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Question for Thamesters.

P

Paul Pittman

Senior Member
How many of you pre-bait if fishing the Thames or do you just turn up with big smelly glugged baits?

I know a couple of chaps that prebait but they live quite close to where they fish but they have had some nice fish out.

Plus always the chance that someone is in your baited swim when you get there.
 
I fish the Thames a fair bit & I've never baited up.

It's more the logistics that are the problem than anything. Where I am it's a wide river so to get the bait in the required spot, cast on to that spot a day or 2 later & all the while hoping no-one sees you or fishes that spot before you!

I'd be interested in seeing what results people have had doing it but the few conversations I've had with anglers, they tell me all the approach seems to result in is bream?
 
This is the exact question i had in mind, i'd love to have a crack at the Thames but its not viable for me to do a baiting program.
I must admit i've heard the baiting up approach seems to attract the bream more but won't the barbel follow them in??
 
oooer, not really my place to bring this up but Mike Wilson and Keith Speer did a pyramid baiting program and had fantastic results, mind you you,ll need a LOT of bait to outfeed the bream shoals, this pair of old foxes took the stretch of thames they baited up apart and had fantastic barbel caught:):):)
 
John Walker said:
oooer, not really my place to bring this up but Mike Wilson and Keith Speer did a pyramid baiting program and had fantastic results, mind you you,ll need a LOT of bait to outfeed the bream shoals, this pair of old foxes took the stretch of thames they baited up apart and had fantastic barbel caught:):):)
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Almost a year ago to the day dear Keith told me all about that when were fishing next to each other on the Lea, fascinating stuff but like i say not a viable option for me. If my memory serves me right i believe one or both of them were working in London at the time.
 
correct Russell, keith worked near uxbridge (i say work but i only ever see him making tea for everyone or drinking it LOL) they did put a lot of bait into the plan but it worked out fine:)
 
John Walker said:
correct Russell, keith worked near uxbridge (i say work but i only ever see him making tea for everyone or drinking it LOL) they did put a lot of bait into the plan but it worked out fine:)
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You must have missed the bit where he ate all the chocolate bars then John :D:D:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Forgive me if anything is wrong but seem to remember the story like this, Keith lived in St Albans he worked near Uxbridge.The stretch was the civil service bit at Windsor race coarse,10 miles away,they fed a large area to start off with and gradually cut this down until the fish were concentrated in one channel.I think part of the initial feed involved chick peas but eventually the fish were caught on maggots,a lot of fish were caught.The reason it worked was 2 dedicated anglers prepared to travel to feed, a private stretch,lots of bait,numbers of barbel and fishing nearly every day. I think on most free lower Thames stretches you would now find the situation difficult to duplicate,unless you know an area you can keep to yourself.Much better to keep mobile until you find fish,moving every 20 minutes if possible.
 
Whenever i have pre-baited i have drawn in shoals of bream, meaning i have just packed up early and gone home!! I know of people that do pre-bait and have had some very nice Barbel.

Think my new plan of attack is going to be a light sprinkling of loosefeed and then a heavily glugged boilie for maximum attraction?
 
Mark Swaby said:
Forgive me if anything is wrong but seem to remember the story like this, Keith lived in St Albans he worked near Uxbridge.The stretch was the civil service bit at Windsor race coarse,10 miles away,they fed a large area to start off with and gradually cut this down until the fish were concentrated in one channel.I think part of the initial feed involved chick peas but eventually the fish were caught on maggots,a lot of fish were caught.The reason it worked was 2 dedicated anglers prepared to travel to feed, a private stretch,lots of bait,numbers of barbel and fishing nearly every day. I think on most free lower Thames stretches you would now find the situation difficult to duplicate,unless you know an area you can keep to yourself.Much better to keep mobile until you find fish,moving every 20 minutes if possible.
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Dedicated and also very good, i can do the first but the second part i'm remarkably average. Keith said it involved a lot of barley.
 
was that barley or parley Russell:D
i do know what wentin and where they finished up fishing it but dont feel i am at liberty to divulge this as mike is still fishing and i know the spot had great sentimental value for keith, either way they did it and succeeded:)
2 great fishermen and another success acheived:):):):)
 
I was fishing the stretch at the same time and Keith and 'The Pin's' results were very, very good. I have a memory that it was maples they baited with initially but that may be erroneous. I think the reason that they weren't bothered by bream (they were actually) is because I was catching them all.
 
Mic Foot said:
I have a memory that it was maples they baited with initially but that may be erroneous.
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It's all in the link Mike :D

"Our first problem was choice of bait, it needed to be cheap as Mike did not want to part with the Rolls and I thought it best to keep feeding the family, I did not want them to get all “uppity†at a crucial time, so we looked at Maize and we looked at Maple Peas, both would be easy to prepare in quantity and both were cheap, but of the two Maize would be a bit obvious to other close season wanderers, on the other hand Maple Peas would blend in and remain un-noticed, even if dropped quite close in so we opted for Maple Peas.

We knew we would need to start well before the start of the season, we were trying to “condition†the fish to feed in or at the very least visit our chosen area, this would not be an over night task, but we did need the water to be warm enough for the fish to be cruising about, so the start date was set for mid April.

Our plan was simple, we needed to place a Maple Pea in every square yard of the bottom from one side of the river to the other, this would be done by catapult, mainly firing the Maples high into the air to get maximum spread and we started with an area of approximately 200 yds of bank space.
So every two days we would bait this area, I would do a Tuesday, Mike would do Thursday and I would do Saturday, Mike would follow on Monday and would do Wednesday and so on.
I suspect seeing a chap in a three piece suit with a bucket, catapulting something all over the place made the odd boat owner scratch his head, but we kept it up, come rain or shine, every other evening.
We wanted the fish to see bait all the time, we wanted them confident and un-afraid, to accept that if they swam a few feet they would see a Maple, in fact Maples would be as common as pebble and twigs on the bottom!"

Stephen
 
Things to remember , they were baiting an area that had resident fish, lots of them. No amount of bait in an area devoid of barbel will turn it into a barbel swim on the Thames. Some of the many Thames swims I have fished have areas within the swim that will get you bites whilst a bait in the wrong area will never or rarely get you a bite. If you have an area that contains fish any cheap easily obtainable bait will catch you a fish but they certainly do have preferences. If you have that area to yourself ( Keith didn't) think what you are hoping to achieve before you go down a route and spending money you don't really need to spend.
 
i have a monsterous respect for Mike & Keith and enjoyed their company, boisterous conversations and vast knowledge of fishing in general,
Keith you are a man thats missed mate especially more so by Mike,
i aint gonna let out anything to pinpoint where their efforts were even though its fairly well known by some and they made it quite clear to a bunch of guys where:) now thats real fishing comeradie:)
going to take a big guess that their tactics were based from much older days
but right those two were,
its a big thing to pull in so many fish into a smallish area on the thames,
if it was that easy far more would have and would be basking in delight of success, Mike i am just glad to know you two pulled it off before Keiths departure from life. but i bet hes still on the bank somewhere roaring out that
bellowing laugh that was so infectious and fishing. still:)
the best teamaker ever and i dont even like the stuff:) but always enjoyed watching him be the teaboy:):):):):):):):):):):):):)
 
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