Reading & District Angling Association

With some more rainfall in the week prior to last weekend Clubs were hopeful of a continued improvement on the local rivers, canals and lakes. The overnight rain on the Saturday managed to put some colour back into the water so hopes were high for some good catches.

Moving out of Reading westwards or upstream on the River Kennet with Beat 5 commencing on the road bridge across the river at Berkeley Avenue where the club here was Pangbourne & Whitchurch. Roach & perch show here in good numbers and Mark Slade proved this by taking first place with 5lbs 8ozs. A similar net saw Dave Dudman weighing in at 4lbs 14ozsto take second place only 8ozs in front of John Nicholls.

Moving on upstream to the Rose Kiln Lane road bridge where the venue is known as Beat 4 we meet up with Reading Fishing Club who found the roach in obliging mood. Len Wilby took first spot with 11lbs 10ozs, a very good weight for the venue. In second place, again with a roach net was Don Cox who weighed in 5lbs 9ozs. Bill Tucker took third place with 5lbs 3ozs but his net consisted of mainly perch.

Burghfield River (behind the Cunning Man on Burghfield Road) hosted Newtown A.C. from Bracknell. Pete Foster managed to take 3 decent chub plus perch and roach to weigh in 10lbs 7ozs to take first place. 4lbs 3ozs was enough to give Mick Wright second place and leave Terry Smith in third place weighing in 3lbs 9ozs.

The last match on the River Kennet was at Ufton River where Nine Elms A.C. fished their match.

Moored boats were a problem here and anglers had to be closer together than they would have liked to fit into the venue. This was probably the reason for the lower weights caused by the fish being cagey. Bob Knight won the match weighing in 2lbs 12ozs of silver fish. Second place saw a tie between Pete Schofield and Darren Williams who both weighed in 2lbs 8ozs each. There was also a tie for fourth position with Adrian Parker and Michael Gough both weighing in 1lbs 8ozs.

On to the River Thames and South Reading were the first RDAA Club to fish the recently acquired new water at Sandford Weir which is just outside Oxford. This venue needs some small works carried out on access and swims but RDAA have high hopes for it in the future. Duncan Bales won the match using pole and fishing hemp and tares which saw him put 8lbs 4ozs on to the scales. John Montgomery took second place with 5lbs 7ozs of silver fish. George Callaghan also had silver fish in his net of 5lbs 2ozs to take third place.

Tring Anglers found the stretch of RDAA water at Wallingford in superb form and hemp and tares ruled the day here. Brian Elliott led the way with a superb 22lbs 1oz of quality roach. Martin Rodwell was a very close second with 21lbs 15ozs and rues missing the fish that he did not bother netting  and subsequently escaped. Third place was taken by Dave Howe with 16lbs 14ozs.

Leaving RDAA waters Excelsior travelled to the carp ponds at Bowsaw Lake which is just outside of Odiham. Lloyd Moss managed to put some of its residents on to the bank and took first place with 125lbs. Ken Wright took second place with 98lbs 14ozs and Andy Crawford took third place with 86lbs 2ozs.

There had been some long awaited rainfall in the week prior to last weekend and Clubs were hopeful of a continued improvement on the local rivers, canals  and lakes. The strong and gusty breeze on the Sunday caused some problems on the more open venues like the River Thames.

Courage /SE’s Specimen Group held a slightly different match at Mapledurham . The match commenced on Saturday afternoon , went through the night and completed at 10am on Sunday. Hopes were high for a large bream catch as there is a very significant sized shoal resident here and they normally show at night. Only one of the bream decided to play ball and along with a barbel Dave Philps weighed in 15lbs to take first place. He also landed a brown trout but these do not count in a match being game fish. Silver fish went to the rest of the anglers and with 1lb 12ozs  Sy Heighes took second place. Jezz Batt was third with silver fish weighing 12ozs.

There were three matches on the River Kennet and the first at Beat 3 (Fobney Island) saw King Heron take on the venue. No large fish were caught but it is good to see the silver fish returning. to the venue and with a roach and perch net Bill Gillham weighed in 7lbs 11ozs for first place. Jeff Fisher took second place with a similar net that took the scales around to 6lbs 9ozs. In third position was Ian Quelch with 6lbs 6ozs of silver fish.

Next match heading west was the Reading Civil Service one at Lower Benyons Yellow section.

Steve Alder took first place with 4lbs 6ozs of silver fish. In second place was Gordon McGhee with 3lbs 10ozs just ounces in front of third placed Ian Marcham. Several big fish were hooked but lost.

The last match on the Kennet was at Ufton River where Bracknell Avocets new member Andy Powell bought along his son to fish his first senior match as a junior. Neither of these could finish in the top three where Chris Bowman took top spot with 3lbs 8ozs of silver fish. Seven ounces behind in second place was Norman French to continue his role of being the “Bridesmaid and not the Bride”. Third place was taken by Richard. A. Herman with 2lbs 4ozs of “silvers”.

There were two matches on the River Thames. Prestcold had the longest journey travelling to Northmoor which is just south of Witney and RDAA’s most remote fishery. Several small barbel made up the weights the majority of which consisted of roach. Mark Stea dman took 7lbs 11ozs to the scales to take top spot. In second place was Geoff Eley with 5lbs 5ozs and in third place with 4lbs 11ozs was Tony Tibble.

Courage/SE’s match group were also on the Thames  at Wallingford and found the larger roach which the venue is well known for did not want to feed and were left catching smaller silver fish. First on the day was Ian Claridge who weighed in 3lbs 7ozs. In second place was Andy White with 2lbs 15ozs and equal third with 1ounce less were Mick Ketcher and Cliff Edwards.