Thames: River Thames - is it fishing for anyone else?

[Alan Campbell]

Fishing was hard on our match. I won with 2 small bream on the pole with a feeder for 2lb 10oz. 2nd was a nice net of roach 1lb 10oz, 3rd was 1lb 1oz.

 

[peter crabtree]

Alan, do you think pole feeder method is the best for brown pushing water as it was sunday,I did ponder the idea, but stuck with the stick.

 

[Alan Campbell]

My first option was to fish a 8g flat float over groundbait, but when the lock keeper opened the weir at the start of the match it wouldn't cock right. So I changed to the feeder and snared the 2 bream. I reckon it's a very under rated method on the river. The fish mostly hook themselves!

 

[peter crabtree]

Funnythat.My 1st thought was a 6gm flat float,but When I went to get it out I remembered I had dismantled it. One of our lot tried the pole feeder for a while but to no avail.

 

[alan whittington]

Lads i dont match fish anymore but surely pinging a few pinkies and an odd maggot fished 2-3ft deep on a small waggler would take quite a few bleak(yuk,wash my mouth out),it always worked when the river pushed and you can trot different lines where your feed spreads,hard work i know but.....when needs must Rodney.

 

[Alan Campbell]

On a river going down Alan maybe, but not on a river going up in my opinion. When you have no slack as well. Chance of a Barbel with a static bait in the flow on a rising river as well. And whoever said Bream don't sit out in the flow wants a reality check. I've had bream now from Medley, Folly, Donnington and Sandford using the pole/feeder. Give it a go Alan

 

[alan whittington]

Caught one Saturday Alan,i dont think bream mind flow that much,back to bleak,i always found when the rubbish was in the water the bleak go up in the top layers once it cools down for once the river starts to fine down they drop lower and lower,you can catch them on the bottom with bloodworm(after all we are not talking about a whip amassing double figures here,its a chasing,low weight affair),but bleak like flow too which gives lots of pegs to go at.On the barbel front im afraid in mine and many others experience,they like warm coloured water but without the rubbish and lets be fair that was the first water in the Thames since July(not that im counting) which coincides roughly with this thread kicking off.

 

[tuolumne fisher]

fished at hampton court last night for 5hrs with some buddies [remembered why i dont do fishing in the dark], we all caught bream around 5lbs on our heavy feeder two rod setups, most falling for the pellet rig, sadly no berties obliged despite the complete lack of washing on the lines

 

[Alan Campbell]

Did't even see a blip on the surface or the whip would have come out in a flash.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

I had a go on Saturday for a couple of hours on the thames at abingdon, nce to see some flow and colour but the rubbish in the water had to be seen to be believed! That said, when the chub are in residence, they usually come to a bait reasonably quickly... needless to say I blanked, couldn't keep a bait in position for more than a couple of minutes but like I said, that would normally be long enough if the fish were keen. Hopefully it will have pushed through by this weekend, I'll have another try...

 

[tuolumne fisher]

no dangling today dudes, litter picking instead, managed to fill two and a half bin bags bringing my tally to ten this season, looks like i might be breaking a previous seasons record
scumbags, scumbags, bumscags

 

[njb51]

Nice one mushroom. Where abouts was all this litter? And was it all from "anglers"?

 

[alan whittington]

In my team fishing days they dont show much during the autumn(once cooled)through winter but can still be caught when conditions allow,whip fishing for bleak this time of year is an unlikely prospect Alan,little wag,1 no.10 down cast all over your spread pinkie feed,won me some dosh when hard,no matter how quick its going,bloody hard work though.

 

[tuolumne fisher]

Teddington lock island, this is my third season for collecting litter, both previous seasons have resulted in eleven bags each season, there has been a noticeable difference since the credit crunch, no bivvies, sleeping bags, pillows, duvets etc etc.
I implore everyone who fishes free stretches of river to give up an hour a month to collect our sports debritis, we are judged by those who visit our free venues, sadly they are full of the lowest common denominator, hence the poor opinion of us,if you cant sacrifice the time, join the angling trust, if you can where have you been,
off my soap box now and back to the dark

 

[alan whittington]

Do you know Mushroom,im a member of a club near Abingdon and in all my years fishing ive never seen so much litter,there's hardly a peg without some c**p in it,the worst being the beer cans and the cases they came in all dumped by night fisherman(which is banned by the way),some people dont deserve the privilege of stepping on the riverbank,i travel 50 miles to fish this beautiful river to see garbage,its shameful.

 

[tuolumne fisher]

the bumscags leave theyre sh*t wherever they want, agreed beer cans and barbeques with eastern european lettering do proliferate but this is a good one, the lower thames championships, near the winning peg at molesey, three out of five pegs had matchday litter in carrier bags stuffed under bushes, even the esteemed competitors of such a high profile competition are not averse to being bumscags, all we can do is our little bit, moan aggresively and voiceferously about all the sh*t in the swim when you visit at weekends, hope the bumscags agree with the observations and occasionally take notice or else ban all free fishing from the banks and keep it free for me in my boat.

 

[Alan Campbell]

In my team fishing days they dont show much during the autumn(once cooled)through winter but can still be caught when conditions allow,whip fishing for bleak this time of year is an unlikely prospect Alan,little wag,1 no.10 down cast all over your spread pinkie feed,won me some dosh when hard,no matter how quick its going,bloody hard work though.

We used to have a couple of guys at our club (Littlemore A.S) who would target just them, and regularly return double figures. I would always go for the roach and if that failed the bleak was my last resort. I've had the pleasure of watching Hadrian Whittle fish for bleak, Awesome. He's had nets on the Wye upto 70lb!

 

[tuolumne fisher]

another pre work session this morning targeting the barbel at sunbury, fished a pellet rig and heavy feeder, all that obliged was a solitary mitten crab that made a lovely crunch under my size fourteens

 

[Nobby C (ACA)]

Sunday looks good with a low pressure system . Still, tis Old Father so who knows if they'll play.

 

[peter crabtree]

Were are you planning to fish sunday Nobby? If so where?