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River Thames apprentice


Hackney2819

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First time gonna fish the Thames feeder for bream any tips .where to start .what tips to use 2oz 3oz 4 oz. What ground baits hook baits size hooks line size were to park. Any advice would be really appreciate

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Not sure where you plan to target on the Thames, but its pretty full of bream. There are plenty of free stretches which produce - Kingston, Sunbury. Now is a good time of year, but you need to get your skates on because I find they turn off after the first frosts. I fish the middle Thames, so this is my method, but it should work everywhere. I will use a 50/50 mix of a fishmeal ground bait cut with brown crumb - I add stuff like dead maggot, 4mm pellet, casters (whatever I've got). I ball in a standard bait bucket of this into the middle of the river and then make up another half bucket for fishing with. I fish 35g open-end feeders over this. On the a stretches I fish, I can get away with 11ft Avon rods with 2oz quiver tips with 6lb line and they'll hold the rig at 30 yds without a problem in normal conditions . Bait is double red maggot on a #14, and I start with a 3ft 5lb hooklink. I fish 2 rods and will recast each every 20 mins until the bream arrive, at which point you generally can't fish 2 rods! Once they arrive, they aren't fussy, bites are really positive - the tip will pull round and stay round. A bucket of feed will keep them interested for about 45 mins before they've eaten it and moved on. I'll have about 8-10 fish in that time average size 8lbs. Have fun!

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Thank you Matthew I'll follow every instruction and give it a good go but can you park anywhere at Kingston,Sudbury,

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Hackney best bet for info down that end of the river is Thames Anglers Conservancy forum

Bait and fish with Hallibut pellet is a winner for Bream on the river or ask that Bream angling God Rusty off here

We are not putting it back it is a lump now put that curry down and go and get the scales

have I told you abouit the cruise control on my Volvo ,,,,,,,bla bla bla Barder rod has it come yet?? and don`t even start me on Chris Lythe :bleh::icecream:

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Not sure where you plan to target on the Thames, but its pretty full of bream. There are plenty of free stretches which produce - Kingston, Sunbury. Now is a good time of year, but you need to get your skates on because I find they turn off after the first frosts. I fish the middle Thames, so this is my method, but it should work everywhere. I will use a 50/50 mix of a fishmeal ground bait cut with brown crumb - I add stuff like dead maggot, 4mm pellet, casters (whatever I've got). I ball in a standard bait bucket of this into the middle of the river and then make up another half bucket for fishing with. I fish 35g open-end feeders over this. On the a stretches I fish, I can get away with 11ft Avon rods with 2oz quiver tips with 6lb line and they'll hold the rig at 30 yds without a problem in normal conditions . Bait is double red maggot on a #14, and I start with a 3ft 5lb hooklink. I fish 2 rods and will recast each every 20 mins until the bream arrive, at which point you generally can't fish 2 rods! Once they arrive, they aren't fussy, bites are really positive - the tip will pull round and stay round. A bucket of feed will keep them interested for about 45 mins before they've eaten it and moved on. I'll have about 8-10 fish in that time average size 8lbs. Have fun!

a full bucket ??? how many bags / kg's of bait you use in one season ? i am a newbie in feeder / bream fishing and all i ever use is about 1-1.5 kg in total of what ever ground bait mixes i got, half o paint of casters, less then half a can of sweetcorn and about quarter kilo of worms. My best season this year was so far with 14 bream, the rest is 1-6 bream (sometimes blank). I am always paranoid that i will end up wasting lots of ground bait and not end up catching anything, im also still not sure about balling in bait i would love to try it but im paranoid that i will miss my spot when balling or when trying to get my feeder on top of feed. Where im fishing is pretty deep, i think about 10ft or so

Edited by Vas
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a full bucket ??? how many bags / kg's of bait you use in one season ? i am a newbie in feeder / bream fishing and all i ever use is about 1-1.5 kg in total of what ever ground bait mixes i got, half o paint of casters, less then half a can of sweetcorn and about quarter kilo of worms. My best season this year was so far with 14 bream, the rest is 1-6 bream (sometimes blank). I am always paranoid that i will end up wasting lots of ground bait and not end up catching anything, im also still not sure about balling in bait i would love to try it but im paranoid that i will miss my spot when balling or when trying to get my feeder on top of feed. Where im fishing is pretty deep, i think about 10ft or so

Vas are you fishing the river Thames? I find the Thames bream are really greedy - and the average size is huge compared with an average stillwater bream - certainly on my club waters. A 'full' bucket for me is a bag of fishmeal based groundbait and a bag of brown crumb - so its not that expensive. A 2kg bag of the good stuff costs me £4 in my local shop and the crumb is half that. So about £5 per bucket. I am lucky in that I have a couple of places locally where I can buy in bulk if I need to.

