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

[tuolumne fisher]

fished the tide last night with Geoff, our single float fished livebaits resulted in no fish banked, loved the company, the conditions looked spot on and to make it even more memorable, some dipstick decided to throw a couple of coins at us, sadly they missed the landing, so we went home no richer, financially that is,fished the tide again this morning, under the trees with an 8ft rod for carp, listened to fishermans blues, watched the world awake and saw a carp mid river, no money dropped from the heavens and no bite was had, still richer though !!!

 

[geoffmaynard]

Must remember to leave the Big Issue at home next time

 

[alan whittington]

Peter if you float fish in the Culham area i would think a catch of small fish is on the cards,unless seed baits can be made to work and it may be a little late so be prepared,feeder fishing at the moment brings small fish with odd perch to 12oz or so(if your lucky).
I have been today and failed miserably on pellet and small boilies,my only decent bite coming late,chublet i think.

 

[Murton Bere]

YES - The Culham stretch is what I've been talking about!

Wednesday 7th fished a match at Runneymede,National Trust down to pleasure ground. 20 pegs. No colour despite recent rain,but a certain improvement on the flow. Any one who knows this venue will tell you it is stuffed with quality roach,but hardly any were caught. Most of us caught perch,the winner with 14lb all perch falling to worm over chopped worm.
Bream were seen rolling on some pegs but did not seem to be feeding,one angler caught a skimmer and one proper bream. Most other species,dace,gudgeon,chub,etc also made no appearance.

I was thinking of going to my mates house at Sutton Courtenay soon,he lives by the bridge and has a landing stage in his garden and I have often fished there,just opposite the downstream entrance to the lock cut. Generally it fishes very well but from what I'm reading on here maybe I wont bother. Is this the bit some of you are referring to as Culham?

Alan

You've made a very convincing case for me and my mate not to bother with our planned trip to fish at culham bridge next friday!

Guys - the stretches you mention are indeed this one at Culham Bridge. It's been worse than I can ever recall. As some of my previous posts have stated I've spoken to quite a few guys who fish this regularly and not a thing being caught. As I also previously stated the only real action seen was better stamp of Roach to seed tactics on the stick. Sitting on the feeder is EXREMELY hit and miss so if you're visiting on friday then be prepared - it could be tougher than you've encountered before. ;-)

Come to think of it the river is not fished by that many diehards as most visit carp puddles instead (they may well laugh at this as we struggle to get a pull). So that said, some of the guys I talk to on the bank could well be one or two of you. Are any of the contributors to this thread Culham regulars?

---------- Post added at 18:06 ---------- Previous post was at 17:55 ----------

Peter - your reference to your mates stage at the foot of his garden sounds like a fantastic lucky break to me! The stretch above the bridge has always held two major interests for me

1) No boats

2) Big fish (until recently)

One of the major downsides is the very poor litter problem seen in some of the swims particularly the more scenic ones like the bridge and tree swims. To get onto the downstream stages which can be seen from the bridge would be very appealing. On the bank opposite your mates house they've cut back a lot of overhanging willows at what I think is an old rowing hut - if the stage your mentioning is not downstream from that then a chuck across to there might be worth a go.

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Myself, a friend and his grandson, all fished opposite Cliveden yesterday. Normally, the perch (small ones) are climbing up the line to rob you of your maggots, but yesterday we didn't get a bit all the time it drizzled. As soon as the sun came out it looked better and after half an hour I cought one perch on a size 20 hook and neck end of maggot as bait.

That was it!

Explanations on a piece of unused toilet paper and sent to me please.

 

[peter crabtree]

Yes Murton the landing stage is opposite the rowing club and the big weeping willow.We normally feeder fish over to the willow. It was full of fish when we used to go(last time 2007). The thing I always remember there is when my groundbait feeder hit the water the floating bits attracted bleak on the surface followed by a pike attacking them and scattering them in the air.We caught most species,even a tench one morning.

 

[alan whittington]

Peter,as Murton says you will probably have a shock,unless the fish are holed up under your willow in the low conditions you will find very little apart from smallish fish,best of luck,i will be somewhere between Culham and Dorchester on Saturday,but i dont expect to break any records.
Murton,upstream of Culham bridge where the river splits around the islands,on the Culham side the river seems to have virtually no flow,whereas the Sutton side from the small sluice has plenty,i wonder why this is?

 

[Murton Bere]

Yes Murton the landing stage is opposite the rowing club and the big weeping willow.We normally feeder fish over to the willow. It was full of fish when we used to go(last time 2007). The thing I always remember there is when my groundbait feeder hit the water the floating bits attracted bleak on the surface followed by a pike attacking them and scattering them in the air.We caught most species,even a tench one morning.

