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

I finally managed to get out fishing after 7 months off, due to various things, so it felt good to sort my gear out, replacing line and rigs etc. The Daiwa big pits were loaded up with fresh 15lb ultima power plus, all the bait was checked, fresh rigs were made up.

I had two places to choose from, thorpe lea, a very well stock pit with carp to mid thirties, quite an easy venue provided you can cast the distance. The other venue was Thorney Weir, a harder but still quite well stocked venue with carp to over 40lb. Out of the two Thorney is the better venue to fish as the carp are stunning, but as I hadnt been fishing for so long, I just wanted a bend in the rods, so off to Thorpe Lea it was.

I arrived at the lake at around 09:00, it was quite busy, busier than I expected, with pretty much every other swim taken. I left the tackle in the car and went for a wonder round to see if I could spot and fish. All the spots I had earmarked were taken. On the M25 bank I spotted Ian Russell doing a spot of tuition. A few swims on along the M25 bank there was a couple of guys with a mid double on the bank, I continued my walk around and saw nothing in the way of fish movement, until I approached the car park bank, where there was a guy playing a fish, again it looked a mid double in the net.

As I made my way back to the car, I had pretty much made my mind up to leave and make my way to either twynersh or to thorney weir, but as I got to Peg 5 (the one which commends alot of water including the area off the point of the island and the start of the gravel bar which runs from one side of the lake to the other) there was a
guy packing up, he had been in peg6 and was tutoring a guy been in peg 5 all night. I got chatting to him and he said the fish were having it out on the bar, he suggested popped up plastic corn over spodded particles (I thought they were banned there??)

As he was just leaving I decided to give it a go and grabbed my gear and jumped into peg5.

Rigs were very simple, 15lb mainline, flying back leads, leadcore leaders, 2.5oz leads and 18lb braided hooklengths of around 6inches. The lines were fished slack with the bobbins laying on the floor.


Bait on the long range rod was a single piece of popped up flouro orange corn, with a small piece of putty jus underneath it on the hair, so it was only just popped up. Bait on the shorter range rod was my favourite tigernut boilie. Both rods were fished with tiny pva bags with 3mm swimstim pellets.

The long range rod was cast around 100 yards, just off the point of the island up on top of the gravel bar. The second rod was cast along to the margin of the island where it sloped off to 9ft into a silty spot.

Around half hour after getting to rods set, I had a few bleeps on the long rod, which resulted in nothing, so a recast and fresh PVA bag was recast to the same spot.

10 minutes later and the spool going into melt down on the take, I had a 14.04 mirror on the bank. slipping it back with out too much fuss.

Rod recast, and another screaming run resulted in me losing the fish half way in. On inspection the hook had straightened out!! This was quite a common occurence when I used to fish here before, because some of the fish have damaged mouths, they have real hard lips and its my belief that the hook point doesnt penetrate into the lip resulting in the hook just bending out.

I had tried a variety of different hooks a few years back and it happened with most of them, so I was confident it was nothing I was doing wrong.

Anyway, another recast back on the spot and it was away again a short time later, resulting in a manic battle from a mint conditioned Common which proceeded to wipe out the rods of the guy in the peg next to me!! It was my first common from the lake, in fact the first common I have ever seen from the there!! The weight, immaterial really being in such good condition, was 8.08.


I was more than happy to have had 2 fish on the bank even if I had lost one, it had been quite a while since the rods had taken on their fighting curve, and it was good just to be out.



Rods back on the spot again, and half hour later another sreaming take resulted in another hook straightening!!! I was using size 10 owner c5 hooks, brilliant hooks and unltra sharp, so I changed over to a Fox long shank in size 10 which is a slightly thicker gauge than the owner.


Another PVA bag put bang on the spot was taken a little while later, this fish taking line straight from the off with the rod hooped over, I knew straight away this was a better fish.


To my luck, the fish decided to kite left, instead of right so I only had my left rod to worry about, but as the lines where slack I didnt worry too much.


