on the commercials are much better with a pleasing consistency to results now that much of the spawning activity has quietened down.

Starting off with the stillwaters and it is already getting a bit late in the summer for the best of the tench fishing on many venues.

Despite the fact the species will continue to feed right through to the first frosts and beyond and that there are plenty of good fish still out there to be caught the cream of the sport is always in the pre-spawning period during May and June.

The species always tends to play hard to get during July, results can be very poor indeed in August and it is usually only with a late burst towards the end of the summer that we remember them at all!

With this in mind it was refreshing to get an email from Twyford’s Geoff Stephens who fished the cage feeder with corn on the hook to net three terrific tench scaling: 5lb 12oz, 6lb 2oz and 6lb 8oz during an early morning session.

Geoff mixed up a groundbait of brown crumb mixed 50:50 with Sensas Lake groundbait and spiced it up with some corn and mini pellets and a squirt of strawberry flavour.

With a couple of grains of red, strawberry-flavoured corn on a size 12 hook tied direct to 5lb line he fished close to a weed bed at a range of around 20m and took all of the fish in a feeding spell which lasted from 7-9am.

The local commercials have been in great shape too with the Royal Berkshire on good form for carp but making the headlines with a very unseasonable perch of 3lb 4oz which was caught by Ben Hollis who fished with red maggots on a size 14 hook under a 4BB float.

The complex has a reputation for turning up some fine stripeys during the autumn and winter months but they do feed well at this time of year too, if you can get to them through the carp and silvers!

Elsewhere Woolwich Green is in good shape for small tench, bream and silvers and Pondwood Farm is looking good for catfish, in fact I must get over there myself before we run out of summer!

Moving along to the rivers and the best barbel of the week fell to Carl Bennett with a cracking Kennet fish from the noted Upper Benyons Beat.

Carl featured in this column with a couple of good summer specimens from the Kennet last season and was in action again last week on the popular Reading and District venue.

Carl opted to use the now ubiquitous PVA bag and pellet approach with a golf ball-sized bag of mixed pellets fished in conjunction with a monster crab flavoured pellet on a size eight hook to 15lb braid and 10lb main line.

The barbel, Carl’s only bite of the day, came when he least expected it - during bright sunshine in the middle of the day - although he noted that the river was up and coloured following a day of torrential rain.

After a couple of anxious moments close to a far bank snag Carl got the fish under control and in the net where he weighed it in at 11lb 7oz.

The Thames remains a little out of sorts following the rain but is likely to improve markedly if we can string a few dry days together; until then the smaller rivers are the venues to head for with the Kennet still offering the best prospects.

Any anglers wishing to report catches may contact me on 07780 755138 or via email on ian@bigfishtrail.com.