Beaker
Well-known member
I intend to fish the Thames for most of my fishing this year arond Oxford, any chance of any carp and if so what tactics should I employ
Thames carp
- Thread starter Beaker
- Start date
Tee-Cee
Senior Member
I cannot help with tackle/tactics but I seem to recall a 30lb(?)carp coming from the Thames up around Oxford(maybe below Oxford?)last year....................in fact I think I read about it and mentioned it on FM but it was already old news!!
Thought this might help with your quest..
Good luck with targeting carp...................I suupose you may have to put up with a nuisance 8lb chub or 15lb barbel but thats life,I guess!!
Thought this might help with your quest..
Good luck with targeting carp...................I suupose you may have to put up with a nuisance 8lb chub or 15lb barbel but thats life,I guess!!
Beaker
Well-known member
Thought this might help with your quest..
Good luck with targeting carp...................I suupose you may have to put up with a nuisance 8lb chub or 15lb barbel but thats life,I guess!![/QUOTE]
Thanks Tee cee it would be a nuisance but I think i could cope.
Good luck with targeting carp...................I suupose you may have to put up with a nuisance 8lb chub or 15lb barbel but thats life,I guess!![/QUOTE]
Thanks Tee cee it would be a nuisance but I think i could cope.
dannytaylor
Well-known member
not fished on the thames but ive done a fair bit of river carping. First bit of advice i could give is pretty much the same as for stillwater carp and that is to locate them. Natural features such as reeds, lillies, deep slacks, backbays; man-made features like bank reinforcements, weirs, slipways, marinas, moored boats, areas where the public feed ducks etc, etc.
Once you have got an area in mind i d give it some bait, pre-bait over a week every other day and then give it a bash. Maybe worth baiting at night then nobody else cottons onto your area.
As for bait give them plenty. Ive put upwards of 15kilos of bait for an overnighter, if there are good numbers of bream and chub they will hammer it and thats even before the carp get there. I like to use maize, hemp, and wheat. Soak it for 24 hours then boil it up for an hour. Do this in a few batches in large catering pans then put it into a large brewing barrel. At this stage i add a couple of tins of prepared tigers and a couple of bottles of tiger slime, bang the lid on and leave it for 5 days and let the "magic" happen. This forms the bulk of my bait add a few handfuls of your chosen boillie and your away. Another tip is to add a couple of bags of dry groundbait to your mix this will create a lovely milky cloud which will send plenty of attraction downstream. For hookbait i like to use a large 20mm bottom boilie and tip this off with a high attract pop-up. I like to use big hooks, long 15inch hooklinks and large grippa style leads.
It takes a bit of effort to locate them and it can often involve long slogs to your chosen pitch, and more often than not it can all be in vain, but when that alarm finally screams off and your attached to a "river rocket" its all worth while. Its a real buzz as you never know whats coming next, it could be a lean double figure common or a breeze block of a mirror. Keep at it though i remember one night wading through about 40 bream before finally being rewarded at first light with a fin perfect 24Iber.
Heres a couple of pics, the mirror is my PB river carp of 32Ib.
Once you have got an area in mind i d give it some bait, pre-bait over a week every other day and then give it a bash. Maybe worth baiting at night then nobody else cottons onto your area.
As for bait give them plenty. Ive put upwards of 15kilos of bait for an overnighter, if there are good numbers of bream and chub they will hammer it and thats even before the carp get there. I like to use maize, hemp, and wheat. Soak it for 24 hours then boil it up for an hour. Do this in a few batches in large catering pans then put it into a large brewing barrel. At this stage i add a couple of tins of prepared tigers and a couple of bottles of tiger slime, bang the lid on and leave it for 5 days and let the "magic" happen. This forms the bulk of my bait add a few handfuls of your chosen boillie and your away. Another tip is to add a couple of bags of dry groundbait to your mix this will create a lovely milky cloud which will send plenty of attraction downstream. For hookbait i like to use a large 20mm bottom boilie and tip this off with a high attract pop-up. I like to use big hooks, long 15inch hooklinks and large grippa style leads.
It takes a bit of effort to locate them and it can often involve long slogs to your chosen pitch, and more often than not it can all be in vain, but when that alarm finally screams off and your attached to a "river rocket" its all worth while. Its a real buzz as you never know whats coming next, it could be a lean double figure common or a breeze block of a mirror. Keep at it though i remember one night wading through about 40 bream before finally being rewarded at first light with a fin perfect 24Iber.
Heres a couple of pics, the mirror is my PB river carp of 32Ib.
Ive been fishing a river recently and have mananged 3 carp to 22lb.
If there are marginal shelves stick to finishing at the bottom of these. If there isnt obviously find your depths, different contours, and bankside vegetation/features.
