Lots To Learn On The Upper Thames
Just been on the three-day Upper Thames Festival sponsored by Cadence. I’ve only fished a couple of bits of the Upper Thames and never in the summer, but I know it’s a very different river to the middle sections I like. It’s teeming with tiny fish plus some big ones, mostly very big chub, but strangely not a lot of the mid-sized bread-and-butter fish we all like catching. I don’t feel I’ve ever got to grips with the Upper Thames and knew it’d be a challenge to sort out, but I was keen to learn and hopefully get a better understanding of what’s required to crack this challenging river.
Day One I was at Clanfield and I’ve never seen so many minnows in all my life! Chuck a whole worm in they’d keep it in the top two feet of water for ages, playfully bouncing it around as if it was a balloon!
I’ve weighed 6lb 8oz for 4th in the 14-peg zone, but also 4th in the 7-man points zone, so not an ideal start. I’ve basically had a big old 4lb+ warrior chub and a few bits for that. The chub put up a hell of a scrap on strong tackle and I’ve had to drag it out of a bush on the inside. I popped even stronger elastic on after that, then promptly hooked an even bigger one! It’s once again gone straight for the bush. I’ve heaved and pulled, with my XTR700 bent double, but it’s eventually shed the hook. Gutted! The last 90 minutes I’ve sat it out for another without a sign. There are some monstrous fish at Clanfield and I would love to have seen the one I lost!
Day Two I’ve drawn a section called Rushey. Never seen it before but it looked lovely, albeit tap-water clear and full of weed along most of the length. I’ve drawn a swim they call the armchair peg as it’s so comfortable to fish and sat under the welcoming shade of some trees. Apparently a great peg when it’s got some colour, but up against the noted weirpool swims to my left. I could see the bottom at least halfway across, but it was lovely and flat and no weed other than wispy stuff on the bottom.
Tackling up I spotted a really big chub basking a couple of metres shy of the far bank. I could reach the far-bank canopy with a full 16 metres including my XTR Flat Mini Extension and made my mind up to gear up and fish there most of the match. A couple of perch immediately got my hopes up… then the nano chub horde arrived!
They were like micro piranhas and even double dendra was no good. My worms were longer than the actual fish, yet I’d still keep hooking them. I’ve piled in bait, worms, casters, hemp, even cracking open two tins of meat, and it’s not made a dent. I was sure I’d eventually get at least one quality fish, but it was a total waste of time. The longer I’ve wasted for a big fish the more I felt I had to gamble and commit to it. I’ve had a few little dace and tiny chub when I dropped short and my 13m hemp swim has just produced more micro chub. I should have just fished short most of the day and loose fed something like hemp, pellets and corn across and maybe I’d have seen one of those elusive big fish?
I weighed just 2lb 1oz, beating just one in the section. To rub salt into the wounds, Kelvin Tallett drew the peg the next day and had a big chub off it! A frustrating day when I know I got my tactics totally wrong. At least I have a better idea of what to expect if I draw up there again… Still scratching my head though…
Day Three I was at Grafton, which is above Radcot, and another section I’ve never seen . Up to now I’d had the luxury of parking behind my peg, but you definitely need a barrow for this zone, with some mega walks in the blazing sunshine.
I was told there was a chance of a chub, but all I saw on chopped worm and a chopped worm feeder were more of those pesky micro chub and a couple of early perch. I’ve basically just caught roach on hemp at 10 metres for my 6lb 5oz catch. I think hemp is the only thing the micro fish can’t easily eat. That was enough for a section prize as Ian Young won the entire match with 10lb 14oz of hemp roach from peg 1 in my zone.
Highlight was watching the kids hilariously canoeing straight into my far-bank bushes multiple times and their very patient instructor telling me, “It was like herding cats!”
So a reasonable end to a tricky three days. It’s been a steep learning curve and I’ve definitely not got the experience on the upper river that’s required just yet. So many thoughts and ideas whirring around in my head as to how I should have fished each peg in hindsight. There’s clearly no shortage of fish, which is great to see. The key is trying to catch the bigger ones or going for 500+ smaller ones. I’m clearly no good at either yet!
I must say it was an excellently organised event and the barbecue afterwards was really appreciated by everyone. Thanks to Cadence for sponsoring it. A big well done to Dawid Zukowski winning with a perfect 3-point score, plus Gary Etheridge 2nd on 4 points and last year’s champion Chris Webb 3rd with 5 points.
