Fishing a tidal river
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I reckon they are as varied as any other type of venue and methods too. Each one different.
I fished the tidal Thames for dace and roach back yonks ago. It required wading with an apron and fishing the tide outgoing.
Trotting a stick mostly.
I have in more recent years fished the tidal Trent. You can still float fish it but it has a lot more flow. Its more dangerous as well. I dont anymore after slipping and doing some ribs and bashing my bonce on the slippery rocks.
Its more used by feeder fishers for barbel.
I bet the tidal Avon and Frome are different again. Muddier perhaps?
I fished the tidal Thames for dace and roach back yonks ago. It required wading with an apron and fishing the tide outgoing.
Trotting a stick mostly.
I have in more recent years fished the tidal Trent. You can still float fish it but it has a lot more flow. Its more dangerous as well. I dont anymore after slipping and doing some ribs and bashing my bonce on the slippery rocks.
Its more used by feeder fishers for barbel.
I bet the tidal Avon and Frome are different again. Muddier perhaps?
The Runner
Well-known member
Fished the tidal Thames quite a bit as well as the tidal bits of the Tyne, Wear and Tees many years ago with various occasional matches on tidal Trent and Adur.
All different but one thing in common, invariably better (Trent not as obviously so) on the ebb other than for eels.
Sorry, two things in common, all seemed to take a lot of feed.
Remember a Drennan League on the Adur, match started half an hour before high water which spent on bomb for three bootlaces and then the instant the tide turned it was a ball of stiff groundbait a chuck and 6m to hand. We'd found in practice that couldn't get a bite off a coarse fish when the tide was running in. Ended up with 9 lb odd of roach dace and skimmers, one of our team had a pound and a half bass...
Other side of the coin was a North Durham Winter League on the Wear at Chester le Street. Bottom two or three sections were on the tidal and the match had been booked for 5 hours of a rising tide. My team and I think a couple of others were armed with harbour rag and peeler crab leg for those sections, which we needed as there was barely a coarse fish caught. Plenty of flounders though.
All different but one thing in common, invariably better (Trent not as obviously so) on the ebb other than for eels.
Sorry, two things in common, all seemed to take a lot of feed.
Remember a Drennan League on the Adur, match started half an hour before high water which spent on bomb for three bootlaces and then the instant the tide turned it was a ball of stiff groundbait a chuck and 6m to hand. We'd found in practice that couldn't get a bite off a coarse fish when the tide was running in. Ended up with 9 lb odd of roach dace and skimmers, one of our team had a pound and a half bass...
Other side of the coin was a North Durham Winter League on the Wear at Chester le Street. Bottom two or three sections were on the tidal and the match had been booked for 5 hours of a rising tide. My team and I think a couple of others were armed with harbour rag and peeler crab leg for those sections, which we needed as there was barely a coarse fish caught. Plenty of flounders though.
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no-one in particular
Well-known member
As with others, you have 2 hours b4 high water, an hour slack usually and 2 hours after. Depends on the river but for many this is the best 5 hour window. And then its just a matter of finding what's the best species, bait, method and times which aint easy but good fun!. The quick round it is ask locals, tackles shops etc, internet for the locale.
I would go for conventional first, maggots, bread, float swim feeder and just see what happens. It likely to be bream and roach with possible sea fish, mullet, flounder and bass but they will just be chance thing.
I would go for conventional first, maggots, bread, float swim feeder and just see what happens. It likely to be bream and roach with possible sea fish, mullet, flounder and bass but they will just be chance thing.
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flightliner
Well-known member
I've always enjoyed the Tidal sections of the Trent over the non tidal.
I sometimes say you get two days in one if it's a split tide where the first part is poor it's often better on the next ebb .
I've seldom experienced a flooding upstream tide to be better then the ebb , rarely it can still produce but not as good.
Maybe on my river it's on account of the colour that shows better once the tide turns to run back to sea .
With the float the dimensions are bigger too as with the ever changing depth there's the constant need to keep in contact with the fish that demands constantly altering the depth of the rig along with the fishes habit of suddenly not being there as they retreat further out into deeper waters, stuff that I enjoy keeping up with , reading, and if you get it right during the time you're by the river that little extra satisfaction.
I sometimes say you get two days in one if it's a split tide where the first part is poor it's often better on the next ebb .
I've seldom experienced a flooding upstream tide to be better then the ebb , rarely it can still produce but not as good.
Maybe on my river it's on account of the colour that shows better once the tide turns to run back to sea .
With the float the dimensions are bigger too as with the ever changing depth there's the constant need to keep in contact with the fish that demands constantly altering the depth of the rig along with the fishes habit of suddenly not being there as they retreat further out into deeper waters, stuff that I enjoy keeping up with , reading, and if you get it right during the time you're by the river that little extra satisfaction.
