dave_daints

Lure fishing the Thames for predators for me from 7am to 9pm. Went out for perch with the light setup so naturally kicked off the season with a 10lb pike on an improvised lure 20 minutes in. Huge fun on the light tackle. Attended the lure anglers society perchfest where 2 perch over the magic 3lb were caught - neither by me. I struggled for a jack & a solitary small perch. Then on to my favourite big pike venue on the Thames accompanied by another lure maniac who came to England from a desert country only 8months ago & had never fished a river. He's now showing us all how its done with a great mixed bag including a rainbow trout(!) which came as a big surprise. I managed to make a mess of netting it so we didn't get a photo but I'll fight anyone who says we made it up! I managed one fairly modest pike. I ended the day covered in my own blood (from pike related injuries)and rather exhausted. One of the better opening days for me. -if I don't contract leptospirosis. Happy New Season everybody.

Do your research and use modern technology. Smartphones, internets and Google maps are the most revolutionary thing to happen to fishing for years IMO. That and pellets I suppose There is such an amazing wealth of resources and information available these days that can assist the thinking angler. If you have a new venue to investigate you can identify useful looking spots with google maps aerial photos (other map apps are probably available) and mark them up. Then you can use your smartphone's GPS to visit them on foot or pushbike for a proper look. As you walk a new stretch and find good looking swims and features you can make notes with photos with a notes app and GPS tag the spot so you can return later with your bait/tackle etc. Environment agency river levels, bbc weather etc are great internet tools so you'll know whether your river is rising or falling, temperature/air pressure doing likewise. You've got free advice on the internet from fellow anglers from places such as this. It all helps you to make informed decisions about how where and when before you get your time to actually fish. When you're out fishing think about what you are doing the whole time and learn from your experience good or bad. And don't drop your smartphone in.

Hello. Sorry I've not looked in for a week. Its only 48 hours to the inevitable anti-climax of the glorious 16th and I can't wait. Perch luring-wise I've been very conventional and caught more perch on 2-3" shads on jigheads than anything else (you can probably guess which shads ). I tend to just lob them in to anywhere you can find a bit of relatively slack water & hop or crawl them back along the bottom at varying speeds depending on how cold it is with most hits coming, as you say, in the first hop or two. Apart from the jigs, little spinners and various dinky crankbaits cover the other angles pretty well with a few bonus chub and pike coming on any of them. It's such a fun way to fish with hardly any tackle to carry so you can really cover a lot of water or just have short opportunist sessions with the gear in the car the whole time. I couldn't really comment on the time of year that is best as last season was so wet and not typical but I caught perch fairly slowly the whole time from late July when I started on perch through to January when I went on to chub. I did have a couple weeks of the most incredible perch fishing I've ever known in late autumn when I found a spot where the little bleak etc were shoaled up out of the flow and the perch were going absolutely berserk on them and didn't stop until they were gone or the perch themselves were eaten by some naughty chinese people. If I was only allowed one hour a day to catch a perch then I'd always take the first or last hour of daylight every time. I'll be perch-luring on the 16th with the Lure Anglers Society above Oxford. I hope its not going to be another opening day algae brownout. Good luck to everybody on the rivers this season and don't fall in.

Not again! I think my focus this year will be a continuation of last season. Perch on lures. Having had a couple big hits in late 2012 and finally got a weighed 3lb perch in Feb I'm going all out for a 4lb fish this season. I cant understand why a 3lb one took me so long as I've had dozens of 2.5lb plus fish. My previous 6lb chub target was achieved with a great 6lb-9 from the Cherwell in February so I guess its 7lb target now. That should take a few years!

Oh yes. Littlemore Angling Society ticket is £10. That gets you ODAA as well if you don't want Kidlington. Rated best value club ticket in the land by Anglers Mail.

