Matt P

Funnily enough, I was thinking of having a go with lures next time I go down there. Since my previous post (see above) I've been 3 times to the Thames at Chiswick (Strand-on-the-Green). First time had 7 bream to 5lb, second time 10 bream to 6, the third time only dace. Massive shoals of bream if you can find them. I used groundbait feeder with casters hookbait and fished 3 hours before low tide to one hour after. Locals report big carp, perch, chub, trout, pike and roach as well, with patchy reports of barbel. I must say, if and when barbel get more established here, it will be a top class fishery for them I should think, with its strong flows and gravel bottom. And although I haven't tried, good coarse fishing is to be had in the tidal Thames a lot further downstream than people think - they've been pulling carp out at Battersea and even further downstream. The further down you go however the stronger the tides.

If we want to introduce more predators, why not RE-introduce species that are native to this country but have died out, rather than assembling a menagerie of exotics? I'm thinking of the burbot. This is a medium to large species, "virtually a freshwater Ling" as my Collins pocket fish guide describes it, which was "once abundant" in the Eastern part of Britain and is still widespread throughout northern Europe. They are also in N. America apparently. It grows to well over 20lb and 2 metres long and eats fish and inveterbrates, usually nocturnal. I remember seeing a stuffed one, it looked like a crazy kind of catfish. They are now "presumed extinct" here, so why don't we re-introduce them?

So most of us it seems prefer to be called anglers because we fish for pleasure and reckon fishermen fish for a living. But apparently commercial fishermen in Grimsby and places don't like to be called fishermen, they reckon the term applies to people "who sit by rivers with a rod and line", and insist they are "trawlermen". So who are the fishermen?

So most of us it seems prefer to be called anglers because we fish for pleasure and reckon fishermen fish for a living. But apparently commercial fishermen in Grimsby and places don't like to be called fishermen, they reckon the term applies to people "who sit by rivers with a rod and line", and insist they are "trawlermen". So who are the fishermen?

Haven't made up my mind yet, but seriously considering fishing at Chiswick either tomorrow or Monday. Certainly intend to fish it soon. The Thames at Isleworth often features in AM reports: roach, dace, big bream, carp etc. and that's only a few hundred yards upstream of Chiswick. Chiswick's easier to get to by public transport though. Interesting story - I was fishing the Lea Navigation at Old Ford the other day and the bailiff told me that a tagged carp that the Lea Anglers' Consortium had stocked somewhere up round Tottenham had been caught in Teddington Lock. So either it must have swum down the Lea Nav into the Hertford Union canal, then into the Regents Canal, then into the Grand Union Canal then into the Thames at Brentford and thence upstream, or it must have swum all the way down the Lea into the Thames at Bow Creek (which is seriously estuarine - practically pure seawater at that point) and then all the way upstream. Either way it's a journey of over 20 miles.