London and area Thames river fishin?

[Jitterbug]

Hey guys, just wanted to say hi again and to say thanks to the folks who share here at this site. There are some pretty decent reads as well as nice pics and vids. I fish the Thames river and was just wondering if anyone knows any tips or advice for fishing areas. If you have fished this river can you let me know what presentations worked best for small greens as well as pike. Any and all tips or advice is appreciated. Thanks so much guys. Happy Fishin!

[Ralph Field]

For smallmouth spinners work well and would likely work for pike as well. Jigs with twister tails work for anything in the Thames. Many smallmouth can be taken on flies, if your into that. I've had my best luck in riffle type water.

[mepps]

Lots of options near London, as mentioned above, smallies are very common. I used to fish the section between Riverside Dr and Oxford Rd bridges. #2 Mepps was my most productive for smallies. Spinnerbaits also produced walleye, pike, and white bass near the deeper water near Riverside bridge (opposite the fountain).

There are tons of carp around too and are easily taken on a few kernels of corn. They aren't huge (rarely over 12lbs) but they are a blast to catch when nothing else is biting.

 

Good luck!

 

Here are a few shots from 6 or 7 years ago. You should be able to figure out that spot - its one of my favs!

 

 

Edited September 24, 2014 by Fishing Fury

[bare foot wader]

smallies, walleye, pike, gars and crappie, channel cats too...some of my better spots used to be fanshawe dam, springbank, labatts dam, the forks, down by delaware...lots of good spots, especially if you wade...it was a lot better before they "repaired" springbank dam, have they fixed that yet? or decided to keep it permanently open?

[Ralph Field]

The dam hasn't been repaired yet, but law suits are pending. The gar we caught were above and below spingbank dam before it was rebuilt. All kinds of cats in the river, There is or was a carp match fishing club that operated on the Thames. We caught a ton of walleyes in the spring south of Delaware before they closed it down.

[Regan Thompson]

I used to back onto the Thames when I lived in Dorchester.. Wow, what a great and underrated river system! Right near the bridge in Dorchester we used to catch some monster bass! We used to use soft plastics (tube baits especially), let the current take them a bit while jigging them slight until WAM!!!! We would fish from Dorchester to Ingersoll and Thamesford.. In the spring we used to get some big Pike too. Best part is, hardly anyone fishes it.

[Mike Pike]

Hey Jitterbug, the Thames has always kinda reminded me of the the Grand River, which I fish a lot.

 

One of my favourite 'go to' baits is a twister tail grub fished on a 1/8th ounce jig head. It's perfect for shallow river situations because you can cast and retrieve the rig over rocks and that thick matted weed the the river is full of. The lighter jig head allows you to swim it nicely over these obstructions, seldom getting snagged because the hook is pointed upwards.