On the rig front i tend to use either 8 or 12" hooklinks with a 1.5-2" hair with a double 14mm or a mix of 18mm and 16mm double bait i do this purely to avoid the bream. Keep things simple i.e. supple or mono hook lengths (imperative to have a supple hair because it ensures the bait leaves the carps mouth before the hook), inline lead (enough to hold down in the current), no leader and use a backlead but make sure the backlead is at the bottom of the near marginal shelf to ensure your line isnt zipping mid water through the river and fish tight lines.
Bait, i would purely go for fishmeal boilies as ive found more of the silver fish home in on the particles and pellets, however i would use a combination of hemp and boilies and mainly use the hemp to regularly bait swims to get any local carp constantly visiting that are, and as ive stated about double baits this ensures your chances are lessened to hooking any nuisance fish. Also if you introduce any baits try and ensure the bait goes in when hours of boat traffic are at a minimum as with the flow of water+boats your baits will merely roll and flow downstream with the current and ive found the carp seem to feed more from 11pm-10.30am (from my captures and other members of the club) simply because boats traffic is at its least (less commotion and disturbance).
As for the carp themselves and there grouping/pods ive found they seem to be very nomadic always moving on the search of a free meal and tend to swim in pods of 3's.
Id hit these shallow margins that you mentioned in the summer when the thermocline has changed and the temperatures high in the water column as the carp will be further up the shelf due to the warm temp. exciting there behaviour, how ever dont ignore the bottom of the shelves (both near and far margins) in these hot seasons as the bottom of the shelf is where all the food is gathering after falling off trees/bushes and rolling down to the bed.
Here are the fish ive had...
10lb 2oz......1st carp (5am)
7lb 2oz.......2nd carp(9am)
22........3rd carp it may not look 22lb but it was as chunky as anything, just pure solid muscle(4.30am)
The 22 has probably got to me my most memorable catch from the river i woke up to 3 frozen alarms, the middle hanger had came of line which i thought was a violent knock from a bream so i clipped it back on to take some chilly photos, anyway long story short the hanger dropped i hit picked up the rod and felt something kicking on the other end reeled it in and brought up a huge branch that wiped out my left hand rod so after that was taken care of i netted the fish, phoned my mate and told me i would have to do a self take as his car was frozen and wouldnt move as it was -4C, a bit chilly at that.
If there are marginal shelves stick to finishing at the bottom of these. If there isnt obviously find your depths, different contours, and bankside vegetation/features.
On the rig front i tend to use either 8 or 12" hooklinks with a 1.5-2" hair with a double 14mm or a mix of 18mm and 16mm double bait i do this purely to avoid the bream. Keep things simple i.e. supple or mono hook lengths (imperative to have a supple hair because it ensures the bait leaves the carps mouth before the hook), inline lead (enough to hold down in the current), no leader and use a backlead but make sure the backlead is at the bottom of the near marginal shelf to ensure your line isnt zipping mid water through the river and fish tight lines.
Bait, i would purely go for fishmeal boilies as ive found more of the silver fish home in on the particles and pellets, however i would use a combination of hemp and boilies and mainly use the hemp to regularly bait swims to get any local carp constantly visiting that are, and as ive stated about double baits this ensures your chances are lessened to hooking any nuisance fish. Also if you introduce any baits try and ensure the bait goes in when hours of boat traffic are at a minimum as with the flow of water+boats your baits will merely roll and flow downstream with the current and ive found the carp seem to feed more from 11pm-10.30am (from my captures and other members of the club) simply because boats traffic is at its least (less commotion and disturbance).
As for the carp themselves and there grouping/pods ive found they seem to be very nomadic always moving on the search of a free meal and tend to swim in pods of 3's.
Id hit these shallow margins that you mentioned in the summer when the thermocline has changed and the temperatures high in the water column as the carp will be further up the shelf due to the warm temp. exciting there behaviour, how ever dont ignore the bottom of the shelves (both near and far margins) in these hot seasons as the bottom of the shelf is where all the food is gathering after falling off trees/bushes and rolling down to the bed.
Here are the fish ive had...
10lb 2oz......1st carp (5am)
7lb 2oz.......2nd carp(9am)
22........3rd carp it may not look 22lb but it was as chunky as anything, just pure solid muscle(4.30am)
The 22 has probably got to me my most memorable catch from the river i woke up to 3 frozen alarms, the middle hanger had came of line which i thought was a violent knock from a bream so i clipped it back on to take some chilly photos, anyway long story short the hanger dropped i hit picked up the rod and felt something kicking on the other end reeled it in and brought up a huge branch that wiped out my left hand rod so after that was taken care of i netted the fish, phoned my mate and told me i would have to do a self take as his car was frozen and wouldnt move as it was -4C, a bit chilly at that.