As a Thames regular for many years I thought it only right to join the Thames Angling Conservancy. The T.A.C. are a group of anglers who want to protect the River Thames from the many challenges the river faces and improve it for the future.
Entirely free to join up to it is definately worth a few minutes of your time to sign up and be part of the rapidly expanding club who are trying to make a difference to the River Thames.
You can join here - http://www.rivertac.org/
On the forum there is a variety of topics, from litter picking to arranging of matches, meet ups etc, It was the clubs first match which I attended on Fri 27th Aug 2010 at Walton bridge.
Promising to be a good evening with a laugh, prizes, trophies and maybe even some fish it was well worth attending.
The draw for pegs was at 17:30, I arrived a few minutes late, and was the last fisherman to arrive. This meant I was last to draw out of the hat!!
As only 6 anglers were present at the draw, it didnt really matter as there was plenty of space along the stretch, people obviously thinking it was better to stay indoors after the recent downpours over the past few days.
I picked out the last ticket marked 2, so even though I had arrived last, I walked off second and picked my swim. Seeing as there were only 6 people fishing, I decided to stay close to the HQ, ensuring a chat with the others and being able to keep an eye on what else was caught.
My mainline of attack was pellet feeder with a mix of scalded pellet/boilie in the hope of snaring a bream or two, with the possbility of a barbel or carp also.
The match started at 19:00 and ended at midnight for the first match, the other one running from 19:00 til 07:00.
The first fish caught was to the guy next to me and turned out to be a gudgeon!!
He had a few more little fish before news filtered through of a 3.11 perch being caught a little downstream, well done to Paul for that fish. He actually went on to win the 12hour match by adding a 6lb bream also.
Winner of the 5 hour match was a guy called luke who had a 1lb2oz roach, followed by the guy next to me who weighed in 7oz I think, 3rd place went to Mark with a lone gudgeon, leaving me fishless in 4th place!!! Still 4th place in my first ever match aint too bad, at least it doesnt sound to bad when I tell people where I finished, I might just not add the part where there was only 4 entrants, lol
I even got the pike rod out an hour from time and put a spinnerbait around the swim in the hope of a pike lurking around the margins, but to no avail.
The midnight finishing horn sounded all too soon and the gear was dispatched to the car. The Gazebo was alive with tea, the smell of bacon rolls and chocolate biccies!
As the fishing had been quite poor, but the turn out had been ok, plus the amount of tackle that had been donated as prizes everyone that had fished got something, myself getting a FOX evolution x rucksack which will join my small mountain of fishing gear I already have!!
All in all it was a very good evening, my own fishing limited by the tackle that I had, I couldnt really change tactics, but I fished on regardless. I will definately be attending any future events arrange by the club.
There is talk of pike tuition days which I really fancy, as I have so much self written material on pike fishing, it will be good to pass this information on.
Once again make sure you Join - http://www.rivertac.org/
Monday 30 August 2010
Saturday 14 August 2010
Evening on the Thames
I managed to get out this week for a few hours on Thursday evening.
I headed for a new spot that I had discovered earlier that day, there was a guy fishing it in the morning, who had caught some nice roach from there.
He informed me that there had been some nice bream and Barbel caught from the swim in the past. It looked a good spot as there is no far bank swims for at least 400 yards one way and 100yards the other. So a good spot that is quite out of the way.
Anyway I decided to spend the evening fishing here, that was until I was driving up the road to the swim and some pikeys had very kindly set up shop just behind it!!! Not wanting to be chucked in and have my gear nicked for no reason, I chose to drive off and find somewhere else to fish.
I headed for another spot a couple of miles away, this area has boat moorings all along the stretch, and very limited swims for fishing, which surprise surprise were all taken! Well it was no surprise really as the area is very popular.
So thinking cap on, I decided to drive to yet another spot, which was empty aside from a couple of anglers a few hundred yards away. I unloaded my gear into my swim and wandered up to talk to one of the guys to see how he was getting on. He was fishing waggler and maggot and catching roach a couple of rod lengths out.
