The Big Fish column by Ian Welch

A mixed week saw anglers struggling to find a few bites as winter decided to have one last rattle of the sabre in what otherwise seems a very long run into spring.

With water levels dropping and temperatures falling off chub continued to be the mainstay of sport on the rivers, although I have heard reports of the odd barbel falling towards the end of the week when temperatures started to creep up again.

For the most part though chub it was and one local rod, enjoying a day of action on a Twyford section of the Loddon, was Fred Hall who link-legered meat and cheese paste on a size 8 hook to 6lb line to take five fish to 5lb 8oz.

Rather than wandering the section Fred opted to bait and wait and sat it out on a long, relatively featureless glide which had produced good fish for him in the past.

Trickling in mashed bread on a little and often basis with the occasional small chunk of meat and cheese for good measure Fred caught at regular intervals throughout the session.

A big chub was the order of the day too for Marlow’s John Pearson who fished at Lower Benyons on the Kennet. Regular readers will recall John had tempted a big barbel from the section after Christmas and he returned to the same area last week armed with scaled down tackle.

Fishing a feeder packed with bread, hemp and low oil pellets John steadily built up a swim on the inside of a bend and latched into a good brace of fish scaling 4lb 12oz and 5lb 6oz.

The smaller fish took a piece of bread, the larger a pellet and both were banked on a light feeder rod teamed with 5lb main line and a 4 lb hook length to a size 8 hook.

Local reaches of the Thames have long held a good track record for big perch and with the capture of a possible British record of 6lb 2oz from the Lower Thames recently, there is no knowing what the full potential of our main river is.