Sunday 7th February - River Kenn

 The forecast for the weekend was a tale of two halves. I walked the bank on the Saturday morning after picking up some bait. It was about 6 degrees with a light wind. The river was still quite coloured and pushing through a bit.

The only angler on the bank was a heron opposite peg 24 and he was catching!

Roll on to Sunday morning and I met Matt Davis on Strode Rd Bridge at 08:00. It was flipping freezing with a cold blustery wind. We both looked at the river still deciding whether to fish or not. The river looked a lot cleaner. Scott Smallwood pulled up intending to fish as well but was going down the bottom end in search of bream. While Matt and I deliberated Scott said well ...I have not brought all this bait with me to take it home again and headed off towards peg 10.

I said to Matt OK I'll have a go and give it a few hours and chose a short walk to peg 35, Matt said he'd go up above me.

As expected the level was well down so into the mud it was. I have the set up finely tuned now as once your in your in. Top tip...don't drink anything because there's nowhere to pee and trying to get chest waders below your waist is a challenge in itself. 

The water was a little bit pacey and the wind constantly changed direction but I gave the waggler a go. I had a maggot feeder rod set up as well just in case.

Plumbing up I found I had less than 3 foot of water down the middle but not worried as the fish are used to it this time of year. Maggot would be the only bait today and constant feeding is key.

30 minutes in and I had a text from Paul Tedman-Whitemoor who was down on 15. He told me he had 5 bites and landed 3 hybrids. Nice.

Started fishing just after 09:00 and it took an hour to get my first bite which I hit resulting in a chunky perch approx 12oz, as expected I caught right at the end of the trot.

Matt came down for a walk and said he had not had a bite. Not long after he went back to his peg I had a lovely hybrid, my first one from the Kenn this winter.

Kev Perry turned up and stood behind me for a while trying to convince himself to fish. After 30 minutes he talked himself into it and went down on the rocks below the bridge. I had a small roach before he went.

Scott then texted me saying he was getting loads of bites on the feeder down on peg 11 but couldn't hit them. Soon afterwards he informed me he had managed a bream.

So there were a few fish feeding but not surprisingly and due to the cold they were not crawling up the rod end.

I kept plugging away and managed another roach and a couple of decent perch. It's brilliant catching decent perch and other quality fish on the waggler especially at the end of the swim.

At around 14:00 and just as the tide was coming in the hook pulled out of a bit fish. I got it level with me but never saw it. I am almost sure it was a tench the way it stayed deep.

Scott managed another bream and Paul didn't get any more hybrids. Matt went home early.

Paul's 3 hybrids

Scott's 2 bream

My mixed bag

Scott demonstrating the lengths we go to during winter on the Kenn

Despite the cold and it was cold, couldn't feel my fingers come the end, it was a rewarding day.

However a few other anglers blanked, but that's the Kenn for you.