Deciding to stick to my chosen spot, I set up the rods and marker/spod rod. Setting up a marker rod is alien to me as its not something I do, or spodding for that matter, but I decided to pack an 8ft 2lb tc stalking rod I have into my barbel rod sleeve for exactly the reason.
It will comfortably chuck a 2 oz lead across that thames, and will also easily cast a fox pocket spod which weighs next to nothing even when full across the thames. As well as doubling up as a stalking rod if the need arises.
Anyway I set the rod up with a lead and made a few casts around, soon I discovered a gravel run three quarters of the way across. I clipped up the rod, and attatched the spod. after about 10 casts I had deposited half a kilo of sweetcorn on the gravel run.
I set up the sweetcorn rod with a 2oz running lead, 2ft 10lb hooklength, size 10 hook and for bait I used 2 real grains and one fake pop up piece of corn. I small piece of rig putty placed a few inches from the hook would keep it on the bottom.
The second rod was cast upstream, halfway across, with a glugged DBTS boilie and a small bag of mixed halibuts.
Both rods remained motionless for the 3 hours I was there, although there was fish topping everywhere and a few bigger fish crashing out of the water.
Highlight of the evening has to be seeing a barn owl glide silently from one side of the river over my head into the trees behind me. Something I have not seen before.
I left at just after 23:00, but I will return soon and plumb the rest of the stretch I think to locate the fish, as one of the guys I was speaking to said there has been alot of barbel caught from along it in the past month. So I may concentrate my next few sessions here.
I headed for a new spot that I had discovered earlier that day, there was a guy fishing it in the morning, who had caught some nice roach from there.
He informed me that there had been some nice bream and Barbel caught from the swim in the past. It looked a good spot as there is no far bank swims for at least 400 yards one way and 100yards the other. So a good spot that is quite out of the way.
Anyway I decided to spend the evening fishing here, that was until I was driving up the road to the swim and some pikeys had very kindly set up shop just behind it!!! Not wanting to be chucked in and have my gear nicked for no reason, I chose to drive off and find somewhere else to fish.
I headed for another spot a couple of miles away, this area has boat moorings all along the stretch, and very limited swims for fishing, which surprise surprise were all taken! Well it was no surprise really as the area is very popular.
So thinking cap on, I decided to drive to yet another spot, which was empty aside from a couple of anglers a few hundred yards away. I unloaded my gear into my swim and wandered up to talk to one of the guys to see how he was getting on. He was fishing waggler and maggot and catching roach a couple of rod lengths out.
Deciding to stick to my chosen spot, I set up the rods and marker/spod rod. Setting up a marker rod is alien to me as its not something I do, or spodding for that matter, but I decided to pack an 8ft 2lb tc stalking rod I have into my barbel rod sleeve for exactly the reason.
It will comfortably chuck a 2 oz lead across that thames, and will also easily cast a fox pocket spod which weighs next to nothing even when full across the thames. As well as doubling up as a stalking rod if the need arises.
Anyway I set the rod up with a lead and made a few casts around, soon I discovered a gravel run three quarters of the way across. I clipped up the rod, and attatched the spod. after about 10 casts I had deposited half a kilo of sweetcorn on the gravel run.
I set up the sweetcorn rod with a 2oz running lead, 2ft 10lb hooklength, size 10 hook and for bait I used 2 real grains and one fake pop up piece of corn. I small piece of rig putty placed a few inches from the hook would keep it on the bottom.
The second rod was cast upstream, halfway across, with a glugged DBTS boilie and a small bag of mixed halibuts.
Both rods remained motionless for the 3 hours I was there, although there was fish topping everywhere and a few bigger fish crashing out of the water.
Highlight of the evening has to be seeing a barn owl glide silently from one side of the river over my head into the trees behind me. Something I have not seen before.
I left at just after 23:00, but I will return soon and plumb the rest of the stretch I think to locate the fish, as one of the guys I was speaking to said there has been alot of barbel caught from along it in the past month. So I may concentrate my next few sessions here.
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