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

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Nice one Alan, fingers crossed its a sign of better things to come.

I actually took my lad (3 years old!) for an hour today on a small relief stream of the thames that runs through abingdon. We had to dig some worms first (he enjoys that in equal measure to the fishing!).... it was brilliant though, a tiny bit of colour and a steady flow, we had perch to about five or six ounces, a couple of roach a similar size, plus something I'd not seen for years... a daddy ruffe! Not just one but three! Funny how some of these species seem to be coming back, I mentioned dace and gudgeon last time - I'm pretty certain its been several years (20 maybe?!) since i last caught a daddy ruffe.. not sure what that means but maybe nature is more resiliant than we give it credit for.

(or maybe as has been discussed on this thread several times, all of the river species are in cycles, sometimes plentiful, other times scarce. Interesting that all of the re-appearances recently have been in the smaller species?)

Fingers crosssed for my proper session later this week!

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Well well.

Went yesterday afternoon - Abingdon weirpool as before, got off work at about 11.30 so having popped home for the tackle I guess i got to the bank at about 12.30. The weather was spot on for breaming, i.e. overcast and drizzly. First job was to set the shelter up, then mix up some groundbait - which consisted of dynamite swim stim natural, 8mm halibut pellets, 4mm carp pellets and sweetcorn... then set up the rod which was still clipped up from my previous successful(ish) session.

I put six big feeder fulls of bait out, then tied up a hooklength and started off fishing with a bunch of maggots on a size 12 with a slightly smaller feeder, with the intention of working through various combos of worms, maggots and sweetcorn.

The first bite came about 30mins after I started, just as I was beginning to wonder why I hadn't had a touch... a decent slab-sized bream of about 4.5lb. Next cast was only in for about 30 seconds before the tip started nodding and an almost identical fish came to the net. On the next cast, I had to wait a little longer (two or three minuts maybe) before I was in again, to another identically sized fish.

At this point, I have to admit I thought I'd cracked it. Brimming with confidence, the feeder went out to the clip again and I sat back and waited for the next bite.

And waited.

And waited.

For some reason (lack of bait maybe) it dried up completely at this point, which had me a bit baffled. I tried working through several different hookbaits without a sniff. After a couple of hours puzzling, I finally decided that the reason that I'd taken the early fish is that by the time they came along, I'd put a bit of bait in and that's what had kept them there. The first group of fish to move through (of which I'd caught three) had cleaned that up, and now perhaps there wasn't a significant enough amount to keep them. So I repeated the six cast top up with the big feeder - then kept that feeder on for the remainder of the session and tried to cast a bit more regularly. About 30 or 40 minutes after starting this new baiting regime, I had another bite, which saw the bream returning. I caught another four decent slabs (and two gudgeon) before calling it a day round about 6.

All in all a very satifying result (seven decent slabs), given that my intention had been to try and catch some bream! However, I'm pretty sure I could have done even better if i'd been able to get more feed in accurately.

I was fishing towards my limit in terms of accuracy with the feeder (prob about 50 yards) and I certainly wouldn't have been able to introduce groundabit by hand at that range. Which makes me wonder if I should have had more regular "top-ups".. ie cast six or seven times with a full feeder just to get some bait out.....

 

[Mark Wintle]

Jim,

Apart from making me jealous with your Thames fishing (and you had a ruffe which I haven't seen for a while, had hoped for one the other day) I have a suggestion for your groundbaiting.

Get a Whopper dropper or equivalent groundbait cattie. With practice you should be able to groundbait that range with little effort and accurately too. Practice in a field with a bucket to aim at using molehill soil.

 

[alan whittington]

Make the most of it Jim and hit it again quickly,for it cant be long before it will be too cold for them,then it will be back to just picking off odd-uns again,nice day though mate,maybe you need to use the bigger feeder you use for the initial feed all day.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Mark

I've always been worried about using a grounbait catty as I just worry I'll end up spreading bait over an area that's too big. Like you said though, practice makes perfect. I like the molehill soil idea too. As an aside, have you ever tried using that as a groundbait additive? I've been assured it works well for bream and perch as it reminds them of earthworms (and doesn't offer any feed)... not sure if my leg was being pulled!

Alan, I will be giving it a go a soon as I can... trouble is, I'm all out of holiday from work now and the weekends tend to be busy. I'm also sort of wanting it to get colder as that tends to be when the chub establish themselves in their winter swims... and they represent a better bet if I've only got a couple of hours to fish. I love attacking a river with a groundbait approach, but it requires a bit more time!!

 

[peter crabtree]

I am just imagining standing in a field catapulting balls of soil into a bucket, what would passers by think you were up to? PMSL.......
I have used molehill soil in groundbait but more as a vehicle to keep the balls intact in fast deep flow than as an attractant..........

 

[Mark Wintle]

I don't know what you're worried about standing in a field firing balls of soil into a bucket, in some fields near me groups of men hit a little white ball into a flower pot using a stick then they retrieve the ball and start again in another field - very weird?

Ivan Marks and mates used to practice chucking groundbait by hand into buckets in the closed season and if you ever watched Ivan ground baiting you'd know he was extremely good at it.

A the end of a match I once took the last remaining bit of groundbait from the bowl and made a very hard ball thn launched it into orbit with it landing in another's keepnet about 80 yards away - the power of a souped up Whopper Dropper. I don't thing the angler concerned had a clue where it came from.

 

[Alan Campbell]

You would be surprised how accurate you become Jim. I used to do it with balls of clay in a field with my Dad's opened umbrella stuck in the ground. It helped me feeding the bream shoals at Clifton and Wallingford.

