Big Fish Column: Conditions conducive to plenty of double figure barbel

Low pressure, plenty of overcast skies and some decent rainfall made for terrific angling conditions for much of the Bank Holiday weekend, with the rivers in particular in very good shape.

Reports from the River Kennet in particular have been very good indeed with some anglers reporting up to three double figure barbel in an evening.

Most of the usual beats produced the goods but Upper Benyons in particular was in great shape, and remains the number one bet for a few good fish at present.

Perhaps best of all is the news that a number of good back up fish are being caught in addition to the ‘headline’ specimens.

There is still a very worrying lack of barbel below 5lb in weight in the river but the number of fish in the 5il to 8lb bracket that have been reported in the past month do give some cause for optimism.

One local angler who took full advantage of the current form at Upper Benyons was Gary Osbourne who used the pellet and PVA bag approach to score with a brace of double figure fish scaling 11lb 10ox and 10lb 14oz.

For good measure Gary also netted a fish of around the 7lb mark.

All of the fish came in the hour before to hour after dark period and hoovered up a double Elips pellet hookbait on a size 8 hook to a 12lb hook length with 10lb main line and a 2.5oz free running lead set up.

Gary’s fishing buddy, Alex Chambers, couldn’t quite match his pal in terms of size of fish but fooled two of around 8lb using similar tactics in an adjacent swim.

It was not just the Kennet that produced fish over the last Bank Holiday of the summer, the Loddon and St. Patrick’s both fished well and the Thames at Cookham turned up a fine barbel of 11lb 4oz to Davey Pearce who fished an overnight session with a meatball hook bait on a size 6 hook to 12lb line.

A big feeder packed with a fishmeal groundbait, pellets and chopped meat did the trick for Davey who hooked the fish on his first cast of a night session and beat it after a five minute fight.

Away from the rivers the local stillwaters and commercials continued to fish well and Royal Berkshire turned up a carp of 18lb to Ron Parry who took it on a meat bait along with a number of other fish in the 5 to 10lb range.

Ron targeted Lake One on the complex and told me that every angler he spoke to on the day he was there had caught a few fish, with most scoring in the margins with meat or prawn baits.

Although tench will continue to feed well throughout September and, depending upon temperatures, usually into October, late August is usually viewed as the end of the season for the species.

Few anglers tend to target them beyond the end of this month, but fish of 8lb 14oz and 7lb 6oz from one of the RDAA waters has given local rod Clive Roberts determination to keep fishing for them.

Clive spent a night and day session presenting maggot feeders over a bed of mixed pellets, corn, hemp and maggots that he had deposited at a range of 50m using a Spomb.

Fishing a bunch of red maggots on a size 10 hook to an 8lb fluorocarbon hook length Clive took both fish, and lost a third due to a hook pull, at dawn after a night of no activity.

As we move into September, and the beginning of what is usually considered to be the best season in the angling calendar, it’s good to be able to report that all local rivers and stillwaters remain in good form and I expect the quality of catches to keep improving during the next couple of weeks.

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Any anglers wishing to report catches may contact me at ian@bigfishtrail.com