boat fishing in weir pools

[The Flying Tench]

I've got a treat in ten days time as a reward for not going fishing on family holidays. I'm going to Fish Marlow weir from a hired boat. There will be 2 of us, and it occurs to me, it wouldn't be wise to have too many rods cluttering the boat.

 

 

I certainly want to lure fish for pike - which will be 2 rods, if we do it together.

 

Then I guess there should be barbel around early in the season. I've always legered for barbel in the past, but maybe that won't be easy with the movement of the boat. Float legering? Or maybe trotting? For some reason the books never talk about trotting with big baits. Any reason?

 

Then again, I guess we should take maggots etc for smaller fish in case everything's quiet.

 

A possible answer would be to fish on 6lb line 'cos, even if we were after small fish, there's be the possibility of barbel. Maybe that just means 2 pike rods and 2 trotting rods for whatever comes along?

 

I think experienced boat anglers might deduce I'm a bit green, and I'd value any advice.

[The Flying Tench]

Thanks, Fred. I don't livebait, which I admit is not strictly rational, but I don't think the other guy going with me would want to either. I guess lures and wobbled deadbaits will be OK, and maybe worms for the perch? How big are the bream?

[Chris Plumb]

Fred - do you ever connect with a fabled Thames Trout? Do they still exist?

 

 

Chris

[The Flying Tench]

Thanks for the advice on the Thames. The trout on the Kennet are pretty greedy. Some people catch them on bread, but I had one 3 pounder on wobbled sardine! That one was stocked by the Civil Service Angling society fly section and moved upstream. I don't know if Chris would agree, but I wonder if some of them aren't breeding, though. There are sections where you get them around 10 oz, which seems a bit small for stocking - and a bit too plentiful, too.

[Chris Plumb]

John - a mate of mine had a 6lb brownie from the stretch you and I are thinking of (the same one where you usually get a pike under the bridge perchance ). There are loads of small game fish here but they usually AREN'T small trout but in fact are Salmon Parr that were stocked upstream by the EA. (In a tributary). Last year, and in particular the year before, they were a bit of a menace and you could catch them much as you'd get minnows I expect most have now been gobbled by the local pike. I'm fishing this stretch during the first week send me a PM if you fancy meeting up on the bank.

 

Back on topic those big Thames Trout had a reputation for being huge (well into double figures) and being almost exclusively fish eaters - much like Ferox. A Bleak L/B was one of the accepted methods for capture. Worth getting hold of Patrick Chalmers 'The Tail of the Weir' - written between the wars and exclusively about fishing the Thames, though he does give the impression that big trout were very common which I'm sure wasn't the case even in those days....

 

 

Chris