A day on the Thames with Ray Clarke -
the roach record holder

Ray came to pick me up around 6am -there had only been one car across my road all morning, and it passed my house a couple of times before stopping opposite the drive. I then saw a figure come out of the car and walk towards me, it was Ray. Quickly things were packed, the boot was loaded and the journey was on. Off to Richmond! It was so cold the moisture you breathed out near enough froze in mid-air!

After the drive through London and a good old chinwag during the trip - we finally arrived at Richmond around 6:40. Ray parked up by the river and we went off for a wander to find the best place to fish. The temperature recorded at first was minus five degrees Celsius - we were greeted with a frosty nature scene, a VERY frosty one at that...

But it still made for a good photo!

We'd found the two swims Ray was looking for. A couple of swims next to each other where we could fish on steps, as apposed to a very steep bank which could have left you in the freezing cold water! "What do you think of here then Ash" he asked and without hesitation I agreed that this would be a nice place to set up.

The rods were set sooner than you could say "stick out your keepnet mate!" and bait for the day was - maggots, (both live and dead), lupins/hempseed (thanks to Ray for that one), a sweet method mix groundbait, pellet, and corn.

Before I could even set out my stickfloat, all I hear is "Ash I'm in!" - my hopes were high on seeing a good fish come out, and it was!
A chub of about a pound and a bit.


I then decided to give my feeder a couple of re-casts and Ray came over to inspect my float set up. As I don't often fish rivers, I took this day as a learning curve to my fishing experiences and I learnt a lot from it.

With the new rig set up, and a few tips from Ray - I was ready. The fish were not - unfortunately ready to feed for me! But Ray on the other hand, was doing very well!

The weather had warmed up to a toasty -3 degrees Celsius and another chub had been netted by Ray.

Things were not looking all that good in my swim but it actually didn't bother me as I was fishing a completely new place - with the roach record holder at that! So no complaints at all! Plus, I'm seeing a load of fish coming out, along with my first ever chub I've ever physically seen.

As the day went on, the fishing got very slow - if only the fishing were as fast as the river's flow then we'd be laughing!

Again, Ray had another bite on the float and this time it was nice!

At first, he says to me "A chub I think, but I'm not too sure, could be a bream, it's not fighting much" - and then it gave a bit of wellie! "OK it's bigger than I thought" was the immediate response, and when netted - a brilliant looking 7lbs 2oz bream was put in the keepnet!

Later on Ray had stuck out a feeder downstream with worm baited on a size 12 hook and a couple of casts later into the net goes another bream of about 4lbs with me gazing on in amazement behind him watching these amazing pristine fish get netted.

We then decided to move upstream a bit more as there was nothing more being produced from the swims - and we gave it a go there until about 1pm

The fish weren't having it... and on that note - it was time to go.

A great day but a cold one at that.


Many thanks go to Ray Clarke for taking me up there and showing me a lot of new things to do with river fishing, set ups, and how certain things about rivers can affect the fishes feeding habits etc.

I'm just going to have to show you how to fish the Glade now mate!

Thanks for reading all!

Tight lines!
Ash