After fishing the Test at Romsey the previous day, our attention was now switched to the Kennet by Newbury. Again the river was 18” or so below normal level, and as this is a premium trout fishery, we had to avoid fishing the main river as we would simply bag up on trout.
We opted for a small carrier which again was very low, and picked a spot just before it entered the main river where the water was deepest.
I was first into a shoal of small roach and after a dozen or so, caught a brown and a rainbow tout which spoilt the swim so moved on to the next catching a few small chub.
Reg opted for the junction pool with limited success catching a perch a roach and a couple of trout. Lee had initially blanked and then tried a swim just below me. It was shallow and clear, and not a fish in sight and he caught a fish, mostly dace, virtually every cast. Where did they come from?
I was fishing above Lee so as a good dad should, poached his swim by trotting a bit farther and I was catching roach steadily about 3 feet out from his feet. Nothing enormous, but up to 10 ozs.
By the end of the day I had probably caught between 50 and 70 roach, around 10 dace plus a few chub too and a gudgeon (I don’t see those very often). Lee had similar numbers but his fish were mostly dace, which he caught on yellow maggot, whereas I had been using white and pink.
Reg had finally cracked fishing the weir pool with an outstanding piece of float fishing. He was casting right across the pool about six inches from the reeds at the far side and proceeded to fish the back eddy, trotting upstream whilst the rest of the river was flowing quickly downstream and his float path was smooth with no hesitation as he kept mending his line. He was rewarded with nine chub over 2lb plus a barbel of around 4lb.
Reg was a keen match angler and watching someone with such skill was one of the highlights of another good days fishing. It is very rare to have two days so good in succession.