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

[adrian hoare]

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.

hello mate - yes , sounds great by all means come down and we shall have a sesh . my fishing buddy amushroom im sure would be up for that too . bring it on dude !!

 

[tuolumne fisher]

just got back from the tidal perch mecca, a buddy has been as meen as kustard [freudian slip] to improve his pb from there, so with new electric engine and metal punt we sailed forth at first light. struggled to get a bite for 3hrs but eventually our constant moving paid off, about thirty perch succumbed to our maggots, worms and livebaits, the biggest around a pound all took lives

 

[alan whittington]

Been yesterday on the Thame and Thames at Dorchester and my friend and i blanked on both(unless you count a gudgeon on a lump of cheesepaste on a size 8 hook),anybody want to buy some tackle,surely the water authority should be doing some research on what the hell is going on,else what am i paying my rod license for.

 

[peter crabtree]

Me and son of meldrew fished a match on the Old Father at Eton Wick.I weighed in 2 micro perch and som blanked,missing a vital bite late on.
On a happier note the winner had 60lb of slabs, best bit ,a young kid caught a right slab.......:w ribena

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Well, I said I'd let you know how I got on Friday... for some reason, I took out a bag of sprats when I wnt in the freezer to get my cheesepaste out "just in case".... luck I did as the pike we're going MENTAL all day. I had two on my deadbait rod and bought two in on the ledger rod I was feeder fishing with (a 10ft light wand, not exactly the ideal tool for a 6lb pike but fun all the same!) I also got bitten off about three times on the feeder rod.

So till we get some rain, I think the pike gears coming out a but more often!!

 

[peter crabtree]

Alan, I dont think there's anything wrong with the Thames, it simply hasn't had the rain needed to colour it up and get flowing. It's been hard everywhere. Now with the first frosts and falling leaves it will probably get worse. I am confident that with a week of proper winter rain and the shock of the first frosts over we will see the father back on form.

 

[Murton Bere]

It's not the lack of rain

Peter - have to disagree with you. The river in the early part of the season had colour, height and flow but the fishing was dire and has remained so. Yes there is now a low level and flow due to lack of rain but even if we did get proper rain and it started to fish I'm still not sure that the cure was the rain itself.

If it was lack of flow or colour the law of averages usually rules in your favour that switching to weirs or somesuch will bring about a change of fortunes. Several of us have seen this all season.

There is something much more wrong with it than that - that's just my opinion of course and the beauty of the whole pastime is that we'll never know what the problem is I suppose.

I don't believe all the fish are gone as we'd have seen the results of such a large scale fishkill and we can see from the earlier poster that 60lb+ of slimy stinky slabs have been caught so shoals of fish are lying up somewhere.

 

[tuolumne fisher]

It has certainly been harder on my local stretches this season, being mainly a daytime angler, its been harder than those doing nights, one advantage for myself are the daily tides, at least the fish have to move. If I was to seek an explanation for my own failings, it would be down to myself for not adapting to the new conditions. THEY'VE GOTTA EAT

 

[alan whittington]

Im not sure why its going on,but it is,on the last day of the season the river was clearer than it is now,yet i caught a good net of bream,a decent chub and a reasonable brownie,since the season started ive struggled for a bite,i can only speak for the stretches that i fish,which i believe are similar to Murton and its dire.If you fish on a lake and its low you seem to still catch a few,but not on our river,i do believe there is a chemical imbalance in the water.

 

[peter crabtree]

A local club to me had a match at Dorchester sunday,fish were caught, with the winner having over 5lb,no great weight, but fish were caught.

 

[alan whittington]

But how many blanked,and there are roach an perch in the river,as to how many i havnt a clue,but i fished a top chub swim at Dorchester Saturday never had a pull,in the summer you wouldnt have blanked if after small fish,but i would say you had a 95% or higher chance if you were after quality fish,which is a bit grim to say the least.

 

[peter crabtree]

Me and son of meldrew fished a match on the Old Father at Eton Wick.I weighed in 2 micro perch and som blanked,missing a vital bite late on.
On a happier note the winner had 60lb of slabs, best bit ,a young kid caught a right slab.......:w ribena

Update........When I walked to the winners swim,with 2 hours to go, he had 10 (no stink)bream which I estimated at 60lb, by the end he had 96lb.

 

[Murton Bere]

no change in my opinion

5lbs for a match win? If the river was ok that wouldn't get a section placing. Match weights at Medley which can be huge are miniscule.

 

[adrian hoare]

had a few hours this morning on the tidal at teddington , got snapped up by something which we believe may of been a pike while trying to catch some livelies .
then struggled to catch the livelies after all the commotion in the swim from the pike , until mr mushroom came down and put me amongst them on the other side of the river where i managed to fill a bucket of dace, roach and bleak in 40mins , headed back over the other side again and caught nothing !!
hopefully make up for it tomorrow as we are out aboard hms mushroom tomorrow on the non tidal in an area ive not fished before , with a good reputation for big perch , chub and anything else silly enough to pull my float under !

CANT WAIT!!!!

 

[tuolumne fisher]

well adrian, theyre were indeed a few stupid enough, happy dayz

 

[njb51]

How did you guys get on today?

 

[Alan Campbell]

Back on the Thames this Sunday. We're on the "Channel" in Oxford. Hoping for a few chub.

 

[adrian hoare]

How did you guys get on today?

hi mate , had a great day trotting livebaits , perch around the 2lb mark , pike and a surprise 4lb10 chub , well pleased , especially to see a chub fall to a livebait which ive heard of loads before but never been there to see it .

 

[adrian hoare]

just got home from a morning sesh on the tidal , again tons of livebaits , quite a few perch in the end but none over a pound . i suppose you cant have it the way u want every day i guess . will try again next week

 

[tuolumne fisher]

spent yesterday with a buddy on his punt, around sunbury, from first light for a couple of hours, we struggled with presentation while targeting the carp, the leaves and debris were a nightmare. we upped anchors and moved upstream to target the roach, couldnt buy a bite so cruised silently around with the electric engine eyes glued to the fish finder, eventually we saw some fish topping, anchored upstream and caught, roach, dace and perch, in the 4to 6 oz class, unable to catch any larger specimens we returned to the roach spot, a few baitdroppers later and bingo my buddy was playing a near one pounder, I quickly connected with another, before the wind changed and ruined presentation, we packed away late afternoon, cursing the wind for ruining our chance of a netful of quality roach.
as I said on halloween "careful dear, dont crack your cauldron"