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- Mar 10, 2019
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- 10,177
Just realised that this weekend roughly marks the halfway point of the river season so I thought I’d fill a bit of time whilst I’m sat here a bit bored on this drab Thursday evening and do a sort of half time review of my time on the Thames and brief detour to the stour. Will be a bit repetitive for those who’ve read my reports but hopefully it’ll be of some interest to see it play out sequentially. If not will at least fill a bit of your evening as is a long read and picture heavy!
June: 9 sessions
The season started with a successful 16th with a comfortable double figure bag of mostly bleak and dace on wag and mag at Clifton hampden. That’s about as good as it got that month as the next 7 sessions both short and long were spent trying and failing to catch much other than bleak on a mix of waggler, stick, feeder and bomb in a very low river. The rain finally arrived so for the last session I switched to the sandford old channel and whilst I didn’t fish well that day I did pick up a few roach on hemp which set the plan for the next month.
July: 12 sessions
With the river now in near perfect condition after being refreshed with rain and the roach now feeding on hemp July was spent on sandford old channel on mostly waggler and hemp. Out of the dozen sessions one was a right struggle and handful only bought modest single figures bags but half a dozen of them went well with one upper single figure bag and a handful of comfortable double figure bags ranging from probably about 12-18lb. As hemp was the bait quality roach obviously provided the overwhelming majority of the catches with dace, silver bream, chublet and inevitably bleak all making smaller contributions.
August: 5 sessions
Bit of a drop in the number of sessions in august as I returned to work and the first few of those were tough in what was now becoming a very low river again. A last session on the sandford old channel was a proper struggle so that prompted a move to medley. I started on the feeder and had two very poor low single figure mixed bags on maggot (unless you count pike!) before a bit of a better bag that would have just about done double figures thanks to a couple bonus fish. Torrential rain followed which once it had subsided had left the river in good condition again and a switch to the stick on my last session of the month brought a comfortable double figure mixed bag of mostly roach and skimmers on a pretty even mix of hemp and maggot.
September: 5 sessions
With the river still in good condition September started well with a just about double figure bag of mostly roach at medley on the stick on a mix of hemp and maggot. The next session was a quick one at Northmoor which again bought mostly roach on the stick on hemp and maggot before a return to medley bought my best bag of the season. It must have gone over 20lb of almost all quality roach with some falling to maggot and hemp on the stick but most to hemp on the waggler. I had another quick session further up the stretch the next morning for a few roach before ending the month struggling mostly on the feeder in strong winds and a getting low river back at Northmoor for a low single figure bag.
October: 5 sessions
October started with a change of scenery from the Thames with a trip to a Dorset Stour that was not long out of flood. A quick evening session produced a reasonable number of fish and the proper session bought me enough roach and dace to have bought a double figure bag if they were Thames stamp fish but were smaller so more bought an upper single figure bag. The next couple sessions were back on the Thames at medley on a river in good condition after the earlier rain. In the space of 5 days I had two good bags of probably either side of 15lb made up of mostly quality roach with a decent number of small dace, the first bag falling to mostly maggot and hemp on the stick and a bit of maggot on the feeder and the second to maggot on the stick. My last session of the month was back at sandford but not on the now near flooded old channel but down below the confluence of the old channel and lock down. In a very high river I struggled on the feeder and picked up my smallest bag of the season of just a few pounds.
Summary:
All in all as it’s by far the most sessions I’ve got in during a season by default I’ve had more good sessions than I’ve ever had before so therefore it’s been my best season to date. I’ve certainly got my money’s worth of my £12 season ticket and job lot of hemp! Now just a case of hoping the weather allows the second half of the season to even be half as good...
So you’ve made it to the end hopefully entertained possibly bored but either way I’ll have filled a bit of your evening!
Be good to hear how your seasons have gone so far as well?
June: 9 sessions
The season started with a successful 16th with a comfortable double figure bag of mostly bleak and dace on wag and mag at Clifton hampden. That’s about as good as it got that month as the next 7 sessions both short and long were spent trying and failing to catch much other than bleak on a mix of waggler, stick, feeder and bomb in a very low river. The rain finally arrived so for the last session I switched to the sandford old channel and whilst I didn’t fish well that day I did pick up a few roach on hemp which set the plan for the next month.
July: 12 sessions
With the river now in near perfect condition after being refreshed with rain and the roach now feeding on hemp July was spent on sandford old channel on mostly waggler and hemp. Out of the dozen sessions one was a right struggle and handful only bought modest single figures bags but half a dozen of them went well with one upper single figure bag and a handful of comfortable double figure bags ranging from probably about 12-18lb. As hemp was the bait quality roach obviously provided the overwhelming majority of the catches with dace, silver bream, chublet and inevitably bleak all making smaller contributions.
August: 5 sessions
Bit of a drop in the number of sessions in august as I returned to work and the first few of those were tough in what was now becoming a very low river again. A last session on the sandford old channel was a proper struggle so that prompted a move to medley. I started on the feeder and had two very poor low single figure mixed bags on maggot (unless you count pike!) before a bit of a better bag that would have just about done double figures thanks to a couple bonus fish. Torrential rain followed which once it had subsided had left the river in good condition again and a switch to the stick on my last session of the month brought a comfortable double figure mixed bag of mostly roach and skimmers on a pretty even mix of hemp and maggot.
September: 5 sessions
With the river still in good condition September started well with a just about double figure bag of mostly roach at medley on the stick on a mix of hemp and maggot. The next session was a quick one at Northmoor which again bought mostly roach on the stick on hemp and maggot before a return to medley bought my best bag of the season. It must have gone over 20lb of almost all quality roach with some falling to maggot and hemp on the stick but most to hemp on the waggler. I had another quick session further up the stretch the next morning for a few roach before ending the month struggling mostly on the feeder in strong winds and a getting low river back at Northmoor for a low single figure bag.
October: 5 sessions
October started with a change of scenery from the Thames with a trip to a Dorset Stour that was not long out of flood. A quick evening session produced a reasonable number of fish and the proper session bought me enough roach and dace to have bought a double figure bag if they were Thames stamp fish but were smaller so more bought an upper single figure bag. The next couple sessions were back on the Thames at medley on a river in good condition after the earlier rain. In the space of 5 days I had two good bags of probably either side of 15lb made up of mostly quality roach with a decent number of small dace, the first bag falling to mostly maggot and hemp on the stick and a bit of maggot on the feeder and the second to maggot on the stick. My last session of the month was back at sandford but not on the now near flooded old channel but down below the confluence of the old channel and lock down. In a very high river I struggled on the feeder and picked up my smallest bag of the season of just a few pounds.
Summary:
All in all as it’s by far the most sessions I’ve got in during a season by default I’ve had more good sessions than I’ve ever had before so therefore it’s been my best season to date. I’ve certainly got my money’s worth of my £12 season ticket and job lot of hemp! Now just a case of hoping the weather allows the second half of the season to even be half as good...
So you’ve made it to the end hopefully entertained possibly bored but either way I’ll have filled a bit of your evening!
Be good to hear how your seasons have gone so far as well?
