Free Fishing on the Thames.

Today we had decided to fish the fantastic River Thames on the Kingston stretch, its a part of the Thames we have wanted to fish for a long time and decided its time to pay it a visit. But after being told by 2 different people that it will fish hard unless we get some rain did we waste our time...

We decided to leave nice and early so as to have plenty of time to search for decent swims, so I pulled up outside Steve's house at 5am still in the pitch black and we set off to Kingston.

We pulled up in the small turnout next to the start of the stretch about 6am and still dark, we went for a walk along the path looking for some good looking areas, a couple of swims down there seemed to be quite a lot of disturbance on the surface so we got some gear and started to set up, I decided to use a Barbel rod on a quiver set-up with a medium fixed spool reel loaded with 6lb line, cage feeder with a 4lb hook link to a size 14 hook baited with either maggots, worm or corn. I also had another Barbel rod same set-up but size 10 hook baited with a big worm as a sleeper rod hoping for a bonus Perch.

As we started to be able to see the River it was obvious we was going to have our work cut out as the River was low, slow and very clear.

Sadly it was becoming obvious the fish were not really playing ball, with no bites in the first few hours, but I was watching all the Bleak jumping out in front of me and could take it no more, I had a backup float rod with a centre pin on and 3lb line so decided to go for some Bleak, and I caught loads.

The Thames is a quite unique place to fish and can be hard to concentrate on the fishing with so much going on around, by midday we had had a bike rally/race behind us, probably over 2000 bikes in total, there was a small boat with a huge speaker on the front blasting out reggae music, and we still had a few hours left.

By about 5pm we decided to pack up, mainly because there was some eastern Europeans starting to fish next to us and they were so loud I couldn't handle it anymore.

On reflection the fishing was very hard, Steve had one Bream which was our target fish, I had a lot of Bleak and a few small Perch, but the place itself is so different to fish that it was enjoyable even with a lack of fish, loved it, and looking forward to returning with a bit of pace and colour in the water.

Stalking around 7 lakes

Although the weather was looking pretty shocking, very wet, it was fairly warm with a nice warm wind, so I decided it would be a great day for a couple of hours stalking at 7 lakes angling, and a great opportunity to show my son how its done.

We left for the lakes around 2pm after my wife had returned from work. It was absolutely hammering down and I was questioning my sanity but he who dares wins, hopefully.

The sun had broke and the rain had stopped whilst we was walking around the lake looking for likely spots to drop a few doggies in. Once we had done a circuit and dropped the bait we walked the lakes again to spot feeding fish, we located a few fish on lake 5 so we got some gear, just a 10ft rod, small reel with a decent quick drag and 6lb line and a size 10 hook, net, mat and bait, simple.

We crept into positions on lake 5 and I under armed a bit of crust next to the feeding fish, it only took a few moments and it was fish on and after a spirited fight the little Common of about 3lb was in the net, and although only little was a stunning fish.

Next was my sons turn, a little way along the lake there was another pod of Carp so we crept into position and my son under armed the bread onto the Carp and within moments he had one on.

And must admit ii was very proud with how he played the fish away from the snags and once on the bank how he handled the fish, was a moment.

With a fish each and the rain now pouring we left and returned home.

7 Lakes is one of the best places to take kids an learn the sport or just for a day out whilst you fish, and as an added bonus under the age of 12 fish free with a paying adult.

Lakeside fishing

This month we decided to fish Lakeside fishery in Berkshire due to the slightly better weather we was hoping to rake in the Carp, but as usual things didn't quite go to plan.

I picked Steve up about 7:30am and we arrived just after 8am and luckily Kate the owner had just arrived and let us in.

We had a quick walk around the lake, knowing that it wont take long to get busy, on our last trip we fished in the canal section to the side of the lake and the left of the main bowl so this time decided on fishing behind the islands as thought they would hold groups of fish or intercept them as they swim round.

I decided to start by fishing the flat bed feeder towards the island with a couple of maggots and light ground bait, light tactics really for the size of fish in here but that's what I caught on last time so decided to start with that. After an hour or so with no bites and a chat with the bailiff decided to fish the bottom of the shelf with a solid PVA bag and 12mm tipped pellet on the hair, the second rod cast just to the left of some snags.

The sun was up and it was really hot and un-comfy at times, I had a tree next to me and was moving my chair constantly to try and keep in the shade as I'm not a fan of sitting in the sun for long periods of time.

