thames at kingston

[Matty C]

Hi people..

I have done a couple seasons piking on my local river wey and have had plenty of pike around the 6lb mark.. Ive had one of 12lb's but that was more luck than judgement.. it took a chub on the way in.. but anyways.. I have access to the thames at kingston and was wondering if anyone knows if its any good for piking ? Ill be doing it during the winter and was planning on deadbaiting as far out as I can, to try n get it in the deep water ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Matt

 

[TonyStone]

I know the thames at kingston is on fire for bream at the moment.

Not pike fished that far up myself, furthest that way I have fished is the concrete point at hampton where the mole meets the thames and had reesonable success, jacks up to about 10lb, nothing massive.

I plan on having a few sessions there myself come winter, so might see you there??

 

[jason fisher]

go try it and let us know how you get on fished the thames upstream for 7 years and never had a 20 from it.

 

[Matty C]

cheers guys.. I know its been doing well on the bream lately, so was wondering, if there is an abundance of silver fish, namely the bream, there should be some good predators around ? correct me if Im wrong.. and maybe you will see me there Tony.. like yourself, I wont get down there piking til mid winter ish, and even then, my access will be limited, but hopefully Ill be able to get down there..

I will take your advice jason, it cant hurt to give it a bash and see what turns up.. so I will deffinately let you all know what happens when the time comes, so watch out in winter..

am I right in thinking theyll be in the deeper water in winter, or shall I give the margins a go ?

cheers again,
Matt

 

[jason fisher]

close in round structure or in the mouths of the down stream ends of locks are always a good place for me.

 

[TonyStone]

I would still target pike in the margins in winter. Look for the marginal drop off and place a bait there, has worked for me in the past.

In theory, you are right, if the prey fish are there then the pike should be too. But if there are alot of pre fish there then sometimes the pike can become preoccupied with them and ignore your baits.

 

[Matty C]

good point about the prey fish Tony.. its always a chance they could get preoccupied with them..

on the bait side of things, would you suggest that I use a bream or something similar, i.e fresh water fish, for bait.. or something smelly and oily like a mackeral or lamprey ? please excuse the spelling of the baits.

 

[jason fisher]

half mackerel and smelt have been my best baits on the river

 

[Matty C]

okie doke.. will remember that.. cheers

 

[TonyStone]

When ever im piking on a river, I always use 2 rods, I try to use a sea bait on 1 and a coarse bait on the other.

Try to chop and change baits, a ledgered livebait can also be very good on the thames, I use this method alot.

 

[Matty C]

with regards to rigs.. I understand that pike dont like much, if any resistance, and tend to drop the bait at the first sign of resistance, so instead of using say a bolt rig or something, would a running ledger be a better option, letting a bead infront of the swivel be the stop ?

good adivce on the bait Tony, it cant hurt to try a bit of both..

with the live bait, I guess I would have to use "local" fish, by catching them first, if this is the case, should I just try anything, such as a roach or perch or indeed bream if there are plenty of them ?

 

[jason fisher]

they'l put up with quite a lot of resistance it's rapid changes they don't like

 

[jason fisher]

but every leger rig i use is runnning.

 

[Andrew Macfarlane]

That's about the size of it. Pike will happily drag a weight along as long as the weight is constant.
When using a running leger (my favoured choice) I use John Roberts run-rings in order to create the least amount of resistance possible.
I attach the lead to the run-ring with a paperclip. The clip acts in the same way as a rotten bottom or a weak link.
If the weight gets snagged, I simply give the line a slow, firm pull and paperclip will straighten, thus freeing the lead...easy.

Paperclip and run-ring at this URL:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v507/Poach/BreakOut.jpg