You wont go far wrong buying a Kidlington Angling Society license Luke. You get some nice Cherwell fishing down the back of Kidlington. Its ace for big chub in the winter. You also get to fish all the ODAA (Oxford and District) waters which gets you miles of great Thames fishing. You have a tackle shop in the precinct in Kidlington (Predator Angling - hope its still going). A famous bit of Thames on the ODAA ticket is Medley. The Thames that goes through port meadow. That'd be a good place to start I'd say. Lots of boat traffic/walkers in the day but can produce great bream/chub/roach. I've been fishing round Oxford for almost 5 years now and there is so much good stuff to choose from with chance of very big fish from the Thames.

Thumbs up for the Drennan. I've got the 1 1/4lb Series 7 which I mainly use for chub. I've landed a 9lb barbel on it too. Highly recommended. 'Avon' top and a quiver top with 3 tips. I don't think you can get these new anymore but I also got a Grauvell 1 -3/4lb barbel rod which has a soft action - especially in the tip and lovely slim blank which is great for good tench. Best £60 i ever spent.

2-3" rubber shads or spinners for me too. That's been my approach over the last season. If eels are a problem then that would select perch better than little deadbaits. Picking up an envelope full of soft plastics off the doormat is a lot less hassle than obtaining 'proper' baits. I dropped into a swim on the Thames that I knew contained plenty perch & that a guy fishing maggot feeder had fished for hours getting only roach & skimmers. First cast into the same spot with a 2" shad got me a fat 2lb-12 perch followed by several more. The perch had been gorging on bleak etc for a couple weeks there and wouldn't consider anything that didn't act like a fish.

That is very cheap. I've been using it in 15/16lb for light spinning for perch this season just gone and found it to be a bit of a curate's egg of a line. It is very thin, strong and smooth and is like braid in that it does not stretch. For casting and working lures its really good but there are serious question marks over durability. I have found it will occasionally snap like cotton under very little strain (thankfully only when snagged rather than on a fish so far). I think this is because it has terrible abrasion resistance and, once damaged, will snap very easily. I've just fitted a flourocarbon rubbing leader on the end of mine. Not sure if I'd buy it again. If you do buy it you should inspect the line frequently and immediately cut out any section showing even slight damage as its probably going to snap at a fraction of the stated breaking strain. At this price though you are getting a very advanced line that really does cast a lot further than traditional braid. Just be aware of the limitations and don't use it where it will be coming into contact with snags/rocks/mussels/gravel bars etc. Oh and, because it is so smooth, there are only a few fiddly special knots that will hold so you need to practice them.

I use it in 35lb for pike lure traces. I think its brilliant but some people hate it. Apparently you can knot it but I don't like the idea of that. Its tricky to crimp as if you do it 'normally' then the wire stretches and becomes thinner under strain and can pull out of the crimp. If you go through the crimp and then tuck the tag end back in to the crimp then they tend to hold OK. Forget twisting it. Its too stiff and will spring back to the original shape - straight. Its great stuff because its very thin and stiff so does not tangle. Very rarely does it kink. Make sure you test all traces thouroughlybefore using them and you'll be fine. Don't use a trace that has an obvious kink as that will be a weak spot.

I struggled in Oxford on the Thames even with the flow looking pretty spot on. I fished all afternoon and a couple hours into dark for 0 chub. Had a few roach but no sign of chub at all. I spoke to some other mobile chubbers at the beginning and end of my efforts and they'd managed a handful of chub to 6lb-2 but mainly from a back river. I didn't feel bad about being out-chubbed by them as at least one of them is a VERY good specimen angler and they fished about 5 or 6 rods between them. It did get VERY cold even in town at about 7pm and my net also froze. Once the flask ran out at 8 I wasn't going to last much longer.

Thanks for the warm welcome everybody. I have met Anderoo in person out on the bank a while back. Hope to see some of you out this weekend. I'll be the bloke covered in breadcrumbs carrying a bucket.

This is brilliant Andrew. Live updates from on the bank. I'l be down the Thames myself this weekend after chub. Don't overlook the Cherwell though. I've struggled when fishing there last couple of seasons but there's some big uns up there. I don't usually get more than 2 a session but one or both of them will usually be over 5lb. Smashed my PB with 6lb-9 last weekend from the first swim i fished. I think bread is all you need at this time of year. Maybe carry a few lobworms and cheesepaste as backup.