BIG FISH: Long wait nearly over as close season ends

Despite the fact that most stillwaters are now open throughout the year, the statutory close season remains, for good or ill, firmly in place on all river fisheries.

The 90-day wait is, however, almost over and next Tuesday it’s time to get back on the flowing waters!

It’s never an easy task trying to call prospects for the river season ahead but the good news this year is that the warm spell triggered an earlier spawning than in the past few years and the chub and barbel on most local rivers finished cleaning off weeks ago and many fish have already started to drop off the spawning shallows leaving the fish a little more spread than they often are at the start of the season.

The rivers are mostly holding around a typical summer level and the rainfall at the back end of last week was welcome as it pushed a little fresh water through.

As far as the local fishing is concerned, there is much to be excited about and barbel anglers in particular will have some four different fish around the 20lb mark to fish for this winter and I can think of at least 25 local fish over 17lb to go for as well - and that’s just the well known fish. Concerns still exist about a worrying lack of smaller barbel, especially on the Kennet, but the season looks promising for the big fish anglers at least.

Most of the popular Kennet venues should see fish caught early on with Lower Benyons likely to be busy but particularly productive.

Burghfield sees a syndicate start for the first time this season and with night fishing now allowed there could be some big hits early on. For an outside bet of a decent catch Theale River is looking very nice and tends to be fairly quiet; bites are usually few and far between but worth waiting for.

The Kennet roach resurgence will hopefully continue this summer and most local beats are now capable of throwing up the occasional 2lb specimen with lots of net-sized fish as back up.

The Thames remains as enigmatic as ever and is likely to continue to provide some interesting fishing over the summer with carp and barbel likely to be at the fore at Maidenhead and Marlow but with some serious weights of bream for anyone willing to put in the time with feeder gear during evening sessions at venues such as Marlow and Temple.

The Loddon could do with a little more water to give it a real opening week boost but it remains the number one local river and prospects for most sections look reasonable and the popular venues such as Whistley Mill, Sandford and Sindlesham should all see barbel being caught.

St Patrick’s Stream is one of the most delightful summer venues and was in perfect trim when I took a quick look at it last week and the lower section in particular should see some excellent catches early on with barbel and chub both likely to show along with the odd big carp, yes carp, in the upper section.

Wherever you make your start I hope you have a good one and I’ll be back with reports of the very first river catches next week.

Any anglers wishing to report catches may contact me on 07780 755138 or ian@bigfishtrail.com