Out and a-trout on the Thames

We decided to have our first spinning trip down on the Thames today.

The weather was overcast, but very muggy/hot, the cloud cover was just dulling the light down enough to cast a shadow out over the water. I have found this to be the best time for spinning down at this spot, as its mostly perch that we are targetting, and perch seem to hate bright conditions.

It was only a late hour or so session, so we didnt get to the river until about 15:30ish. Claire set about putting her favourite little Mepps bladed spinner on and have a few casts. A couple of casts

in and she had hooked into a small perch of about 4oz.

A few more casts and she passed the rod to me to have ago. A few casts later and I was swinging in a small perch. Several more followed upto maybe 6oz, nothing big but good to be catching on the lures.

I then spotted 2 dark shapes moving along mid river, I wandered along and saw that they were carp. Not big maybe double figures, but a river carp all the same, and one that I have never caught!!

A few more perch followed to the mepps before I hooked into what I thought was a pike, I could see it twisting in the water and it looked like a small one, until it went mental on the surface, I then realised it was a trout!!

I have never even seen a trout caught from the thames, let alone hooked one myself!

Im not even sure what trout it was thinking that it was a brown trout looking at it, but it could be a rainbow??

Anyway it looked like it had had a lucky escape, as there were slash marks on its back and tail on both sides, classic of being grabbed by a pike.

I would imagine it to be a pike of at least double figures judging by the size of the marks on both sides of the trout.

Im not sure passers by would have liked me puting 2 size 6 trebles in the trout and putting it out under a float in the hope of catching a big pike!! So I may have to return a little more descreetly in order to catch it.

I returned the next day for another hours of spinning, this time Claire fishing, but conditions were very bright and sure enough after an hour of continuous searching, no fish came to the bank.

I did however see the two carp again, this time in amoungst the cabbage weed closer to the bank, drifting off into the deeper water as I got closer to them.

Next time Im there, I will have a bag of boilies with me to scatter in a few areas to see if I can get them feeding. Better take a net with me next time!!!

The start of a new river season....

The start of the River season on June 16th is always a special time.
The river has had time to recover from 9 months of fishing the previous season, all the bankside vegetation has grown back up, in some places you cant see the river over the new shrubs.

The enforced 3 month lay off may not be to everyones liking but once june 16th comes round there is a flurry of activity on the banks again, people camping out for days prior to this to ensure they get into the baited areas they have been priming for the past 3 months in search of big River carp and Barbel.

The start of the season, for me, signalled a chance to get out. Having only been out once since September, I was looking forward to getting back onto the river.
I am getting more into carp fishing lately, reading about it and brushing up on my rigs etc, but being on the river chasing barbel is what I really enjoy, plus there is quite a realistic possibility of a big carp, bream or even catfish!!!

On the lead up to the new season, I had changed my reels to some front dragged Fox Stratos 7000 reels, much preferring the front drag as I think it offers a smoother give to fish trying to take line. The new reels replaced my shimano 5000 re's which were brilliant reels, but rear drag.
New line was ordered as well, being the new Ultima PowerPlus in 10, 12 and 15lb BS, the diameters of this line are much thinner than normal lines.

Anyway, june 16th arrived, and I had a rare opportunity to get out during the day for a few hours, so I grabbed a pint of maggots, 4mtr whip, and my barbel gear and set off in search of my first fish of the season.

The plan was to put out a barbel rod with a feeder and my barbel groundbait mix, and fish the whip for some sport before eventually putting both barbel rods out and sitting back to enjoy the evening.

As is typical all along the Thames, the margins of the river are covered in cabbage weed. I cannot stress enough how much of a fish holder these areas are, carp route around amoung there, pike lay in wait camouflaged amoung them, and the silver fish are also found amoungst them.

I usually fish a whip just the other side of the cabbages in the slightly deeper water, and today was no different. Setting the float at 4ft in 5ft of water I began trotting the 4bb stick float along the back., feeding a small pinch of partimix and a few maggots every cast, I continued for around an hour without a bite!!
This is very rare on the thames as pretty much anywhere I have fished with maggots you will normally alwasy catch small fish.

I spoke to the guy in the next peg who was trotting maggots also and he was having a hard time of it also, having only a few perch.

So I continued with the trotting for another 20mins before deciding to pack it in and stick 2 barbel rods out.

The other rod was set up the same as the first with 10lb mainline, but this time a running 2oz lead replaced the feeder, with 8lb hooklengths. a bag of whole and broken DBRF boilies was dispacthed to the far margin.

I recast the rods several times, to different areas but to no avail and I ended the day having caught nothing but plenty of sun!!!

In hindsight I should have just taken the whip or the barbel rods, to do both I wasnt putting enough effort into either, so I should have just concentrated on one or the other, but live and learn, I was expecting to catch plenty of small fish, which in turn might have attracted a pike or 2 into the swim.

The following day, having 3 quarters of a pint of maggots left, I decided to go to the area of the thames that I fished a few times last year, and just fish the whip and see what I could catch. I was quite confident I would catch something, so I set the whip up for my nephew to fish with, being only 3 im sure he would enjoy catching anything.

We fished for about 2 hours and caught small perch, roach and a gudgeon!! Not caught one of them for ages, and goes to show why there are so many perch in the area having caught so many small (2-3inch) fish.

Later that evening, with the kids in bed and my wife's friend over for a "catch up" I decided at 20.30 I may as well have a few hours into dark down the river, so set off with my barbel gear.

Rigs were simply, a 2oz feeder rig and long 10lb mono hooklength on one rod and 2oz lead with the same hooklength on the other rod.

The feeder rod was placed about 15yds out with a halibut boilie tipped with flouro corn, and the other rod fished with a DBRF boilie with a bag of whole and broken baits cast 3 qtrs the way accross with around 20 baits scattered over the top.

The long rod was left until something happened on it, whilst the feeder rig was recast regularly to get some bait down on the bottom. When something did happen it wasnt to the expected feeder rod, but the longer range rod, a couple of bleeps on the alarm had me alert, then a few more bleeps a few seconds later. The strike met with nothing, so out the rig went again after a little touch up with the hook sharpening stone.

I ended up packing away just before midnight, after 3 hours fishing, with nothing else happening apart from the doggers, boy racers and general weirdos that frequent the area after dark!!!

Next trip out will be a new spot further downstream, and hopefully a meet up with some fellow London Blankers from Maggotdrowning.co.uk

If you live in or around london / surrey / hampshire then get over to http://www.maggotdrowning.co.uk/ and join up on the london blankers thread in the going fishing section.

til next time, tight lines