Lovely Autumnal Thames Session

[Silverfisher]

Thanks ??

 

[Jimpanzee]

Nice write up Silver, at what time of do you normally stop fishing the Thames?

 

[Silverfisher]

Nice write up Silver, at what time of do you normally stop fishing the Thames?

Thanks mate.

I fish it through the winter but once the frosts and high waters arrive I tend to switch the focus from smaller fish to bigger fish. Whilst the temps are comfortably in double figures the smaller fish will still feed well but once it gets into single figures they seem to take some finding whereas you can still generally pick up the odd half decent chub or bream.

 

[Freesolo82]

Looks like great fishing mate, with the matches catching upper twenties of roach that's exceptional

Just seen the result of today's match that was pegged whilst we were there yesterday. Figured that the better match anglers would do very well seeing as me and grandad had probably over 30lb between us yesterday (with me getting probably 20lb the previous time there after a few other comfortable double figure bags) and they certainly did bag up.

37lb of bream on worm came first but 28lb of all roach on maggot came second, 27lb of roach and one chub on maggot came third and 23lb of roach on maggot fourth. All those weights came on the section we fish on and the neighboring section which doesn't surprise me at all as they're definitely the best part of the stretch. The winning 4 man team total was 109lb and second 104lb so it was certainly a very good match on those better bottom sections.

The fishing looks exceptional mate, always hard to compare pleasure and match sessions with rows of pegs in a match the river it always tends to fish a bit harder. Some quality roach there though, 2 to a pound easy

 

[Silverfisher]

Yeah I always think if I’m doing comfortably double figure bags then the better matchman will do 20lb plus easy lol

The roach generally average out around 4-5 oz so they are comfortably making the bulk of mine and the match weights as the dace generally only average around 2oz.

 

[Jimpanzee]

Thanks mate.

I fish it through the winter but once the frosts and high waters arrive I tend to switch the focus from smaller fish to bigger fish. Whilst the temps are comfortably in double figures the smaller fish will still feed well but once it gets into single figures they seem to take some finding whereas you can still generally pick up the odd half decent chub or bream.

Excellent - 20lb overall is a very nice haul, I’d be chuffed with half of that! I’ll have to quiz you more on your tactics when I finally get back out on the Rivers. Have you ever fished the Thames towards Abingdon, Bampton (Tadpole Bridge), Lechlade way? That is the most likely stretches that I am most likely to fish.

 

[Silverfisher]

Excellent - 20lb overall is a very nice haul, I’d be chuffed with half of that! I’ll have to quiz you more on your tactics when I finally get back out on the Rivers. Have you ever fished the Thames towards Abingdon, Bampton (Tadpole Bridge), Lechlade way? That is the most likely stretches that I am most likely to fish.

I mean 20lb is quite exceptional for an average pleasure angler like me. When I did that last month that was the first time I’ve done such a weight from the Thames that didn’t include some proper bream and perch to boost the weight. Most my good bags this season (and in past seasons) were more in the day 10-17lb range like the couple I’ve had this week. You do need to fish quite well in a decent swim in decent conditions to do comfortably double figure bags though. There’s been plenty of other times this season where I have had comfortably single figure bags when either I’ve fished rubbish, sat on a dud peg and/or copped a load of wind or extreme heat.

I’ve not fished any of those spots I’m afraid. Abingdon is sort of sandwiched between a couple bits I do fish (well with a couple more bits in between) but I know it to be good for roach, perch and bream in particular. The other two are further upstream than I venture.