The Big Fish Column by Ian Welch

The return of flooding to the local venues brought mixed fortunes for anglers last week and as always timing was the important factor relating to success with the anglers able to get out and take advantage of the warming and rising rivers connecting with some good barbel.

The best of the fishing came towards the end of last week as the first of the rain began to filter through and night time temperatures started to hold up well above freezing.

The fishing perked up immediately and there were barbel captures reported from most rivers with the Kennet and
Loddon both showing decent form.

The best fish reported by a local angler fell to Simon Green who fished the Benyons Estate water of the Kennet to land a specimen of 12lb 12oz.

Simon spent a day wandering and rolling meat on the Upper part of the beat and after losing a good fish early on finally got his reward after lunch when another good fish picked up his large chunk of Spam fished on a size 4 hook to 20lb braid.

Simon beat the fish after a short but powerful fight and added another of around the 7lb mark later in the day.

The Loddon at Twyford is largely overshadowed by other sections of the river these days and with the river a real contender to produce a 20lb fish before the end of the season that is hardly surprising.

That said the water closer to its junction with the Thames does still offer marvellous fishing as local rod Matt McCubbin found last week with a specimen of 11lb 8oz.

Matt presented a pellet hookbait covered with paste in conjunction with a PVA bag of pellets to take the fish during an early evening session and beat it on a size 8 hook to 10lb main line with a 15lb braided hooklength.

The warming and rising water also brought the barbel onto feed for Cookham’s Garry Howell who spent a late evening session on the Thames to record barbel of 9lb 12oz and 8lb.

Garry fished two rods with meat and pellet offerings on size 6 hooks and took one barbel on each bait in a hectic ten-minute spell.
At the height of the water there were a few fish to be caught but sadly the peak coincided with a drop in temperature and frost put the fish down very quickly.

Those anglers who had to wait until the weekend to get out were faced with the tricky prospect of high, coloured and cooling water which is a never a recipe for success for any species.

Thankfully the drop off in temperature was not enough to put everything down and although the chub were a little off the feed there were still a few barbel prepared to have a go including a 9lb plus Kennet fish to Roger Downs who fished a boilie in conjunction with a heavy lead and a size 6 hook to 12lb fluorocarbon hooklength and 12lb main line.

On the stillwaters the carp fishing briefly picked up in the wake of stiff winds and mild temperatures leading to Ken Turner netting a mirror of 18lb 12oz from a local fishery.

Ken, who rarely carp fishes during the winter, made an effort in what looked like ideal conditions and was rewarded when the fish picked up his single fluoro pineapple boilie presented pop-up style on a size 10 hook to 15lb coated braid and 10lb line.

As always prospects for the week ahead will reflect the weather and with more heavy rain forecast it looks like being a challenging period of angling and time to break out those heavy leads.

* Anglers wanting to report catches can call me on 07780 755138 or email ian@bigfishtrail.com