The chub are starting to show at the Channel and Sandford/Radley. I would imagine the bream have moved onto pastures new. Since the floods I think they have found somewhere else to feed. Somewhere we anglers are not fishing.

 

[S-Kippy]

I don't know what you're worried about...... in some fields near me groups of men hit a little white ball into a flower pot using a stick then they retrieve the ball and start again in another field - very weird.

Ha ha ha ha...I'm not the only one then

 

[tuolumne fisher]

get some vitalin buddy, it'll hold lots of other baits, knock it up at home, shape into balls and put it in, and dont be shy with the quantities
the recent lower thames champs had 124 anglers in it, they all caught silvers, thats alot of silvers to feed of

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Thing is, I reckon I would do ok with the catty if I had something to aim at (and therefore judge wether I needed to give the next ball some more or less "umph"...)

But fishing at longer range, I'd worry that all I'd do was spread bait over too wide an are.

Which I guess brings up the idea of using a marker float on the river... anyone tried that before?

 

[peter crabtree]

if I am fishing at range on the Thames, say 50 yard chuck with a feeder, I would tie on the biggest cage feeder my tackle could manage and clip-up once I had reached my desired distance. then spend maybe half an hour sending out feederfuls of groundbait etc...........

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Managed another quick session after work last night, Abingdon weirpool once again. I'd bunged the leftover groundbait in the freezer last tuesday, so that was ready to go... the only other bait I had was a small tub of dendras left over from the same session.

Got to the river around 5pm, got set up quick because the ground bait was already mixed. I put four feeders out whilst getting sorted, by the time I was ready to tie a hooklength it was very nearly dark. Got the first cast out with a worm and corn (from the groundbait mix) cocktail... counted to 100 quick and reeled in to get more bait down.

On the second cast, I was still using the tip for indication, against the rapidly darkening sky. I was staring intently at the tip wondering if I could still see it clearly enough to judge a bite when the tip started bouncing forwards and back quite dramatically. I struck and found myself connected to a nice slab of around 4.5 lb... a nice start.

On the next cast, i decided it was just too dark to see the tip against the sky so I started using a bobbin with an isotope. This time it took a little longer before the bobbin suddenly dropped back. On the strike the fish felt heavier than the last - and it was. My PB bream is 6.12 and when I first landed the fish I thought I might have broken it... not to be, the scales went 6.8 i was still delighted, as I'd only been fishing about 20mins.

I packed up at about 6.20 (needed at home!) with five decent bream to show for my efforts, probably the best river session I've had for two or three years.

Seems to me like the river is fishing a bit better now, I'm itching for another go!!

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

the wheels have come off..... a bit!

Had another go last night, didn't get to the river til 5pm and had a couple of hours... very odd session, started in the usual way - three or four feeders out to the usual spot before a hooklength got attached, then started fishing... I was casting well and hitting the clip every time, something (small fish or crays) was mangling my worms every cast but no decent bites. After about 45 mins, i completely bodged a cast and it landed about 10 yards short... sod it I thought, I'll leave it to see what happens. So I tighten up and attach the bobbin and it falls on a slack line so I tighten up more and it falls again. Perhaps on the fourth or fifth repetion of this a little light bulb goes off (that's right, maybe its a bite) so I strike and find myself connected to a bream of about 3 pounds. To be honest a strike prob wasn't neccessary as it must have been hooked and running at me.

I tried (in vain) to find that same spot a bit shorter than I had been casting.

Still, not a blank. And the river is changing every day at the moment, it's flowing in places where its looked liek a lake all summer and its got a fair bit of colour in this morning. My advice for all you thames anglers is get out there this weekend, it should be spot on.

(and not too cold!)

 

[oxonfisher]

Godstow weirpool is absolutely heaving with bream and roach at the moment.
Fished it for pike on Sunday and sadly blanked, but there were bream and roach rolling continously for the 3 hours I was there.
Have never seen the river so alive with fish and found it hard to believe there were no pike around!

 

[geoffmaynard]

Welcome to FM Oxonfisher.
That's good news!
Maybe I'll actually get around to having a session on the river soon then. I ought to - I can walk to it in ten minutes!

 

[tuolumne fisher]

get those feeders out geoff, those beards have gotta be 'aving it, heard of 2 different 15lbers coming out of aragon m8

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Had a go on Saturday just above abingdon lock.... river very low and barely any flow whatsoever.

Using liquidised bread in the feeder with flake on a size 12, roach or chub in mind.

Started fishing a favourite far bank swim, up close to some moored barges... nothing doing. I then had a think and decided that the greatest degree of flow i could detect was around 2/3 of the way across so had a chuck there... the tip gave a very small indication after it had been out for a little while so I rebaited and went out to the same spot. Feeder barely settled this time before the tip gave a proper twang, the culprit being a 2lb plus chub... (for a wonderful minute I thought it might have been a roach, but when it went on an upstream charge I changed my mind!)

Moved upstream and fished a near bank feature but no more bites. Still, nice to get out, and it felt positively balmy in something like +5 degrees!

Should have moved more often.... isn't hindsight brilliant?

 

[peter crabtree]

I will be fishing the Christmas match on the father this saturday at Kingston. (Canbury Gdns)
wish me luck, I will need a miracle to frame ..........
+1 degree forecast..........

 

[alan whittington]

Punched bread and liquidized Peter,the only way to fly,the rivers like tapwater,you will need all the luck in the world.