The Big Fish Column by Ian Welch

There were very mixed fortunes for local anglers venturing out during the holiday season, but with a relatively warm front settling over the area from Christmas Day onwards those who were able to get out as soon as possible after Christmas had far more success than those who had to wait until the New Year.

The mild spell in the immediate post-Christmas period brought the barbel onto feed in numbers with at least one fish of 19lb reported.

Fish of more modest sizes were relatively plentiful and a couple of local anglers took good fish including a great River Kennet fish of 14lb 4oz to John Pearson of Marlow who fished the Reading & District stretch of the river at Lower Benyons.

Electing to fish a straight run below a sharp bend John presented a meat hook bait on a size 6 hook to 8lb line and threw out a few small cubes of diced meat at regular intervals to pull the fish.

After hitting into a small chub early on John had to wait until lunchtime for his second bite of the day and he connected with a powerful specimen which stayed deep and moved steadily in the powerful current.

After making little impression on the unseen fish for the first five minutes of the fight, John finally got the upper hand and his fishing pal, Adrian Barnes, did the honours with the net.

The Kennet generally fished well during the early part of the holiday season with barbel showing from most of the usual beats with Upper Benyons in particularly good shape.

The day ticket section at Aldermaston was busy during the break and it was here that father and son duo of Gary and Sam Downey enjoyed a productive session on the lower weirpool.

Both anglers fished pellet hookbaits on size 8 hooks to 10lb line in conjunction with PVA bags of pellet free offerings. Gary netted chub to 4lb 8oz and a single barbel of 9lb while Sam scored with two barbel scaling 8lb 12oz and a big fish of 11lb 1oz.

Also scoring with a big Christmas barbel was Twyford’s Trevor Smith who fished at St Patrick’s Stream with a pellet hookbait for a fish of 13lb 12oz.

Trevor presented his bait, wrapped with an outer coating of paste, on a size 10 hook to 10lb hooklength and 8lb main line with a 2oz running lead and struck into the fish late in the afternoon after a biteless morning.

Moving into the New Year and it was all change with the weather and the switch to high pressure and dropping temperatures switched the barbel off and brought chub and pike to the fore.

Although the fishing was not easy some good chub showed including a fish of 5lb 10oz to the rod of Woodley angler
Ray Thomas who fished with a cheese-based bait on the upper end of St Patrick’s Stream.

Ray roved between various swims baiting with the occasional handful of mashed bread to take a couple of fish to around the 3lb mark before he connected with the big fish in a relatively featureless swim.
Ray beat the chub with a size 8 hook and 6lb line.

Locally pike fishing has not been too productive during the first part of the winter with the rivers tending to produce more consistent results than the stillwaters but one good gravel pit specimen showed early in the New Year with the capture of an 18lb 8oz specimen to Jamie Cross who tackled a pit close to his Twyford home.

Jamie legered a smelt deadbait on size 6 semi-barbed treble hooks to 28lb wire and 15lb line to tempt the fish which he caught along with two smaller specimens.

With a return to low pressure, rain and relatively warm temperatures the weekend should see the rivers back in great shape for what is traditionally one of the more difficult times of the season.
* Any anglers wishing to report catches may contact me on 07780 755138 or  ian@bigfishtrail.com