Guess what i'm going after that's right them perch again can't get enough of the Sargent's but this time I've had a little help from a good friend of mine Mark (@markchapsout) showing me some very good places to fish on the Thames and its tributary's.
The problem you got fishing the Thames is that it's a big piece of water that goes on for miles and can be 100 feet wide in places and 15 feet deep, a lot of the good places you want to fish are only accessible by boat as i was going to find out on this trip. I was having a chat with a fella getting out of a boat asking him how he got on and he was telling me that he had some good bream and some big perch and later finding out that he was a reporter for angling times and a picture of him and his prize perch on twitter, made me realize i need to save up all my money and buy a boat and change my name to Captain Gudgeon. For now I'm just going to have to do with walking up and down the river as much as can, so the glorious 16th will be the first session on the Thames I've had in many years.
So my day begins by getting up and catching the 4.40am X26 bus from west croydon bus station changing at Kingston station and then changing onto the 411 which is going to take me to Hampton court bridge. Then a short walk to the train station where i'm going to meet my mate Paul, who has driven up from Aldershot, now a short drive in his car down the road to East Molesey cricket club which backs on to the river, after all that we prepare our tackle which consist of light lure rods for drop shotting and slightly heaver rods for jig fishing.
Molesey lock NO FISHING :(
The weir only accessible by boat
View from top of the lock
Right slowly walking towards the bridge we stop off and drop our lures into likely looking spots, little over hanging bushes and trees, drop shotting is a slow process but you can explore every nook and cranny and doing this that i get my first bite on this method. Just above the weir Paul and i are slowly moving along the edge of the river and enticingly dancing our little paddle tail jellies along the bottom when something grabs hold of mine. Not sure what happened next as i struck far to late then peering into the water with my polarize glasses i could see a perch not a big one but it was a fish it followed for a short while then disappeared into the depths, at least i had a bite so i'm getting something right. Moving along the river we came to the lock now you can't fish the lock but just down from it you can and it's here i had a small pike follow my lure, this is the most action I've had on this method of fishing in many years now i'm starting to believe i'm getting the hang of using artificial baits to catch fish.
But that was all the action we had even after going over the road which was the other side of Hampton Court bridge walking down the river, here it didn't produce anything, as we came up to the river mole that come into the Thames just along from the bridge and opposite Hampton court palace, as you can see from the picture below it just screams perch and pike but we couldn't get a nibble it looks like a jungle. Now one thing i forgot to tell you is that Paul has a YouTube channel he has only just started but there are some good videos on there, now i was being film by Paul doing a bit of jungle fishing which at one point i slipped and could of fallen in. As i turned to Paul and said did you get that on film he just laughed and said yep and put the camera back in his pocket, not once sticking a hand out and helping me but saying that's going on YouTube oh i can't wait.
At this point we decided to walk back to the car and have something to eat and drink and chat on what to do next and we decided to go away from Hampton court and walk towards sunbury on Thames doing the same thing we have been doing.
Now the Thames changes a bit down towards sunbury, the banks are more sloped and the river widens but there's not a lot of difference and its walking down this way that i'm am drop shotting around a bush that i hook my first fish and i mean first fish of the day of the season and first ever drop shotting. So now i'm playing this fish which is a perch and Paul said ill get the camera and video you playing it great i said so off he runs to the next swim to get the equipment and he takes an age to get it, while i'm trying to drag a fight out with a 4 oz perch its lucky i'm cool and professional but Paul is taking to long so i shout come on, George Lucas made star wars quicker. With that he gets back to me and points the camera in the direction of the monster that's now laying on the waters surface yes you've guessed it the hook pulls out and i lose it, no photo of my achievement Paul just points the cameras at me and we just laugh at each other, but he did say that fish counts as i would of landed it if he was quicker cheers mate.
So that's my first tester of the Thames and i must say i'm well impressed with this piece of water and will be spending a lot of time on here so keep an eye out for more of my blogs and thanks for reading so until next time good luck and tight lines......
