Directions: From Richmond follow the A305 to Twickenham

Directions: From Richmond follow the A305 to Twickenham. Just after the traffic lights where the London Road joins, take the first turning on your left down Water Lane to the river. There is ample pay and display parking near the river but keep an eye open as the tide comes in because the whole area can be flooded on a high Spring tide. I have often seen cars with water coming in as the tide has come in unexpectedly high.

The River:

At Twickenham the river is tidal. The Embankment section is really the inside non-navigational channel by Eel Pie Island. As such, it is much shallower than the main navigation channel on the far side of the island. Although technically this is the non-navigational side of the island there are still plenty of smaller craft that will try to use this channel. There are very few spots that will have more than 5ft of water at low tide.The banks are steep but there are several sets of useful steps that can be fished. Please try to avoid the double steps on a Sunday morning between 11 a.m. and noon as the Francis Francis angling club will be landing from their punts. They need the steps to land and unload their gear. This takes less than an hour and then steps are free. There are other spots just below the bridge and at the end of the Embankment where you can wade at low tide.The clarity of the water, particularly in summer, has really changed since John Burrett wrote his book on the lower Thames. In his book John describes the tidal Thames as always coloured and goes on to explain that “you cannot see more than eighteen inches down”. If he walked along Twickenham Embankment on a typical morning now he would be surprised to find how far down he could see into the water. The bottom is often clearly visible in over three feet of water. This is a big change that has greatly affected the fishing and one that we need to be very aware of if we are going to get the best out of fishing this section of the Thames.There are at present more people coming down to the river to feed the ducks, swans and geese. Some of these people are bringing excessive amounts of bread down with them. One lady appears to bring about 6 loaves a day down to feed the water birds. Standing downstream of where the public are feeding the ducks, you can often see bream and other fish feeding on the bread that has sunk to the bottom.This constant feeding of the water birds has not only attracted a large number of birds but also a good variety of species including the odd Egyptian goose and Mandarin ducksWhen I first fished Twickenham Embankment over forty years ago the fishing was very different from today. In Summer we would trot with hempseed to catch good bags of roach and dace. In the evening, fishing well into dark, we would leger with knobs of cheese for the roach which were running to over 1.5 lb. This used to be great fun and the bites had to be seen to be believed. Many a roach pulled the rod along the railings as they took the bait.Later in the year, we would fish the tide using bread to bag up with the roach and dace. Bags of thirty pound plus on a tide were not that uncommon. In the seventies there was a terrific increase in the number of dace in the section, particularly at the back end of the season. It appeared that every dace had moved onto the gravel runs prior to spawning. The catches of dace were outstanding with individual bags to over forty pounds coming in these last two weeks of the season.Now the fishing has changed, the water is much clearer and the big bags of the smaller fish have disappeared. There are still plenty of roach and dace in the section but the real heavy weight bags of them are a matter of the past. It is still possible to catch fair numbers of these species, however it is now bream that often make up the majority of the weights, particularly if there is some colour in the water.I fished the section last winter on a falling tide after it had been flooded for several weeks. I used a stick float holding six number 4 shot with a size 16 hook baited with two maggots in the slack by the bridge. The first cast produced a bream of just over 5lb, as did the second cast. The sport was hectic, as I caught 8 bream from 3.5 lb to 6.25 lb as the tide dropped. Then it went dead for half an hour before I caught a solitary dace. A good bag of fish that was comparable with past weights but the composition of the catch was completely different. There is now also a greater variety of fish being caught. It is no longer just roach, dace, bream with the odd perch – carp appear to be more common than in the past. There are also odd catches of every type of trout coming out at various times, including sea trout. I have sent photographs with scales to the Environmental Agency of suspect sea trout and had them confirm the fishes identity. The E.A. are very good like this and appear to be willing to help anglers identify such fish.Although there are now more big fish in this section, I would still advise float anglers to fish relatively light as the water can be remarkably clear. It is also worth using bread at the times people are feeding the bird life. There appears to be so much bread going in at present I do not think it will take much longer for big shoals of bream with some heavy weight carp to be attracted to the area. Let’s face it, these bird feeders are doing a great job prebaiting for us anglers!