I must have played the fish for about 10 minutes, before a mass of line and branches surfaced with my rig attached to, then about 10yards further on was the fish on the surface.

The fish had obviously been trailing this mass of line and twigs and caught my line.

Anyway I had to somehow bundle it all into the net, thankfully the guy in the next peg, even after I had wiped his rods out previously, was on hand to net it for me. Once in the net,I unhooked the fish and hoisted her up onto the scales. Registering 21.08, I was well happy, I would have been happier to have hooked the actual fish in the mouth, but I had my rig in the area that the fish was and landed it after a 10 minute battle, so I counted it as my fish!!!

Shortly after the twenty I had another take, again on the corn/long rod a fish of around 14lb was duly landed and returned. With a bait on the spot again, it was away again, this time really beating me up kiting through the guy rods to my right wiping them both out, so I managed to bundle the fish of about 16lb into the net and released it without even lifting it from the water as I was in a right mess tangled up with this guys lines!!!!

Now Im not complaining about this guy really, he was new to carp fishing, he was only fishing half the distance of where I was catching, but I was fishing directly infront of me, and this guy was fishing to his left, even more so when I was actually catching as his rigs started creeping closer towards me until that last fish when his rigs were only a few yards from my lines, so its no wonder I caught up with him.
I cant really blame him though, the fishing is so tight at Thorpe Lea its difficult to find your own water to fish in without encroaching on someone elses water, which is why I chose to fish where I did. I must have apologized to him loads of times, he didnt seem too bothered, but I felt bad.

I kept telling him to get his rigs out at a longer distance, but I dont think he was confident enough in trying the cast that far. I did however "lose" a few plastic pop up corns to him at the end of the day though when he ask to pinch a couple, lol. I felt it as the least I could do seeing as I had wiped him out 3 times.

I had one more run before packing up, but I lost that fish to a hook pull. You never can tell in there as the fish fight so hard, but it felt a good fish, and judging by the big boils on the surface I think it might have been, but you win some and you loose some!!

Next time you I think will be over to Thorney, It seems a well stocked pit, and maybe a little trickier than Thorpe Lea, which is good, seems like a logical next step, I dont want an easy water anymore, I would rather try my hand at "proper" carp fishing in a gravel pit with immaculate conditioned fish. From what I can make out Thorney is very clear, resulting it some really nice dark fish. I have seen a pic of an almost black common from there so that has spurred me in to getting over there and giving it a go.

The Thames Anglers Conservancy - Join now!!

The Thames Anglers Conservancy (T-A-C) will be officially launched mid January 2010 by a group of like-minded anglers who fish the river Thames and share the concern of the seemingly uncaring, even cavalier attitude shown by the several different agencies, PLC’s and other authorities charged with the duty of maintaining and improving the environment of the river.
The development of this web site is on-going and hopefully will become the main focal point when officially launched mid January not only the anglers who fish the river but for ALL who have an interest in the river Thames.

To assist the T-A-C in realising its ambitions the Committee will be working towards the Conservancy being a member of the Angling Trust.

The Angling Trust:
Angling Trust is the new, single organisation to represent all game, coarse, specimen and sea anglers and angling in England.

The formation of Angling Trust brings with it a positive new future for angling. For the first time ever, there is a single body to take cohesive action to solve all the problems that affect our sport.
This came about when the four major angling bodies, the National Association of Fisheries & Angling Consultative’s, Specialist Anglers’ Alliance, National Federation of Anglers and the National Federation of Sea Anglers together with the Anglers Conservation Association agreed in January 2009 to pool their resources and became the single unified body with the intention representing all anglers and fisheries, The Angling Trust. A new separate organisation, Fish Legal, was established to take over the work previously carried out by the ACA

After decades of fragmented representation the Angling Trust, in less than 12 months from being formed, has recently been recognised by Sport England as the governing body for angling and angling development throughout England


To join the Thames Anglers Conservancy, please visit - www.t-a-c.webege.com

Barbel blanking part with the rat pack! 24 Sept

This session saw me on a very popular stretch of the Thames, the same section where only the week before a very large catfish had been reported as lost at the net after an hour long fight.

