Keith Arthur:

Some bigger swirls indicated that the bream I was after had arrived but I endured only one huge 'line-bite' (my excuse for missing it!)

Keith Arthur
Quotes of the week

I've managed about five hours in total fishing my local River Thames this season but both visits threw up some very interesting points.

My first trip was to 'The Barbel Swim', just a few minutes walk from my house. The river at this point is semi-tidal: it is maintained at a 'navigable depth' between Richmond half-lock and Teddington Weir for 11 months of the year -November is the odd one out for maintenance work to be carried out - so the tide floods for two hours, raising the level by up to 2.5 metres then ebbs for roughly the same period.

My first cast was on the second half of the ebb and I fished through to the bottom of the tide. The river is then held at that level until the next flood tide, eight or so hours later.

I was fishing with my 'barbel but might hook a carp' gear: 12'10" barbel rod, 8lb line, size 8 hook with two 10mm boilies hair-rigged, all held in place with a 2oz grippa lead.

I loose feed 8mm pellets as a rule, preferring an 'avenue' of bait downstream leading the fish up to my hook. I also add a PVA mesh bag with a dozen 8mm pellets and a couple of crushed boilies to the hook on the cast. At this time of year the PVA breaks down in 20 seconds or so.

Right from the first cast my quiver tip was indicating interest from fish but I'd be very surprised if they were barbel as the signs were pretty much just short, sharp raps. I had one or two more positive indications but I got the feeling these were from fish unable to get both boilies and hook into their mouths.

Eventually, just as dusk fell, the tip wanged round and I had my barbel. I'm not 'size-ist' about fish I catch on the Thames: obviously, like anyone, I prefer 'big' but medium is fine too. I didn't bother to weigh this fish but it was in terrific condition and probably went between 4.5 and 5lbs.

I couldn't get those aborted bites out of my head though.

Nutters

The second trip was again a short evening session, this time upstream above Teddington Lock. There was a bit of flow but nothing to write home about and the water was clear. It had also been a blazing hot day - there were even a few nutters swimming in the river, within a mile of where two canoeists have died from Weil's Disease! Oh well.

The river looked 'dead as mutton' as the saying goes but once the light went off the water it came alive, especially with roach, rolling and taking some of the hatching mayflies that were coming off all evening. Some bigger fish rolled two and I saw what may have been a couple of big chub taking mayflies - could have been carp though.

Some bigger swirls indicated that the bream I was after had arrived but I endured only one huge 'line-bite' (my excuse for missing it!) before time came to pack up.

Now for those bites on the Tidal: I was telling a pal of mine and he said that Anglers' Mail columnist Bill Rushmer has been catching some huge roach (for the Thames) up to just under 2lbs, from his local stretch of Thames - on 8mm and 10mm pellets.

The tides are pretty good for next week if I can wangle an evening or two and I may just scale down to a smaller hook, lighter line and a single boilie or pellet, but using a similar feeding routine. Anyone want to bet that I hook a big barbel or carp? I just KNOW that's what's going to happen!

Special

Incidentally, before I sign off, a friend of a friend had a super-special morning session in Richmond last week: seven carp, six commons and a mirror, to 26lb. Well, that is a slight exaggeration as he only had six fish but, and this is astonishing considering it was in a river, he had one of the smaller common carp TWICE! Obviously longing for the outside world!

Also, that original friend had a magnificent brace of fish, again from Richmond, when he landed a 22lb 10oz fully-scaled mirror - his first 20lb fully-scaled from the Thames - and a 9lb 8oz barbel in a four-hour morning trip. Now THAT's what I call fishing!

Do you want some tips or advice from Keith Arthur? To send him a question, please click here: skysportsclub@bskyb.com

Keith answers your questions

Hello Keith, hope you're well. I have fished an evening series over the past four years of which worm (dendrabena) up in the water has been the bait. The last three years my worms seemed to be reasonably tough and therefore I could catch 3-4 or maybe 5 fish per piece of worm. This year the worms look and seem fresh, but they're a lot softer and are not tough enough to catch more than 1-2 fish. Obviously having to keep changing the hook bait is costing me valuable time! I wondered if you could kindly offer me some advice on how to toughen up my Dendrabenas. I currently keep them in a fridge and feed them on tomatoes and mashed potato. I have tried different worm suppliers as well. Thank you for your help Keith very much appreciated George.

KEITH REPLIES: Hello George. I have toughened many a lobworm in the past and have no reason to believe that the same tricks won't work for dendrabenas. Clean them of the peat/material they arrive in. The easiest way I have found to do this is to spread the worms in a shallow tray. They bury under the peat, leaving a thin layer on top. Lift as much of that as you can, then put them in a smaller tray, or a 3pt bait box. Repeat until almost neat. Now they need storing in a mildly abrasive material that will keep some inherent moisture and there is NOTHING to beat sphagnum moss. You should be able to buy some from florists or garden centres: they use it for decorating wreaths, bouquets and plant arrangements. Put them in a well-ventilated box (use sacking or the 'upper regions' of a pair of ladies' tights over the top instead of a normal bait box lid as moisture can block the small holes on a bait box and suffocate the worms) and keep them cool. In my opinion a domestic fridge at 4ºC is too cold. It will keep them but an out-of-the-sun garage floor is better. Visit them every day and give them a bit of a turn-over (physical, not apple!) and in a week or so they'll be much tougher. Worms only require feeding very infrequently, every two weeks or so, and a spoonful of mashed potato, without butter, pepper and salt etc will keep a lot of worms fed. I'd avoid tomatoes as they are a bit acid.

You'll have worms tough enough to knock the fish out with a single blow!

Hi Keith. I am 14 years old and want to know how I can take my match fishing to a new level? I fish junior matches most weeks but I don't have the confidence to start entering open matches. Do you think if I had a coaching lesson with an angling coach I would have more confidence to fish in the open matches? Thankyou, Harry Mottram

KEITH REPLIES: Hello Harry. If you can find a TOP match angling coach, then go for it but many professional coaches aren't match anglers, either PAA or NFA registered. Ask at your local tackle shop or commercial fishery and they may know of someone. If you are close to Cudmore, that recently staged the Fish'O'Mania final, for example, finalist Andy May is a professional coach and can guide you at an extremely high level. His website explains more: www.fishingcoaching.co.uk

You may find your biggest problem will be getting to matches unless you hook-up with a regular match angler but good luck with it. You can be inspired by someone like Matt Godfrey who has just won his third Youth World Championship Individual Gold Medal!

Tight lines

Keith Arthur