Directions:

From Richmond follow the A305 to Twickenham. Just after the traffic lights where the London Road joins, take the first turning on your left down Water Lane to the river. There is ample pay and display parking near the river but keep an eye open as the tide comes in because the whole area can be flooded on a high Spring tide. I have often seen cars with water coming in as the tide has come in unexpectedly high.

The River:

At Twickenham the river is tidal. The Embankment section is really the inside non-navigational channel by Eel Pie Island. As such, it is much shallower than the main navigation channel on the far side of the island. Although technically this is the non-navigational side of the island there are still plenty of smaller craft that will try to use this channel. There are very few spots that will have more than 5ft of water at low tide.The banks are steep but there are several sets of useful steps that can be fished. Please try to avoid the double steps on a Sunday morning between 11 a.m. and noon as the Francis Francis angling club will be landing from their punts. They need the steps to land and unload their gear. This takes less than an hour and then steps are free. There are other spots just below the bridge and at the end of the Embankment where you can wade at low tide.The clarity of the water, particularly in summer, has really changed since John Burrett wrote his book on the lower Thames. In his book John describes the tidal Thames as always coloured and goes on to explain that “you cannot see more than eighteen inches down”. If he walked along Twickenham Embankment on a typical morning now he would be surprised to find how far down he could see into the water. The bottom is often clearly visible in over three feet of water. This is a big change that has greatly affected the fishing and one that we need to be very aware of if we are going to get the best out of fishing this section of the Thames.There are at present more people coming down to the river to feed the ducks, swans and geese. Some of these people are bringing excessive amounts of bread down with them. One lady appears to bring about 6 loaves a day down to feed the water birds. Standing downstream of where the public are feeding the ducks, you can often see bream and other fish feeding on the bread that has sunk to the bottom.This constant feeding of the water birds has not only attracted a large number of birds but also a good variety of species including the odd Egyptian goose and Mandarin ducksWhen I first fished Twickenham Embankment over forty years ago the fishing was very different from today. In Summer we would trot with hempseed to catch good bags of roach and dace. In the evening, fishing well into dark, we would leger with knobs of cheese for the roach which were running to over 1.5 lb. This used to be great fun and the bites had to be seen to be believed. Many a roach pulled the rod along the railings as they took the bait.Later in the year, we would fish the tide using bread to bag up with the roach and dace. Bags of thirty pound plus on a tide were not that uncommon. In the seventies there was a terrific increase in the number of dace in the section, particularly at the back end of the season. It appeared that every dace had moved onto the gravel runs prior to spawning. The catches of dace were outstanding with individual bags to over forty pounds coming in these last two weeks of the season.Now the fishing has changed, the water is much clearer and the big bags of the smaller fish have disappeared. There are still plenty of roach and dace in the section but the real heavy weight bags of them are a matter of the past. It is still possible to catch fair numbers of these species, however it is now bream that often make up the majority of the weights, particularly if there is some colour in the water.I fished the section last winter on a falling tide after it had been flooded for several weeks. I used a stick float holding six number 4 shot with a size 16 hook baited with two maggots in the slack by the bridge. The first cast produced a bream of just over 5lb, as did the second cast. The sport was hectic, as I caught 8 bream from 3.5 lb to 6.25 lb as the tide dropped. Then it went dead for half an hour before I caught a solitary dace. A good bag of fish that was comparable with past weights but the composition of the catch was completely different. There is now also a greater variety of fish being caught. It is no longer just roach, dace, bream with the odd perch – carp appear to be more common than in the past. There are also odd catches of every type of trout coming out at various times, including sea trout. I have sent photographs with scales to the Environmental Agency of suspect sea trout and had them confirm the fishes identity. The E.A. are very good like this and appear to be willing to help anglers identify such fish.

Although there are now more big fish in this section, I would still advise float anglers to fish relatively light as the water can be remarkably clear. It is also worth using bread at the times people are feeding the bird life. There appears to be so much bread going in at present I do not think it will take much longer for big shoals of bream with some heavy weight carp to be attracted to the area. Let’s face it, these bird feeders are doing a great job prebaiting for us anglers!