Upon arrival at around 1930, there was one other guy just packing up further along the stretch, but other than that, there was no one else around.
One thing I noticed immediately was that the water level was up to almost over the bank, which I think was probably down to the EA holding the water back from the weir upstream. The water was still crystal clear, I could pick out bits on the bottom about a rod length out, thats how clear it is!!

I set about setting everything up, as the water was so clear and not moving at all, I decided to fish with a slack line and bobbins resting ont he floor, just as I would for carp in a lake, coupled with a flying back lead, I was sure that I had laid the line along the bottom.

Hooklengths again, 8lb mono, size 8 hooks, on one with 2 glugged 15mm boilies, the other a standard 18mm straight from the packet, both rigs were cast out with PVA bags full of mixed Halibut pellets.
I put a scattering of boilies out mid river and fished one rod over these, the other rod was fished "roving" style, and cast around the swim every half hour.

Darkness came and with it as did the rats, now I dont know what it is abot rats, but they freak the hell out of me, and with one running back and forth under my rods, setting my alarms off due to the slack line, it did nothing to calm me!!!

A fish would have taken my mind off of it but that was not to be, I packed up at 2200, fishless!!!

Im not too bothered about blanking, after all it seems 90% of the people I have spoken to are all in the same boat, so it seems being in the right spot at the right time is something I have not achieved yet!!!

Another spinning session 19 Sept

This weeks session was a return to our perch / lure spot that we seem to have discovered.

Im sure its the massive amounts of fry that congregate this area that keep the perch, chub and pike there.


We arrived early afternoon, (Claire's sister and boys were already there with a bucket and net trying to catch tiddlers) and Claire began setting up her rod with her now very popular Mepps aglia spinner.

Again the spot produced chub and perch to me and Claire, along with a bucket full of roach fry and a single, fin perfect perch of probably an ounce!!

There is still no one else fishing the spot despite it being very popular with kids etc, so its still an area marked out to explore further with a feeder or barbel rods.

Barbel Blanking 13th Sept 09

This week finally saw me out with the barbel rods to the same spot I fished a few weeks back.
I was working all day but managed to get out half hour early, so it was home, grab a bite to eat and the rods and out.
My original plan was to fish and area I have not done much barbel fishing before, but due to romours of a big fish being lost doing the rounds on the internet forums, it was packed there with all the decent pegs gone.
I decided to drive to a spot a little closer to home, and an area that I have caught from in the past.

I arrived to find the swim empty, in fact the whole stretch was empty, which was a little strange to say the least as there are normally at least one or two anglers there.

I set up 2 rods, identically, with 10lb mainline, 8lb hooklinks,korda flying backlead and size 10 hooks with a 1inch hair rig and 2oz gripper leads. Bait wise I stuck to tried and tested, glugged source 15mm and Prawn & shellfish 15mm on the other. The close in rod was the prawn bait and was followed by around 30 freebies, and 50 8mm trout pellets. The source rod was attached to a PVA bag of mixed halibuts soaked in source liquid andcast just past mid river.

I decided that as I have faith in these baits and methods, I would cast them out and leave them there for the remainder of the session, knowing how hard the river has been this year I didnt want to risk spooking ay fish that may have been in the area.

Well I would love to say that I bagged up, but I didnt, the wind was pretty bad bouncing the rod tips all over the place so I couldnt see any indications on them, I had to rely on the alarms to alert me, but they remained motionless!!

There was a distinct lack of fish topping last night, normally the river comes alive at dusk with fish rolling all over, but I saw 2 small fish top when I first arrived then nothing for the rest of the evening.

I think on my next session I am going to spend time leading around to find any features.
I normally just presume that the middle of the river is gravel and just chuck the rig out, but as last night proved when I reeled in to find my bait gone and my hook attached to a swan mussel, it shouldnt be a chuck and chance it approach.
So Im going to search out some fishable features to see if it improves my catch reports at all.