The Tide

The Thames is a tidal river, with a 5m range. When you venture down onto the foreshore, check any local signage and make sure of your exit point as the tide rises.  Access is poor and the flows greatest in the narrow section between Vauxhall and Wapping, so be especially careful here.

Licences

You will require the normal rod and line fishing licence for all freshwater fish and eels, but not for sea fish. The licensing requirement extends downstream to the Thames Barrier at Woolwich. Sea fish rarely extend above this point or freshwater fish below.

In all freshwater fisheries, be they ponds, lakes, rivers or canals, the fish and fishing rights belong to someone. That is why you need permission (usually in the form of a day permit or membership) as well as the rod licence.

In all tidal waters, including the tidal Thames, there is public or common right of fishery. This means that no permission from the adjacent landowner is needed. In other words, angling is available wherever you can make access legally and safely onto the river path or foreshore.

The Thames Path is now continuous from Teddington to the Thames Barrier and almost complete from here down to Dartford, so access to the riverside is plentiful and growing.

The close season for freshwater fish applies in the estuary as it does in the freshwater river upstream.

Freshwater fish

Fishing for freshwater fish exists in the upper tidal river above Battersea throughout the year, and after long wet winters, as far downstream as Greenwich. The principle freshwater quarry is the dace (with fish to 1lb), which spawns in large numbers at Wandsworth in the Spring. Trotting with small baits is particularly effective from the shore between Wandsworth and Putney, and at Hammersmith, Chiswick Ait,  Mortlake, Isleworth, Richmond, Petersham Meadows and Teddington. Roach are extremely common throughout the freshwater reach as well. Shoals of bream to 10lb. are locally common at Teddington, Richmond and Chelsea. Carp, barbel and perch can all be found in Teddington weir pool, Richmond and Kew. Eels can be taken throughout the estuary in the summer months. Winter fishing for dace, roach and perch can be productive from the shore at all the above sites and below the city from the beach at Greenwich.

Sea Fish

The most common sea species is the flounder, which can reach to 3lb.  Juvenile flounder extend throughout the estuary in the summer and autumn, but larger fish of interest to anglers rarely extend above the Thames Barrier. They are particularly common in the tidal creeks below Barking in the summer.  The flounder are joined by bass, mainly schoolies, although individual fish to 10lb have been taken on ragworm and squid baits. The bass extend upstream to the Woolwich area.  Good shore fishing sites from the river wall and foreshore exist at Woolwich, Thamesmead, Erith, Dartford, Grays, Tilbury, Gravesend and Canvey Island. Sole can be taken in the summer months from the new amenity pier at Erith, and from the shore at  Grays, Tilbury and Gravesend. Thin and thick lipped grey mullet provide a summer challenge with freshwater gear and small baits around high water in tidal creeks, bays and in shallow water around reed beds. Winter fishing for codling extends upstream as far as Gravesend and Tilbury.  In the outer estuary, a range of charter vessels operate out of Leigh on Sea and Southend for bass, plaice, roker and tope in the summer and cod in the winter.