 

I think 14 bream in a session is good, so you're obviously doing something right!

 

What I find is that you have to go for it with the groundbaiting for bream as they seem to be totally intolerant of 'topping up' - you'll kill the swim if you start balling it in again - hence the large initial baiting. I always feel I could go larger with the baiting on the Thames, but frankly I can't be arsed to carry even the bags of dry mix needed to the swim - so I fish until the bream move on! Also I have to be off the river a dusk - its the rule. I would definitely double up if I was fishing at night.

 

My bream swims on the Thames are about 10-14ft, so I do try and make sure that I make up the groundbait quite sticky - I don't want the classic matchmans sieved mix - I want it to drop like a brick to the bottom and then start breaking up. I have used a spomb to get the bait into the right spot - clipped up it works a dream - but you can get it in more quickly with a catty. I mix the groundbait first then tackle up while its absorbing the liquid and I then squeeze the lot into tangerine sized balls and pile them on my unhooking mat before commencing the bombardment. I let that settle and mix up my feeder mix which will be the same stuff but mixed a little less sticky. I have found in the past that I have not compensated for bait drift enough and when I starting casting 15 yds further downstream I started catching. I do clip up my feeder rods and mark the line with knotted pole elastic to get range consistency - its really important.

 

In terms of location, bream will show at dawn and dusk, so location is not that difficult - if you bait that area you'll be on the spot. A couple of casts for range and then mark the line will get you on the spot each time. As well as casting further downstream, try varying the length of the hook link - some days they want it long (up to 5') and will take the bait on the drop and other days they want it tight to the deck (1'). And as Steve JV44 says they are suckers for fishmeal pellets, so its always worth tacking a few 8mm for hook baits.

 

Good luck!

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Vas are you fishing the river Thames? I find the Thames bream are really greedy - and the average size is huge compared with an average stillwater bream - certainly on my club waters. A 'full' bucket for me is a bag of fishmeal based groundbait and a bag of brown crumb - so its not that expensive. A 2kg bag of the good stuff costs me £4 in my local shop and the crumb is half that. So about £5 per bucket. I am lucky in that I have a couple of places locally where I can buy in bulk if I need to.

 

I think 14 bream in a session is good, so you're obviously doing something right!

 

What I find is that you have to go for it with the groundbaiting for bream as they seem to be totally intolerant of 'topping up' - you'll kill the swim if you start balling it in again - hence the large initial baiting. I always feel I could go larger with the baiting on the Thames, but frankly I can't be arsed to carry even the bags of dry mix needed to the swim - so I fish until the bream move on! Also I have to be off the river a dusk - its the rule. I would definitely double up if I was fishing at night.

 

My bream swims on the Thames are about 10-14ft, so I do try and make sure that I make up the groundbait quite sticky - I don't want the classic matchmans sieved mix - I want it to drop like a brick to the bottom and then start breaking up. I have used a spomb to get the bait into the right spot - clipped up it works a dream - but you can get it in more quickly with a catty. I mix the groundbait first then tackle up while its absorbing the liquid and I then squeeze the lot into tangerine sized balls and pile them on my unhooking mat before commencing the bombardment. I let that settle and mix up my feeder mix which will be the same stuff but mixed a little less sticky. I have found in the past that I have not compensated for bait drift enough and when I starting casting 15 yds further downstream I started catching. I do clip up my feeder rods and mark the line with knotted pole elastic to get range consistency - its really important.

 

In terms of location, bream will show at dawn and dusk, so location is not that difficult - if you bait that area you'll be on the spot. A couple of casts for range and then mark the line will get you on the spot each time. As well as casting further downstream, try varying the length of the hook link - some days they want it long (up to 5') and will take the bait on the drop and other days they want it tight to the deck (1'). And as Steve JV44 says they are suckers for fishmeal pellets, so its always worth tacking a few 8mm for hook baits.

 

Good luck!

 

Sorry mate i forgot to mention im fishing river Ouse in York, its also full of bream! average size 3-4lb and plenty of 5lb+ ones. I think its probably quite similar to Thames. Thats how much i pay for mine! sounds about same, its just when you said full bucket i thought you meant like 10kgs of ground bait xD So that dont sound too expensive and will be worth trying.

 

Thanks for your tips my friend! i will certainly give this ago.

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When we were kids, we had a school trip to York, to see all of the historic buildings and museums. Being uncultured little barbarians, my mates and I instead went down to the river and watched an old man fishing the stick float, I remember him catching a really cracking perch!

 

We also got chucked out of York Minster for quietly dropping these on the floor

 

sf_16299_b_1000.jpg

 

:D

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