I haven't got a very positive reaction to tidal rivers, but I might be missing out, I accept. The tidal Dee below Chester was only a mile away as a kid, and I fished there a lot. With a big rise and fall and deep, deep mud ( the silting up of the Dee estuary killed Chester as a port centuries ago) getting covered in mud and whatever was coming out of the sewage outfall was normal. One you'd got down the steep high bank, you fished with one foot slipping on slimy rocks and the other sinking in the mud between them. You had to keep an eye out for the tide coming in - the Dee tides had a bore at times, and I once looked up from messing about with tangled line to see the "step" in the river 50m away and coming upstream fast, and had to throw what I could up the bank and scramble up in a panic. The river filled up frighteningly quickly. The tidal river had that bleak look that estuaries often have, with blank featureless banks. Even close to town it had an empty and remote feel. The fishing wasn't up to much, either, although it was reputedly better back in the day. Skilled anglers caught dace on the float; beginners like me caught eels, flounders and the odd dace that hooked itself on legered maggot or worm. It may have picked up now - the non-tidal river certainly has - but last time I lived in the area, it was at a low point, in terms of fish stocks, and the cormorants drying their wings perched on rotted posts gave it a grotesque twist. When someone mentions tidal rivers now, I can smell that mud again.
theartist
Well-known member
Tidal rivers will always have a fascination for me, it's as if the variety each river has to offer is magnified once it gets a bit of salt water in it. Some rivers even come alive, It's almost as if they have been unleashed from their man made lower reaches like a dog itching to get off a lead. Here boy run! Run to the Sea! But like any faithful companion they go scampering off but always come back again.
I have fished many a tidal river both big and small and I can never say it's been anything other than a fantastic adventure each time
I have fished many a tidal river both big and small and I can never say it's been anything other than a fantastic adventure each time
On my local tidal river, the hull, it's Very muddy and the depths can get upto 20ft at high tide, it really flows in flood so it is hard to present a bait on float. I prefer to fish either side of low tide if I'm on the float and either side of high for on the bottom (feeder/lead).
Some days the only thing I'll catch is eels and perch and that's if I'm lucky, you've really got to be prepared to blank as much as you catch. So it certainly teaches you patience and appreciation.
The excellent Roach sport plus the prospect of a bonus Barbel, and the fact it is free to fish, means I feel truly lucky to have this river on my doorstep, well within cycling distance. I really wouldn't have got as hooked on fishing when I came back to it last year if it wasn't for this tidal beauty.
Some days the only thing I'll catch is eels and perch and that's if I'm lucky, you've really got to be prepared to blank as much as you catch. So it certainly teaches you patience and appreciation.
The excellent Roach sport plus the prospect of a bonus Barbel, and the fact it is free to fish, means I feel truly lucky to have this river on my doorstep, well within cycling distance. I really wouldn't have got as hooked on fishing when I came back to it last year if it wasn't for this tidal beauty.
no-one in particular
Well-known member
Interesting thread, I often find tidal stretches fascinating. Like Artist, a great variety of types, species and challenges and usually free to fish. This is more lower stretches where they are near the sea-Big tide races, muddy bottoms and banks(be careful), never sure what you will find or get, could be anything, usually excellent flora and fauna and vistas to wonder at.
It pays to have a good look at maps before you visit for paths, access etc and pictures these days on the net, they are often unfishable at low water and often flat open country so watch for wind and weather.
It pays to have a good look at maps before you visit for paths, access etc and pictures these days on the net, they are often unfishable at low water and often flat open country so watch for wind and weather.
ian g
Well-known member
I've not had much experience of tidal rivers but Kev reminded me of a couple of times fishing the Dee well upstream of it's tidal reach at Bangor on Dee and catching a couple of flounder while fishing lob worms .
no-one in particular
Well-known member
I caught a tiny flattie right up in Barnes on the Thames once Ian. Mullet and Bass can be found quite far up tidal reaches as well. You never quite know what to expect, seen sea trout leaping quite a few times on these types of water as well. Finding the coarse fish is not easy, never know quite where they are unless you fish for them.
This thread is prompting me to explore a few areas I have reconnoitred in the past but never got round to trying.
theartist
Well-known member
If this is a 'Flounder Off' I got one up at Richmond lol
Mark, How do you feel about the three rivers at Rye? Would you rather those gates were gone and the rivers were natural like others in Sussex or are you happy to have coarse fishing in the town so close to the sea?
The Runner
Well-known member
Fished an Embassy Pairs qualifier on the Gloucester Canal about 20 years ago and the bloke next peg to me had a flounder and a barbel which must be the oddest canal mixed bag ever.
Flounders will travel way above the tidal limit - once had one from the Tweed at Carham which is at least ten miles (and one weir with fish pass) above any tidal influence
Flounders will travel way above the tidal limit - once had one from the Tweed at Carham which is at least ten miles (and one weir with fish pass) above any tidal influence
no-one in particular
Well-known member
Flounder Wars - part one! Im heading for Teddington with some lugworms.
Not sure Artist, on the one hand it's nice when rivers should be natural with the mix of sea and fresh taking its natural course but, having year round coarse fishing where the depth and flow is controlled is an advantage. I have often thought more rivers should be like this with water shortages but it will change the dynamics of a river. Rye has a wealth of variety around it, sea, creeks, harbour, full tidal, semi tidal, fresh, commercial, canal /lake / river.
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theartist
Well-known member
Lugworms? Have you seen the Flounder in the Thames, the ones I've had would have been smaller than the worm. Seriously Flounder are taking a bit of a battering (no pun intended) around our coasts in the last few decades, hope there's still a few getting up there