HE MAN

Whilst I hold no real opinion on coarse fish as food, why is it now frowned upon to take a fish to eat from waters that permit it such as the Thames? I personally don't fancy a chub or roach or even a bream but I am partial to the odd smallish pike for my supper. I would eat the odd perch too as I understand that they are quite tasty. I do not condone the robbery that goes on now with europeans poaching fish from waters that do not permit taking catches. Years ago, the taking of coarse fish for supper was commonplace. Food being so readily available today, fishing is regarded as a sport. I return nearly all my coarse fish(save the odd pike) carefully and enjoy all methods of fishing for them and the sport they provide.

Try a heavier line- 9 or 10 weight and a stiffer action rod. I regularly get good distances but I have been dissappointed with the distances using 'hairy' flies. The waterlogged weight is a problem. I prefer flies with more artificial plastics in their dressing that don't become waterlogged. Never caught a pike bigger than four pounds on fly though. They taste delicious in a pie after being simmered in milk and spring onions to remove the muddy taste, flaked, deboned and cooked in layers of broccoli and potato with a cheese topping. Use white roux sauce to provide the liquid. Lots of pepper and other suitable seasonings. I caught mine in the Thames at Weybridge.

Fishfinder, you posted this on another game fishing site and I answered it. You haven't replied so I assume you haven't revisited it yet. I posted- '' I cut my teeth on flyfishing for chub, dace, rudd and even bleak on a small river near where I was raised in Surrey. Chub are more wary than trout and you HAVE to keep low on smaller rivers. They'll take pretty much the same flies as Trout and nymphs work well. I tend to use larger sizes for chub and the tackle you use for trout is about right. Rudd prefer tiny flies-sizes 18 and smaller.Same for dace and bleak. Dry fly is exciting- especially for dace on 1 pound cast. Chub as easily as greedy as a rainbow when feeding and most lure type flies will take the bigger fish too. Hope this helps J.W.'' Does this help John? Any more advice I can give if you need it.

Lakes tend to have better fish simply because clubs are not afraid to stock a venue that is landlocked. There are some fabulous carp in the canal near me. Naturally bred and grown in the river. And I get plenty of good quality fish in the Thames. I have held membership of lakes well stocked and maintained with carp, tench and bream, and landed a few excellent fish. But I am the type who likes to wander and try swims and various tactics on a stretch of river. I have taken to lure and fly fishing. Had a few good pike and perch too as well as trout, chub, dace and rudd. I am thinking of even having a try fishing for pike with the fly. In the meantime, I hope that some of these club river waters get the attention they deserve.

I haven't fished Syon Park yet but recently, I fished one of this company's other lakes out at Albury, near Guildford, and had out 4 Rainbows over 3 pounds each on Hare's ear in 2 hours! Two guys fishing there who fish Syon regularly, told me it was fishing only sporadically. I have only just started out fishing again after 20 years in the wilderness and the Albury trip was my first. So a good start. All the places I used to fish have shut down; Kempton, Queen Mother res and the King's fishery. And I am completely out of touch with the lures being used now. But then, I tend to use nymph or dry flies anyway.

I have to agree in general with this thread. I only recently came back into fishing as my job just didn't give me the time to go. I hadn't fished in twenty years. I went to a few of my old favourite haunts to look around to see what changes had taken place in that time. I live normally in Kent but just moved back to Surrey which was where I lived my earlier years. The rivers I fished a lot are now sadly neglected. One, the river Wey near Ripley has banks completely overgrown with nettles and brambles. It's a real fight to get to any swim. The river itself has fallen trees in it, some having been there for some time with all sorts of debris blocking the flow. There is just the odd swim accessable and this water is jointly maintained by the Woking angling Assoc and the Byfleet Angling Assoc. The same was found by me at a little stream called the Bourne in which I used to catch beautiful chub and was also full of great little shoals of dace and roach with the occasional small barbel too. It is now choked with weed and litter and again, the banks are overgrown. I can only surmise that the rise in large carp fisheries are taking the revenue that used to be put into maintaining these excellent rivers by clubs because the carp fishing holds the greater interest these days. Saying that, the Thames still produces excellent fish down it's whole length. As does the Wey Navigation and Basingstoke Canal, all of which are carefully maintained.