Catches are few and far between

The Big Fish Column

Further flooding, followed by plummeting overnight temperatures, made for dreadful conditions for local anglers last week and both the local rivers and stillwaters were very much out of sorts. Nationally, there were some large carp caught in conditions that, briefly, were almost spring–like but the window of opportunity was small and disappeared as soon as the frosts returned. Unsurprisingly, reported catches were few and far between.

Thank heavens for canals

The one venue that has continued to perform, despite the conditions, is the Kennet and Avon Canal with a few fish showing on both the lower reaches, which has no riverine input, and in more sheltered swims on the upper beats.

On the lower canal perch and bream, with a few small silvers, are order of the day and pole fishing tight to cover is catching most of the fish, including a net including bream to 3lb and perch to around the pound mark to Woodley‘s Darren Childs who fished red maggots on a size 16 hook to a 2lb 8oz hook length and 4lb main line.

On the upper sections, swims between moored boats and slacks below bends, bridges and locks seem to be the best areas to tackle. There are certainly perch and pike to be caught and I am told a few chub have been feeding too. The best advice, if you want some quality sport in the week ahead, is probably to look to the chalk streams and spend a day fishing for grayling and dace. Despite the aquifers being full, the chalk rivers still fine down quicker that most venues and, of course, grayling feed no matter how cold it gets.

Trout returns

Moving onto trout, where the fishing has been far more positive, Jonno Randall reports that Haywards Farm Lake has seen a huge influx of water this week, both from the heavy rain and a small tributary of the River Kennet backfilling the lake via the adjacent Kingfisher pond, which has risen by some 2ft.

Contact me at ian@bigfishtrail.com