Time was getting on and still no fish, I could see loads on the surface but on the other side of the island and well out of my swim, but I started firing dog biscuits my side of the island to try and bring them in.

I put a zig rig on the left hand rod and cast between the islands, after a few twitcy bites I had a run which promptly fell off. Then another bite which took me round the island and came off luckily all the rig came back and the fish was safe, after quite a while I had another screamer and this time after one hell of a fight and trying to keep it out of snags and the island the fish was on the mat, only about 6lb but that didn't matter. I think one of the most challenging days fishing for a long time, not because the water is a hard water or lack of fish by a long shot but the conditions where not easy and our swim choices where not the best for the conditions.

Soon after catching that fish and with one each we packed up had a quick chat to the bailiff and left, and although a very challenging day weather wise still a great day and will return for a better go at zig rigging in the more open water. And a big thanks to the owners and the bailiff for his advise.

Bish Bosh

As the weather was looking pretty good, and a good friend asking for a fish, I decided it was time to return to Bishops Green for a few Carp....Hopefully.

When I fish Bishops Green there are a few swims I favour so I decided on a early start and picked James up at 5:30am and was lakeside by 6am.

We grabbed a bucket and headed round the lake for a look. There was not a lot to go on so we headed to the far end of the lake where there is good marginal growth.

I started by putting a couple of handful of pellets either side of the swim in the margins then sorted the gear. I had two rods on alarms using pre-made leaders with short hook links in solid PVA bags with 12mm pellets tipped with plastic corn soaked in Betalin dropped in the edge.

It was a cold morning promising to get hotter during the day but still had a run pretty soon after casting in with a 11lb 11oz Common as my prize.

Old school friend James was soon catching and was all going well, but when the sun got up and it started to get rather hot the fishing died down with just the odd fish.

Bishops Green is normally a great place for surface fishing even when its cold but it just didn't happen today, and with 6 Carp each we headed home.

A decent day for the conditions and although the ticket price has recently doubled in cost to £10 a day for 2 rods its worth every penny.

You can't get better.

This month we decided to fish Ashmoor lakes, mainly because we was unsure on the weather so decided to keep close to home, plus we love this fishery.

I picked Steve up at 6:45 and arrived at Ashmoor around 7am.

We grabbed our gear and headed around the ponds for a look. Fo

r a change we headed to the far side of lake 2. I had a Barbel rod set-up for Carp and a flat bed feeder on a quiver rod for everything else. I was experimenting with my Carp set-up and had 6 solid PVA bags on leaders ready made to tie on and try, first was a bloodworm dumbbell tipped with flouro corn packed with 1-4mm pellet. This was placed in the corner along the bank, and before I had even sorted the next rod it was away, a lovely Mirror was my prize of a few pound, great start. Next I put out a peperami dumbbell tipped with pink corn, again in PVA bag put in the same place. This time I even got round to sorting the other rod then it screamed off, and another Carp was in the net. I put a pineapple pop up out next and carried on with my feeder fishing, which was disturbed yet again by the alarm with another Carp. With this I put the Barbel “sleeper” rod out the way so I can concentrate on my feeder fishing.

After a couple of Bream and a small Carp it slowed up, so we moved back to our old favourite swims the other side of the lake, I feeder fished the island in front of me and had my sleeper rod fishing with the yellow pop up in the edge. I was catching well with many Carp and Bream but started to slow. I swapped my feeder rod for float rod and started fishing in the edge with instant success, adding Perch and Barbel to the tally of fish. The sun was now well up and it was surprisingly really warm for March, so I shallowed up and started Rudd fishing, I have no idea how many I caught but it was a lot with the odd Bream and Hybrid.

There was a few Carp cruising about on the surface so I decided to have a wonder around and found a few fish in lake 1 around the pipe, there was two younger anglers fishing lake 1 in the far corner but they had no luck, and after catching 5 off the top I did wonder why they was not following suit.

I returned to my swim to finish the day float fishing and catching a few more.

As usual we end the day with a shed load of fish and wondering why people fish anywhere else, and the fact there was 5 other people fishing which only one other angler caught a couple of fish, what they do is just mind boggling.

A day out with Mark Barrett.

Today was a day I was looking forward to for a long long time, a day out guided with Mark Barrett Pike fishing on the Fenland drains.

