Plans for the new river season

[JV44]

The only prob with Child Beale is that you have to pack up when the zoo closes - heaven knows what you'd get after dusk!

 

That is true days only .....unless you have moored your boat there and lose track of time cough....Bream lots and lots and lots of Bream .

We kayak there at dusk sometimes and they roll on the top around then in vast numbers amazing to watch right next to the kayak .

Used to hold the 8 hr match record years ago there are a lot there .

I have purchased a big gas burner hob and ubber big stock pot [Mrs was gonna kill me if i kept boiling up smelly stuff in the kitchen ....women eh? ]for the process of prebaiting some sections with Maize/Maples/Hemp along with pellet and boilies to see what i can atract .

[arbocop]

The Child Beale bream were very solid, clean and nicely marked. I would suspect that all the Thames slabs are - recalling Peter Stones exploits. They also pull back! Simple cage feeder setup long hooklink and a fair bit of fishmeal based GB spombed on a clipped up rod - double red on a 14 - simples.

 

Is this the lake or the river - they are joined these days so no separation. I've caught bream from the lake but they weren't as big as that, maybe 4lbers.

 

Mike

[JV44]

Is this the lake or the river - they are joined these days so no separation. I've caught bream from the lake but they weren't as big as that, maybe 4lbers.

 

Mike

 

Mike the river they are far bigger there and in far greater numbers,saw 2 pairs of Hobbys hunting around the bit by the islands last weekend....one overflew the boat whilst dragonfly hunting well made me jump

[Matthew Simmons]

This was the river Mike - I'm sure the Thames is heaving with them all over this bit - and I am sure Steve (JV) has a few more spots up his sleeve from his boating travels ;-)

M

[davedave]

Had a quick walk about last week and took a couple of pictures. This is where i'll be fishing on the day, going to cut the nettles back next week so I can get in there.

 

Does look nice I must admit.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Looked at the upper Dorset Stour yesterday; nice flow but has its usual brown diatom bloom stain that will stick around until the end of June though sometimes a timely flood will flush it out. It fishes better when it clears.

 

Back to Anderoo's Thames roach - the roach follow a sort of pattern in summer - start off post spawning on gravelly fast water to clean them selves still in sizeable shoals - sometimes a rare chance to find the big ones very early season (3rd week of June) but shortly afterwards (likely to be running late this year) break up and spread out down the river for mid summer. Look out for swims near cabbages with flow and gravel (plenty of food), later in summer start to gather in bigger shoals - just a case of finding them. But also some good roach will be right in the weirs feeding on silkweed in late summer.

[arbocop]

I am going to target chub with freelied bread/crust and a new - to me anyway - surface bait which I am sure is not new, but I will let you know once I've caught something on it. If I don't catch, I'll keep it to myself. Probably on smaller streams than the Kennet, then the Kennet for some trotting and then probably the Kennet again for even more trotting!

[Dave H]

I hate where i live as there are none. i have the Medway quite close but the rest miles away. I envy guys close to some great rivers. I used to fish the river Mole but now DAM Dorking have sown it up the barstewards

[Anderoo]

I had a walk along my tough Thames stretch at the weekend. It looks nice I feel like I know it quite well now, despite having only caught 2 chub from it now in 2 winters (2 winters of very bad conditions, to be fair). I really hope I get a decent go at it this winter. It has that certain feeling to it, like monsters live there.

 

I think I've gone off the prebaiting route, having gone round in circles a few times with various failed plans. I think I now understand the principles behind the boilie/paste baiting and where I went completely wrong with it before. For a stretch like this, I think you need volume over quality. This is where I'd gone wrong before. I think rather than trying to wean whatever lives there onto low amounts of a high quality bait, you're better off fishing with higher volumes of lower quality bait and go hunting for them afresh each session instead of hoping they come to you.

 

If I had endless amounts of decent boilies/paste I would probably do a serious baiting campaign, but I think the amounts needed over the timeframe required would just be huge, and the cost astronomical.

 

So, in conclusion, back to bread If I'm lucky and get a decent winter condition-wise, I'm going to hit it hard this season, and really go for it.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Anderoo

[jack1432]

Chub on my homemade cheese paste and might have a go at some Perch as well.

 

I have exams at the moment so I haven't been fishing in a few months .My last exam is on the 18th June, so on the 19th im of to the river Blythe for the day.

Edited May 29, 2013 by jack1432