The Big Fish Column by Ian Welch

The final few days of the river season frequently promise much but deliver little, and although this year saw some improvement with buoyant temperatures and rainfall giving near perfect conditions, catches were still patchy.

With water temperatures around 46F and rising to 47-48 for the last couple of days, the barbel should have been feeding hard but they proved to be rather tricky and despite large numbers of anglers trying, relatively few were banked.

Although there were far bigger fish banked from the local rivers during the last few days, the best reported was John Andrews’ specimen of 12lb 4oz from the River Loddon at Whistley Mill.

Maidenhead-based John presented a pellet hookbait on a size 6 hook to a 12lb braided hooklength, 2oz running lead and 10lb main line with a PVA bag of pellets.

John hooked the fish at dusk after an otherwise biteless day on the RDAA section of the river and netted it after a powerful five-minute fight.

Another local weighing in a barbel on the final day of the season was Terry Powell who fished the Loddon at Twyford with a 10mm monster crab flavoured boilie on a size 10 hook to 8lb line over a bed of chopped boilies and pellets.

After taking a couple of small chub during the morning Terry struck into a barbel late in the afternoon and banked a specimen of 9lb 8oz after a short but lively fight.

Chub were far more prepared to feed than barbel on most local rivers and although there were no very large fish reported most sections turned up specimens topping the 5lb mark, including a fine 5lb 14oz fish to Cox Green angler Vaz Simpson who spent his last session of the season on St Patrick’s Stream.

Vaz was hoping for a barbel with his 14mm pellet bait on a size 8 hook to 10lb line but was not too disappointed when the big chub picked up his offering which he fished over a bed of mini pellets soaked in spice flavour.

Also connecting with a decent chub was Cookham rod Alex Smythe who fished at Aldermaston with a marine halibut boilie wrapped in paste to take fish of 3lb 12oz and 4lb 4oz before hitting into a terrific specimen of 5lb 10oz. Vaz was also hoping for barbel but banked his trio of chub on a size 6 hook with 15lb coated braid hooklength and 10lb main line.

Mild, overcast and warm conditions at the end of the river season are not just perfect for barbel they are also exceptionally good conditions for perch and the final day of the season saw a couple of fish over 4lb taken from the Kennet. Local anglers were not quite able to break the magical 4lb mark but a couple took full advantage of the perfect conditions and weighed in 3lb fish.

First up was Burnham’s Phil Bateman who scored on the river at Padworth when his link legered lobworm bait was taken five times during a late afternoon session resulting in a terrific haul of perch with specimens of: 2lb, 2lb 6oz, 2lb 10oz, 3lb 2oz and 3lb 4oz. All of the fish were banked with a size 8 hook tied direct to 4lb line.

Also netting a big Kennet stripey during a last day outing was Marian Keys who beat her husband’s best for the day by over a pound with a specimen of 3lb 1oz.

Marian, and hubby Chris, fished with worm baits on size 8 hooks to 4lb hooklengths with 5lb main line on a canalised section of the river below Theale. Chris got some satisfaction by netting the best chub of the day with a fish of exactly 4lb.

So that’s it! Another river season consigned to the history books and with everything from cataclysmic summer flooding to some of the mildest winter conditions on record it has been one to remember in so many different ways.

The best of the spring fishing is still a few weeks away and next week in the column I will be previewing what the next month might have in store for us on the stillwaters.

To report catches call 07780 755138 or email ian@bigfishtrail.com.