I was up at 5am to do the 130 mile, 2.5hr trip to the Fens which flew by and I arrived at a café 10 minutes from where we was fishing to meet Mark. After putting my bits in his truck we set off for a drain known as the 16 footer.

Mark was a brilliant guide and talked me through all the aspects of the set up, baiting and indication, don't get me wrong, I've done some Pike fishing in the past and had a few but wanted to know more on the species and how to catch them more effectively.

The drains seem to fish better past 11am so Mark was saying and just past 11 I had my first run, but I missed it, first lesson I learnt was that I was striking them far to light, “you're not Roach fishing” said Mark, luckily not long after I had another run and this time I hit it harder and it stayed on, this was also the first time I had used braid and really enjoyed it. At 6lb was not my biggest Pike but good fun. Not long after that another was on and once in weighed about the same.

After those fish all went quiet so a move was in order, only a few hundred yards up where there was an inlet.

The great thing about fishing these drains is you drive up the bank, set-up and you can literally fish out of your car/truck, but its best in a 4x4 as my car would have been far to low.

Whilst waiting for bite fenland legend and co-author with Mark of the Fenland Pike book Dennis Moules stopped for a chat, he had one pike earlier but apart from that all seemed quiet.

The day was coming to an end and although the fishing has been a bit slow Mark was a great host, I learnt a shed load about Pike fishing amongst other stuff and the sunset over the Fens was pure quality.

I look forward to another a trip later in the year hopefully for some Zander.

Itchen for Grayling.

With maggots left over from yesterdays fishing at Ashmoor and with the Wife working for a few hours in Winchester it was only right I took the kids onto the river Itchen for a few hours as my son was really hoping to catch his first Grayling.

We arrived in Winchester at about 8:30am, dropped off the Wife and headed for the city stretch of the river.

After strolling up and down a couple of times we decided to try a different stretch as not much was happening here and was very busy with dog walkers.

Next we tried the Shawford stretch as it seems to be a more prolific part of the river.

After wading through some very flooded parts of the tow path we got to the free stretch and started to bait the swim. After a few trots down I had a nice little brown Trout which I slipped back quickly. It was very hard to get the presentation right as it was flowing so fast, I was running the maggots about half a foot of the bottom but wasn’t having much luck, I saw a small fish right in the margin so shallowed up and dropped it in, after a few little plucks I soon had a Salmon par on. I dropped it in the edge again this time a nice Grayling of 1lb 1oz.

As I had promised my son I would try and get him a Grayling I handed the rod over, this was also his first time using a centre pin reel, which he picked up really well and soon had his first Grayling on the bank.

With that we headed for back and it was mission completed, and a cracking way to spend a few hours.

At long last.

Due to awful weather conditions recently this was to be our first fish of the year and I couldn’t wait, and as we was unsure if the weather would hold we decided on Ashmoor lakes for the venue as its nice and close and we were guaranteed a fish.

I picked Steve up at a very late (for us) 7:30am and we headed for Ashmoor, I was wearing a LOT of clothing as it said it could be -3 real feel, so I had under crackers, thermal layer top and bottom, fleece lined trousers with wind proof over trousers, t-shirt, polo. Fleece and wind proof jacket, I looked huge.

Walking around to the swims was a little treacherous as it was quite flooded near the car park, but with a group effort we got to the swims. I had decided to bring a couple of methods to try but my main attack was going to be the flat bed feeder cast tight to the island using groundbait and a single Betalin soaked plastic maggot, the other method was to use a float set up in the margins

The weather was looking great for a few bites and I wasn’t sure if it was all the layers I was wearing but it didn’t seem that cold.

I put a little bait in the margins and a small ball of groundbait to the island and some specially trained stunt maggots too.

After casting in it didn’t take long to start getting bites, Roach and Bream mainly which was nice.

After a couple of hours the wind started to get up and was really biting and making it very hard to see the bites on the quiver so I reeled in and started float fishing.

The Bream had really got on the bait I had been trickling in the margins and were gong frantic, even for the time of year and how cold it was getting I couldn’t give them enough bait it was mad.

After a while longer we decided to call it a day as it was getting hard to hold the rod in the wind and with heavy rain on the horizon we retreated before getting a drenching.

As usual Ashmoor had come up trumps for us, as we always say its impossible to blank here which is why its our number 1 fishery.

