Diary of a Thames Fisherman

I went barons ponds for a float fishing session this week. I have neglected fishing this way the past few years due to my pursuit of Thames barbel, however my intention is to keep myself sane by having a few sessions with the feeder and float rods to catch a few in between my barbel fishing. I took a drive down to the lakes on the wedsnesday to have a look around as I hadnt been to the lakes in around a year. There were 3 people fishing so a quick chat to them revealed a few nice roach were being caught but not many carp. I walked around both lakes and saw plenty of fish moving about, and plenty of areas with fish bubbling up from routing around on the bottom. I sat in one swim for about 20mins and saw enough for me to give it a look the next day, plenty of fish bubbling up the bottom in several areas of the swim. On my arrival the following morning, Im glad to say the fish were still all over the swim, with more being up cruising around the surface than bubbling up the b...

Due to some new restrictions put on the app I use to update my blog I have had to create a new whole new one with a new email address. You can read all my old blog posts at http://www.tonusstonus.blogspot.com  although this page will not be updated from now on. I have also created a facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/DiaryofaThamesFisherman Please feel free to join the page and add comments or your own blog entries and fishing pictures. tight lines....

Today was my first session out in a few months. I decided last minute to chuck the gear in the car for an afterwork session as the temperatures had been around 1º for the past 3 days and then there was a sudden temp increase up to 10º for a couple of days so I thought this could trigger a brief feeding spell. I fished the same area as where I lost the fish at the beginning of the season. I decided on just one rod, fishing in a semi slack area off the main flow. Its around 10ft deep here normally, however the river was carrying an extra foot or so of water causing it to come up over the bank. I had seen some posts online that the water temps earlier in the week had been 3.8º so upon arrival I took the temp which showed around 4.7º so the increase in air temp had definately made a slight difference to the water temps after only 12hours. Upon arrival there were 2 guys just packing up. A brief chat revealed they had just one fish, a sea trout. This area of the Thames is extremely popular, ...

I have not been out fishing for a while, but was recently looking through some photos and having a play around with them in photoshop and an app on my phone.

After my determined start to the season, renewing tackle, plans etc I seem to have fallen into a severe lack of motivation when it comes to actually getting out and putting the time in. Work and my family play a big part in the amount of fishing I do, so its not always easy to get out when the conditions suit, more a case of going when I have the chance whatever the conditions and deciding what to fish for based on when im going. Losing the only fish I had hooked in a long time then losing it to tackle failure didnt help my cause either!! I have had a couple of sessions out since my last blog entry, both after barbel, both were when the river was carrying extra water from the rain, and both resulted in the same result.......BLANK. I like to keep in touch with whats going on at the river, whats being caught, conditions etc, but as I now live further away its not always easy for me to get there to check, as I used to drive and walk th...

I was going to take my barbel rods for this weeks after work session, but decided instead to grab my lure bag and take wander along a stretch I hadnt fished before. Lure fishing the stretch offers me a few benefits, one of which is I can obviously target pike and perch with lures. However is also offers me the chance to map out the water fairly quickly, by regular casting from each swim with lures you will very quickly establish snags, weed and depth of water. Once I have found areas I think I would fish for carp or barbel, I will clip on a lead and map the area out in my head then later on a note pad or a google earth print out. So I chose a favourite Thames lure of mine, the spinnerbait. These spinnerbaits are brilliant on the thames for working close in around the cabbage weeds. The design of them means they rarely snag, and the blades really throb on the retrieve, creating alot of vibration through the water, and the pike that sit in and around the cabbage weed, attack these lure ...

Summer holidays are here and with came the promise to take my nephews and son fishing again. I chose somewhere different from the last trip out. The spot needed 2 things, 1, be flat and comfortable to minimse the kids falling! 2, have a decent depth close in to target smaller fish on the whip. I arrived at my chosen area shortly after 11am to find most of the area taken. The guys to the left had rods out on buzzers, and the guy to the right was float fishing. I dropped in between them having more than enough water out in from of me. Plumbing the depth I had about 7ft at my feet, and about 8ft further out. I set up a 3 and 4mtr whip, the 4mtr fished with a 4no4 stick float set just off the bottom in 8ft of water, with the bulk shot a foot from the hook to get the bait down quickly. The 3mtr whip was fished with the same float but this rig was set about 4foot deep and the shotting spread equally down the line to create a slower fall and to target fish up in the water. A tin of hemp and 2...