Kennet barbel at last.

The picturesque weirpool swim at Lower Benyons on the Kennet

Hot on the heels of the last glum post I'm back from the Kennet on Reading DAA.  I have caught my first barbel from the Kennet.

Mid August fishing report.

I have not been going fishing as much as I would have liked due to holidays, work etc.  I've done very little proper fishing with baits either as it is the season for crayfish and bleak and I hate them both.   To be honest it has been a struggle.  I've been getting a few lure fishing trips in to the Thames with only a few small pike and perch to show for it.  Barbel fishing in the Kennet near Reading has produced 4 or 5 blanks.  The rivers, both Kennet and Thames seem to be in poor shape with hardly any flow in the Thames and both rivers having an ugly brown colour which must be an algae bloom of some kind.

I did get a chub around 5lb last night on a 5" pike plug (Salmo executor 12 in Real Roach).  It was the first cast with the large plug and the chub nailed it as soon as I began the retrieve.  It appears chub eat roach now as this is the 2nd chub I've caught on a pike-sized lure in photorealistic Roach pattern.  Given the lack of pike action and numerous perch follows I'm tempted to try ultra-lite lure fishing to try and bank more of the smaller perch and chub.  Goodbye money....

I'm off for another crack at the Kennet in a moment but am not seriously anticipating catching anything.  We've still had no significant rain since winter.

Au revoir.  Heaps

Tech review: the iPhone 4. A nice phone but I still hate Apple.

Shiny and clean look.

I've always maintained that Apple sell overpriced form-over-function style-over-content gizmos to an army of monied iMugs. Due to this stance I was secretly saddened by the launch of the original iPhone because I couldn't have one of the wonderful things without being a hypocrite.