River Thames - lure fishing - 6/8/12

I was going to take my barbel rods for this weeks after work session, but decided instead to grab my lure bag and take wander along a stretch I hadnt fished before.
Lure fishing the stretch offers me a few benefits, one of which is I can obviously target pike and perch with lures. However is also offers me the chance to map out the water fairly quickly, by regular casting from each swim with lures you will very quickly establish snags, weed and depth of water. Once I have found areas I think I would fish for carp or barbel, I will clip on a lead and map the area out in my head then later on a note pad or a google earth print out.

So I chose a favourite Thames lure of mine, the spinnerbait.



These spinnerbaits are brilliant on the thames for working close in around the cabbage weeds.



The design of them means they rarely snag, and the blades really throb on the retrieve, creating alot of vibration through the water, and the pike that sit in and around the cabbage weed, attack these lure with massive ferocity sometimes clearing the water as they grab out at them over their heads.

I spent the first hour along a stretch I have fished in the past before jumping in the car and driving a short distance to an area I have not fished before. This area is very shallow close in, if I had wellies or waders on I could have waded out quite away before the water shelved off.
I was casting lures out over the drop off and working them back over , expecting the pike to be laying on the bottom over the drop off and attack the lure as it came over its head.
The first 3 swims didnt produce anything.
The 4th was downstream of a large fallen tree, which created a big slack area close in as the flow pushed past the end of the tree, maybe 20yards out. Within this slack area there were plenty of small fish dimpling the surface, probably eating the many flys and bugs that were everywhere. First cast in this swim was right through the middle of them, and bang the lure was hit!!
The fish was very small and came in very quickly, I chucked the unhooking mat down in the margin and drew the pike over the top of it.





I wandered along the remaining stretch (probably half a mile) but had nothing else.
The whole of the stretch aside from the last 200yards is very shallow close in, before shelving off into the main gravelly channel, as well as 2 marinas and some moored abandoned boats, so definately an area im going to have a few sessions with my barbel / carp rods.

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Maggotdrowning - River Thames - 30/07/12

Summer holidays are here and with came the promise to take my nephews and son fishing again.

I chose somewhere different from the last trip out. The spot needed 2 things,
1, be flat and comfortable to minimse the kids falling!
2, have a decent depth close in to target smaller fish on the whip.

I arrived at my chosen area shortly after 11am to find most of the area taken. The guys to the left had rods out on buzzers, and the guy to the right was float fishing. I dropped in between them having more than enough water out in from of me.
Plumbing the depth I had about 7ft at my feet, and about 8ft further out.

I set up a 3 and 4mtr whip, the 4mtr fished with a 4no4 stick float set just off the bottom in 8ft of water, with the bulk shot a foot from the hook to get the bait down quickly.
The 3mtr whip was fished with the same float but this rig was set about 4foot deep and the shotting spread equally down the line to create a slower fall and to target fish up in the water.
A tin of hemp and 2 pints on maggots were all that was needed bait wise and off we went to catch some fish.



My nephew started to catch first, with bleak being the dominant speices he was catching with maggot up in the water



A pinch of maggots followed by the rig was all that was needed to be getting a bite every put in by him



Next up was my son, who isnt quite as keen as my nephew, but is still happy to have a go as long as hes catching, but gets bored exremely quick if hes not. (I remember being exactly the same when I was younger!!)




A rare moment when he was actually watching the float :)




I was fishing the 4mtr whip with a slightly different approach.
Feeding hemp slightly upstream and fishing maggot or caster (the maggots were quite old and turned quite quickly) a few inches off the bottom. I was also catching bleak, but also a couple of nice dace, and the fattest perch I have ever seen, he was as wide as he was long pretty much!!!



We fished for several hours catching fish on a fairly regular basis, before bites dried up. I had a pike rod set up with a bleak deadbait lobbed in the margins in the hope of a pike, but nothing came, much to callums disappointment!

We ended the day with a small bag of fish, caught mostly by callum and myself with jake and ray adding fish to the net through the day too.







And finally, photo of the day


Such a happy smile after an enjoyable afternoons fishing.



To end on a bad note the only other action I saw from either side of my was the guys up to my left who caught a pike. I took the boys up so they could see it, and to be honest, I wished I hadnt.
There were 3 guys fishing, each with 2 rods. One was carp/barbel fishing the other 2 were pike fishing.
They had a keepnet out, which I had seen them regularly pulling in and.throwing back out. I wasnt sure why from where I was fishing but when we wandered into thier swim I could see why!!
They had just landed a pike, which was laying in the net on the concrete floor (no unhooking mat), once unhooked, the guy then stood up and held the pike (about 5lb) about 4foot from the floor and at arms reach whilst his mate fannyed about trying to take pictures on his phone, the pike then flipped and this guy dropped the fish to the floor, crashing onto the concrete!!!
He then left it where it landed and walked off to his bivvy and produced a thick gardening glove for "a better grip". He then held the pike in the same way again and managed a couple of photos, before putting the fish into the keepnet. He then produced a slightly smaller fish from the net before throwing the keepnet out into the water, pike and all!!!
I saw him bring the net in several more times for random photos before throwing the net and fish back into the river.
Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of pike will know that they dont stand for this type of treatment, and chances are that once they were finally released they will probably have died shortly after.
I really should have said something, but with all the kids there and there being 3 of them, I didnt fancy confrontation with them.

Idiots like this are not needed in our sport, and give it a bad name.

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