Early start today, managed to get half an hour before work. Had a 8 good fish all on a large dry fly.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjH7XAZCR2c

Those are nice chub. Proper lumps. Were you sight fishing for them or just fishing blind?

the water in the streams around me are clear enough to see fish in the top foot, today I was very lucky as the fish were only a few inches down, which made it quite easy. I only ever fish the pool when the fish are high in the water. I have found the takes to be very gentle, plus the flow in the pool makes it very difficult to get positive takes fishing blind.

jason

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Great stuff, Jason - that's a remarkable stamp of chub to take on the dry, and all from what looks like the same pool or run too?

I've been using streamers for the chub on the Wandle over the past couple of days... dries just get hammered by the smaller silver fish instead.

Out of interest (and having re-read your FF&FT article) do you ever run into trout in Oxford? Feels like it could be an academic, dreaming-spires sort of place for a Trout in the Town project if you ever did...

Great stuff again!!

Theo

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theopike.com
wandletrust.org
urbantrout.net

The Thames has always had a small head of trout, my Dad told me that he used to catch trout spinning the wiers when he was a boy (50 years ago).

Today the odd brown trout is caught by coarse anglers on the main river, however they look like farmed fish to me, even so they are big, 3lb plus, there photos are posted up in the local tackle shops, I don't think any of the go back.

There is still a few wild Thames trout in my section of the Thames, just below me at Benson, there is a small stream in a village called Ewelme, the trout here are pure Thames trout, there gene pool is uncontaminated.

I have never seen a trout in the streams I fish (which are in the middle of town), but I have been told they are there. One stream called the Seacourt would be ok, its clear and fast running.

jason

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The coarse boys must be jealous seeing you with those big fat buggers.

Well done, excellent fish.

Cheers, Dave.

Dave

Only kids fish this stretch of water, most people just walk by. cheak out the youtube link below and your see why. The kids do not catch much, all of them fish down stream which puts them in full view of the fish, as you can see these are big fish, they have been around the block a few times, the kids just end up spooking them. This is one of the reasons I got up at day break on the 16th.

there are lots of streams like this in Oxford that hold big chub and they never get fished. Most angler around here want to fish for carp, barbel or pike.

jason

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Those chub always see me before I see them

I know the water Jason fishes really well. I can say truly that they are slap bang right in the middle of Oxford, they do contain really good fish, and that they are very very lightly fished. They are also very hard to access. Oxford is also blessed with a high population of less than tolerant people who don't regard angling highly (i.e. antis etc), so I expect that anyone trying to fish there may attract some comment. I wouldn't be surprised about trout from some of the Oxford streams, and wouldn't be surprised if there were some truly large trout as well.
I'm hoping to target soon some of my local streams (most of which were polluted about 20 years ago) for some truly wild trout, as well as some large chub.

http://rivererewashrestorationproject.blogspot.com/

Never caught or seen a trout in the Seacourt, and have fished it for years, mainly at the Wytham end.
Have seen trout in the Cherwell around the weir pool to the back of University Parks, just up from where it joins the Thames, so they are about.

Plumpy.