Little rivers dont mean little fish

I took the opportunity to try the free fishing stretch behind Newbury town centre. Armed with a bodged telescopic rod (I broke the top section so I araldited a quiver tip to it) I got to the river at 8.30pm after work.
I had to go for a run first - part of my exercise campaign with a "no pleasure unless I've had pain" attack I got the run over with asap so I could hit the river.
Freelinning a breadflake feeding mashed bread/hemp into a foot of water - first swim was inactive - the whole water looks like it doesn’t hold fish and only 6 inches deep in part - my mate rang me for 20 mins so I moved swims and baited up several times while I was on the call.
First cast - whack…… definatly a trout - it was only then I realised the drop from the bank was about 4ft and I only brought a self made cut down tele pole that goes from 1 to 2 ft.
By now the trout had me all over the place - a fish of about 2.5lb - bigger than my pb - I got it right to the waters edge and on the rim of my outstretched landing night when the hook pulled - damn….. Excellent catch and release skills but no pb or photo to show.
Now I could wait to get on the next morning……
I hit the town centre swim where I saw a 2lb+ chub the week before - I trickled in some bread flake and to my surprise 2 chub attacked it - both in the 2lb bracket - so I kept feeding bits and the dace/chublets were feeding too - then the swans moved over before I could wet a line and the fish disapeared - I managed to wait and get a dace on bread before moving 20 yeards downstream around a bend - next time I will cast a line from the offset.
After a couple of casts I was in to something stronger, stronger than my weak makeshift tip anyway (which I will have to replace) - at the same time a tramp was looking into my bag filled with bait and bits(at 6am in the morning?) - "eh mate that’s my gear get off" was the shout as I was playing this fish - I managed to stretch and slip the net under a 2lb+ chub and still keep my bait bag!!!!
I then tried another couple of swims and managed another chub of about 1lb.
All in all - small rivers do have decent fish - I cant wait until next week.