Hungerford Canal

Today we decided to fish hungerford canal. To be honest I am not a massive fan of some canal fishing. The local canal to me can be very tricky at best. Luckily hungerford canal is completely different and although a syndicate water you can buy day tickets from local tackle shops, we got ours from experience fishing. 

I love winter fishing, the colder the better, a good frost on the ground is perfect, although close it was not quite a frost at 6 in the morning when I left to pick Steve up. 

We arrived in hungerford about 6:45am at parked next to the church as it's a known area for producing big Perch, which was our quarry. 

It was just starting to get light just after 7, we decided to start by lure fishing the stretch carrying the bare minimum as we would be walking in the region of 6 miles. I used a 10 ft commercial float rod with a small fixed spool with quick drag and 6lb reel line, and small rubber jigs. We started by turning right at the church and working our way along casting nearly constantly leap frogging past each other. 

Just after the town wharf Steve had the first Perch followed very shortly by me, nothing huge but great fun. 

It was soon clear there are many Perch in the canal making it a joy to fish. I have done very little Perch fishing so my PB was only just over 1lb, which was soon beaten with a 1lb 2oz, not by a lot but still great. We had a fair few Perch walking up the canal, Steve also had a Jack Pike. 

Once we had walked for sometime we turned back and walked back casting in the same spots we had them the other way. 

As it was about 1pm by the time we was back to the start we put the gear back in the car and walked into town for a spot of lunch.

Once refuelled we changed tactics for the float and headed to the bridge next to the church for a bit of static fishing.  

It didn't take long after trickling in a few maggots to get some bites, mainly from Dace and small Roach but soon a few more bigger Perch came in. Then out of the blue something bigger was on, I thought it was a big Perch or even a Chub but when I saw the red fins I could not believe it even a boat driver going past commented on its size as it slipped into the net. I soon called Steve over for the pictures and to weigh it, I must admit I thought it was easy 2lb it looked massive, on the scales it went 1lb 15oz, not quite but still a PB and I was over joyed, I still think the Roach is the most beautiful of coarse fish. 

Steve soon came running over with a clonking great Ruff, I had never caught a Ruff so I used 2 maggots instead of 3 and fished slightly over depth and soon had my prize, and perch looking little fish, brilliant. 

It was now starting to get dark but just before I packed up the float was away again, this time a good Perch. At 1lb 10oz was another PB. With that I decided was a great way to end, what a cracking day, 3 PB's in one day and a beautiful venue, may have to return soon.

Helping others in to the sport.

With the weather looking half decent I decided to take a work friend and his son fishing, along with my son to see if I could get them all hooked. 

I had already decided on Bowsaw lake due to its varied species, but sadly due to matches we had to look else where. Eventually I decided on Bishops Green lake near Newbury, as there are many small fish for the kids and my mate Tim, and I'll stick a couple of rods out on alarms for the bigger Carp. 

We arrived about 1pm to find a few people at the car park end of the lake so we set up at my preferred other end of the lake, where there are much better margins to fish. Firstly I chucked out a few handfuls mixed pellet next to the reeds whilst I put together my rods. I soon had a solid bag on the money whilst I started setting up the float rods for the others, luckily my son has been fishing a few times and here before so he was able to set his own rod up by himself. Sadly for them before I had even set up the first rod my alarm screamed into life with a feisty little Carp around 4-5lb, in my rush to sort my gear out earlier in the day I had forgotten the spreader block to my landing net so I had to get Tim to scoop it up using the net by hand, not the best but it's what we had. With the float rods soon in the water they all started catching Gudgeon as Roach and seeing there faces when the bites started was magical, it was soon obvious that they where hooked. Watching them fish was better than me catching, and took me back to when I first started fishing in a very similar way. I had been firing out dog biscuits for the past hour or so and they were feeding quite confidently so I rigged up a surface bait with a controller float and cast past the fish and reeled in. They were really tricky and had no interest on bread so swapped to a banded dog biscuit. I was watching a decent fish swimming from side to side and tried to cast out and pull it back in front of it. And it soon came up and took it good as gold. It caught really hard for a few minutes then was awkwardly landed by Tim. Just as we was putting it on the mat my alarm screamed off and had another Carp on. I let my son Liam handle that one, although a lot smaller at just over 3lb it was my sons first go with a 12ft rod and he done really well. Once the pictures where taken the fish were slipped back and we continued.

After a few more Carp, Gudgeon and Roach we packed up and headed home. A great day and successfully got two more people hooked onto the this great sport.