This is free fishing! All you need is a national rod licence.Conditions

| In the first of the series, I thought it appropriate to start on John Burrett’s local stretch that runs from the “London Apprentice” upstream to the half lock at Richmond. Although the book was exceptionally accurate for the year, forty years have now passed and many factors have changed to alter both the dominant species and sizes of fish that inhabit the section.Location: Isleworth, Middlesex.Directions: The top of the section is off of the A316 as it crosses the Thames. From Twickenham follow the A316 towards London and turn left down “The Avenue” just before crossing the Thames at St Margarets. This road takes you down to the River Thames above the half lock. Turn left on reaching the Thames, this is “Ranelagh Drive”. There is free parking along this road and it is normally easy to get parked here. I prefer to park opposite the half lock.The lower end of the section is by the “London Apprentice” pub in Isleworth. This can be approached from Twickenham by following the A310. Turn right just before Bush Corner down Park Road. Follow this road, passing Syon Park on your left until you reach the Thames on your left hand side. Parking is free on your left.The Half Weir: This is at the top of the section and is very important as it distinguishes this section from the river above. The section we are looking at is fully tidal whilst the sections above to Teddington are, strictly speaking, semi-tidal. To understand this it is necessary for me to try and explain the working of the half weir. The half weir was constructed to keep a good head of water in the river between Richmond and the end of the tidal flow at Teddington weir. The half weir at Richmond is really a series of heavy iron gates that can be raised or lowered as required. As the tide reaches its peak and then starts to run out to sea, the gates are kept raised out of the river. Then, when the water reaches a certain level, the gates are lowered to keep that important head of water upstream whilst the water below can run off unhindered. Therefore on the section we are looking at in this review, the water will be still dropping. This water drops by about another 6ft.As the tide starts running in, the half weir is kept in place until the water reaches the same height as the water the other side. At this stage the gates are raised and the tide starts to rise in the section above. This means that the section above the half lock is best described as ‘semi-tidal’ as it does not experience the full rise and fall of the tide.Other details: This is free fishing! All you need is a national rod licence.Conditions: As explained earlier, this section is fully tidal and as such alters in depth from low tide to high tide by an average of about 17ft. The tides do not bring in the pollution that John Burrett describes in his book as the river is now much cleaner. It is also a much clearer river. I suspect that John would be surprised to see that instead of having only an average visibility of 18 inches in the water, it is now closer to 4ft.Species: This section to my knowledge has produced most types of coarse and game species with several sea species plus the odd exotic. The later no doubt dumped in the river from garden ponds and aquarium. The oddest fish that I know of was a South American Albanio Catfish!Although there are still a great variety of species present, there is a great difference in size and dominance since the 1960’s. Roach and dace appear to have suffered a somewhat dramatic decline whilst species such as carp and bream are far more abundant and run to a much higher average size than in the past. Bream of over 61b are now not that rare, with specimens to over eight pounds being recorded.Tactics: Feeder fishing with a groundbait feeder and bread hook bait often produces good bags of bream from this section. Good areas appear to be by the car park at the “London Apprentice” and just below the half lock.These areas were productive for bream in the early 1960’s and, as so accurately predicted by John Burrett in his book, now reach weights of over 81b. I have heard from reliable sources that an 81b 5oz bream was caught from near the “London Apprentice” last year. No doubt reduced flows, due to water abstraction, increased clarity and apparent reduction in numbers of smaller species have all played a part in this increase in bream sizes.Naturally this has had an effect on the tactics that we use for feeder fishing. However my tackle has still remained relatively simple but more powerful than in the past. I use a fairly powerful feeder rod with a fixed spool reel loaded with at least 51b b.s. line. Generally 61b b.s. line is a good all-round line with terminal gear of a running paternostered open feeder. This is running from a small swivel to a 1ft length of lower breaking strain line. The running swivel is stopped by a rubber shock absorbing bead on to another swivel from which a 2 to 3ft hook length is attached. Now I rarely use a hook length of less than 41b b.s. as there is always the danger of hooking a carp. Hooks are normally between size 6 and 10 baited with bread flake or crust. Sweet corn is also used as an alternative and sometimes produces the odd bigger fish.Bites can take time to develop but are often positive pulls or drop backs. However, as the flow has decreased, I believe the bites have tended to be less positive. As I am normally fishing on an evening spring tide for bream I have also noticed that the bites become more positive as the light fails.In the 1960’s, I would start off at high tide float fishing the tide going out for roach and dace using wet bread hook-bait and stiff bread-based groundbait sunk with a large stone. This was a cheap effective method, it had to be as I was still at school and could not afford vast quantities of maggots. I would start off on some steps walking down as the tide flowed off eventually reaching foreshore. I would continue wading out as the water continued to drop, often fishing less than 3ft of water at low water. In those days, bags of up to and over fifty pounds of roach and dace were possible.Although there are still some roach and dace in the stretch it is rare to put together a respectable bag of roach and dace. Instead bream appear to dominate with the not-so-uncommon good carp.I recall that last year, my old friend Cyril Fright had two twenty pound carp from the section in two outings. Cyril was float fishing with bread. Carp are now not that uncommon on this section and run to a surprisingly large size. As this section is fully tidal it has not proved that popular with carp anglers but carp are present in considerable numbers. They are not that difficult to catch. Location is the key and often, the right tide.Barbel on this section appear to have also increased in numbers and at times can be relatively easy. I saw some anglers bag up with barbel to 61b using block feeders with maggots fishing opposite Isleworth Eyott, the only island on the section. However these fish appear to be rather nomadic and disappeared shortly afterwards. Most of the barbel I have had from this section have come from the other bank below the half lock.

This section still has great potential and, although close to London, is not heavily fished. It is most certainly worth fishing.