The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Hi there peeps,

After much discussion about me low water Thames trotting tactics and various venues I've put together some various low water marks that hopefully maybe of some use to any of you river fanatics that are looking for the chance to try some tidal float or feeder fishing,

The normality to fishing the tidal Thames is to fish from high water down to low water,

Std stick float tactics will work but I generally prefer to use large swan necked balsa floats just so it's tripping bottom and holding back whilst inching the float through the run,
Waggler fishing will also work aswell as std feeder tactics ,

Feed for float fishing is generally mashed bread mixed with some river roach ground bait plus a few maggot, caster or hemp can be mixed in but most importantly it pays to use some fine aquarium gravel mixed in with the feed as this will help to get the bait down onto the deck and create a bit of a feed line going throughout yer session,

The same feed mix can be used in ground bait feeders minus the gravel


Teddington

Teddington

Twickenham embankment

Richmond half lock

Isleworth

Strand on the green ( Chiswick )

Mortlake

Barnes ( my favourite venue )

Putney

Great post sir.
What species do you normally catch at Barnes?
I've fished Teddington and Twickenham but never bothered with Putney Mortlake and Barnes.

BobTheFloat wrote:Great post sir.
What species do you normally catch at Barnes?
I've fished Teddington and Twickenham but never bothered with Putney Mortlake and Barnes.

Hi there Bob,

To be honest mate you'll get pretty much the same species at Barnes, Mortlake and Putney,

These will predominantly be roach, dace and a few bream and the odd carp may sometimes turn up although the last few years the carp have started to show themselves quite a bit more but still shouldn't be regarded as easy,

The roach, dace and bream will be yer main species down at this end of the tidal and are best fished from the start of the season mid June until about now mid October, you can fish for em during the winter but becomes a little more difficult as they then migrate a little way and tend to stay in the deeper channels where one might not be able to get to so easily this can be eaither upstream or even further downstream,

During the winter floods it's even been known for roach and dace shouls to get pushed right the way down to as far as Greenwich

Fascinating stuff I honestly believe the Thames is the best river in the country as it is so varied and I love learning more about it thank you

Barnes and Leg of mutton being my favourite venues,


Barnes looking towards the Leg of mutton

Barnes looking back upstream towards railway bridge at dusk

Quality Thames tidal dace

After the several pollutions are there any zander left? I heard they were badly affected.

Olly wrote:After the several pollutions are there any zander left? I heard they were badly affected.

Yea you've got a point there Olly, I suppose there's gotta be a few about as I've heard of the odd few being caught but I'd say yer right about the pollution levels knocking off the population

Although now the Thames tide tunnel has been built with a bit of luck the pollution levels should of now dramatically dropped,

This year alone I've now heard of some very good dace bags being caught which is far better than what has been caught for a good number of years in these tidal parts,

So with this info hopefully things are looking up

Dace have always been cyclic both on the Thames and Avon. Every XX number of years they vastly increase their population size!

So Mogden is no longer spewing out sewerage then? And Heathrow the same?

Sounds like you need to organize a tff gathering Stuart and show us country boys how it's done, I agree with Terry the Thames is a fabulous river and I have had some good fish from it but I always feel slightly intimidated the tidal sections.

Richmond 1984! Wonderful days.