Peter - a LOT of Tench can and have been caught on the stretch just above the bridge so not surprised to hear of you landing one. I've caught several as have my fishing mates. Some times during the summer when the club is brave enough to stage a river match the anglers target them as two or three will frame or even win. I've caught them to 5lb+ but know of 6lb fish which I think is a sizeable Tench in flowing water.

Regarding your far bank willows - you'll find them severely reduced since your last visit. For some reason whatever is going on with the rowing hut and stages there has been some clearance work including a fair bit of overhanging trees. It would be good to fish between if on that side of the river but from where you're on about fishing you'll have to pick your target well.

---------- Post added at 21:07 ---------- Previous post was at 21:01 ----------

Peter,as Murton says you will probably have a shock,unless the fish are holed up under your willow in the low conditions you will find very little apart from smallish fish,best of luck,i will be somewhere between Culham and Dorchester on Saturday,but i dont expect to break any records.
Murton,upstream of Culham bridge where the river splits around the islands,on the Culham side the river seems to have virtually no flow,whereas the Sutton side from the small sluice has plenty,i wonder why this is?

Alan, where this water splits and channels through the syndicated Harwell water it has a natural funnel effect which always sees it flowing faster and shallower hence the water we see below it being slightly faster than the main river channel. I've usually bagged a fish of two (be they Tench, Bream, Chub or Eel) in the past but not a touch this year.

On the other side of the river (Culham) where the bank is higher the flow is actually a little faster but in the wrong direction! You need to cast out mid stream to trot a float!

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Afternoon all

I've finally had a decent fish on the thames! On tuesday, I got out for an hour straight after work... fishing the weirpool at Abingdon, I had a 3.5ish lb chub first cast on a piece of breadflake.

The bite was hilarious... I cast out, sat back down, put the rod in the rest and tightened up the tip, only to have it jerk and drop back... "that's odd" I thought, it must have been hung up on a bit of weed or something. So I try to tighten up again and the same thing happens and I think "well this is really strange" so I try to tighten up again and yet again it sort of bounces a bit and then drops back. At this point there's an only just audible voice in the back of my head saying "I think I remember what this is. It's one of those thingys, you know, a what-it-called, its a ......... BITE!!!"

That chub must have wanted that bit of bread cos god knows I gave it a good while to spit it out! But the good news is it stayed on... so I'm off for a full day tomorrow, full of new hope and enthusiasm.

 

[Specihunter]

at last some good news .

 

[adrian hoare]

hi all , fished a session last night through to today lunchtime to fish the high tide , just 3 bream to show for my efforts , despite changing baits and swims . oh well , gonna have another bash tomorrow lunchtime in a spot where ive had carp from recently and keep everything crossed and hope !!

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Saw a young fellow this morning I haven't seen for a while. His dad went on the Thames at Cookham yesterday and he had a biteless day. He's no mean fisheerman himself either.

I was going to go today, but what for? Meditation I suppose, watching the end of your rod for hours......

 

[alan whittington]

Thats the problem Woody,it certainly puts a dent in your confidence eh.

 

[tuolumne fisher]

put a buddy on a one rod carp spot at lower sunbury before work yesterday and he lost one in a snag, i had another 3 hr blank fishing mid river,went to work then late afternoon took the boat out to an area on the tidal,i blanked again although my buddy failed to copy his mornings luck and landed a scraper double common, only his second carp from the tidal, happy days, popped down to teddington this morning to see a buddy, took my 17 ft rod and pin, caught plenty of dace, roach and perch, all fingerlings, it seems the 6oz size fish have moved, maybe summer is over

 

[peter crabtree]

Amushroom and Adrian,maybe we should meet up at some point and do the tidal, I really fancy having a go at some big perch this winter.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

all set 4 tomorrow, the luncheon meat is cut, the bread is liquidised, the maggots are fresh and the pork pie is in the fridge (got to take something for me!)

I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[njb51]

You should try a piece of porkpie on the hook, Jim! Anything different is worth a try right now!

Anything showing around Teddington lock? I fancy a dabble...

 

[alan whittington]

Jonny are you mad,sacrilege is banned.Best of luck Peter can you get on after you get home as im going Saturday.

 

[njb51]

I do admit to being slightly mad, yes.

Haven't been out on the Thames for a while now. There are so many blanks a man can take!

Since the new season started my total amount of Thames fish has been 3. 1 bream, 2 roach!

 

[alan whittington]

Good God,somebody doing worse than me,ive probably done more sessions though 9 fish,3 chub,4 bream,1 tench and a barbel,and im certainly becoming straight jacket material,trouble is im stubborn and dont give up easily(maybe next year eh).