Sunday 29th November - River Kenn

 We had a lot of rain overnight on the Friday into Saturday and when I looked at the river on Saturday morning there was a fair bit of flow and colour plus weed coming down off the moors, the level was still 2 foot below normal level.

High tide on Sunday was nice and early which meant the river would flow toward the sea all day and with light winds from the north west it would be spot on.

I looked at 3 different sections before finally deciding on peg 11 down the bottom end. There were a couple of anglers setting up around pegs 36 and 38. This area had produced a huge roach for Simon Carvallo on the Thursday fishing waggler and red maggot and weighed in at 2lb 10oz which is one of the biggest roach reported for some time. Ironically Simon only had 2 bites all day due to our first hard overnight frost.

Simon with his specimen roach following a break from filming ''Peaky Blinders''

I really have enjoyed my enforced break from match fishing, no need to do lots of prep, don't need to take the kitchen sink and fishing locally gives me more time on the bank. The bait bill is also significantly reduced as well.

I set up a 6BB crowquill and a 3AA waggler and that was it.

Groundbait with hemp and caster down the middle and loose fed maggot across 3/4's.

There were quite a few small fish topping trying to escape perch and jacks so at least there were a few fish about.

10 minutes in I had my first bite on the waggler and after that I had regular bites swinging in 2 - 3oz roach plus the odd 6oz one. The middle wasn't great as the pace of the river slowed and dropped a further foot during the day.

I pulled out of 2 better fish during the session, I think they were perch but ended the day with 38 roach, 1 hybrid and 1 perch so happy enough.

There was a nice 8lb plus net of roach on the day from 36 but the catch of the day has to go to Chris Ford who fished peg 51 for 5 tench, 9 big perch and 27 roach plus a 5lb pike, all on the maggot. Chris sent me a photo of his perch and tench.

I did look at this area first thing......oh dear, wrong decision.

The Kenn has been fantastic so far this year, lots more anglers on the bank with some great catches.