Interesting read in the Mail this week. The EA has been doing a fish survey on the Thames.

Zander, flounders, carp, barbel, chub, dace, roach, brown trout, rudd, gudgeon, bleak, eels, tench and pike were found. Some big fish too, including a 32 pound pike from Penton Hook. Had you heard anything about that one Gerry?

Apparently Penton Hook to Bray is the place for pike, Kingston for perch, Marlow for big roach, Shepperton for bream, Winsor for chub and Hurley for big dace.

Sounds like an anglers paradise! Its so easy to write rivers off but the Thames sounds like it is in good health right now. The Mail suggests that there are more barbel than most people would expect.

I never really think of the Thames as an anglers river, how wrong can I be!

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Totally Peter. The Thames has been throwing up superb fish again for the past couple of years.

17lb barbel and a few 15's and a 16, pike over 30lb, chub well in excess of 7lb, with plenty of 6's. Perch over 5lb and numbers of big eels over 7lb.
The past year the dace and roach are in abundance with large dace and 2lb roach appearing as by magic.

Over the past year I have caught/seen caught.
7.12 chub, 14.2 barbel, 4.15 perch, 13oz dace, 7lb eels, 2 pike over 30lb and roach over 2lb.

Miss it at your peril.

Graham

Been a bit slow then Graham

Den

Sorry Den....and a 22lb goldfish.

and caught lots of 10lb+ dustbin lids

Graham

[ 13. October 2005, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: Graham Elliott ]

Ah yes......I remember trying to catch a goldfish once.....not something our Jim approved of apparently


"Am I bothered..."

Den

Would that be on the Golden Maggot race tv show

Blimey! It's an easier going forum than another I can think of. You'd be crusified for putting up that sort of detail over there Peter!

Must admit, if I were a Thames angler, I'd be, 'a cussin you' right now!

Yep.

But if it's already been in the Mail, it's hardly a secret?

It's just a small piece in a small newspaper that would have gone relatively unnoticed. You can to a large extent forgive the press for giving up your own particular water, its what they do every week to inform and sell newspapers. Although I've yet to see Bill Rushmer come clean about all of his own little Thames hidey holes. Perhaps we should ask.

I spent 8 months of one season tramping up and down the river, asking silly questions, poking my nose into grubby, muddy little boatyards, climbing over fences, getting wet, stung, and chased by the odd dog/goose/swan to try and crack the best places on the river. It costs me a thousand plus a year to keep my boat within striking distance of the best of it, so its a bit galling to see it not only advertised in the papers but pointed to on a forum, presumably just in case anyone missed it. I'm out there tomorrow evening, if I can find a space betwen the usual hopefuls who turn up when something like this happens.

Please don't anyone accuse me of being secretive, my boat is 'open house' and I regularly take others out with me and try to pass on some of the things that I've learned. Several from this forum have had a day on my boat and have been gracious enough not to mention the location. Thats how it should be.