London Ontario Fishing

Alright... here's the story:

I've just sort of recently got hooked (pun intended) on fishing. The most fishing I ever really did until recently was at my Uncle's cottage on Little Lake near Port Severn... but fishing there is a bit of a joke. Most days you don't even need bait. A shiny hook will land fish after fish if you're casting at the right time. Worms -ALWAYS- work, and if you're willing to wake up early (not really... just sometime before 6am) you'l land a fish worth taking a picture of. Not tough.

A buddy of mine got me into it while I was at school in Kitchener Waterloo, and I had some moderate success there. I decided to try a bait casting set up and after that I was clearly an angler of some form. BUT... this is where the challenge begins.

I finished school and moved back to London. I know people fish here, but I've only seen very few fish landed. That's why I'm here. Hopefully someone on this forum can lead me in the right direction and let me know what I should try/not try and where I should go. I've looked at a few other threads about where to fish in London and they have 2 key locations in common: The Forks of the Thames, and below the weir behind Labatt's. I checked both those places out today and here's what happened:

Bass is what I normally go for. I know there are Bass in the Thames, buuut I'm most comfortable with crank baits. I have a couple different colours of senkos as well, and some hula poppers and pop-rs that I'm terrible with. First I tried the Forks... I've never really felt my crank baits bouncing off of a sandy bottom, so that was interesting, but no fish. I threw a few different wacky rigged senkos and still nothing. I feel I should mention that when I got there, there were already 8 rods in the water, and I wasn't the last person to show up, so after about an hour it felt a little crowded so I moved on to the weir.

The weir was nice. I didn't know that park was back there (I grew up in the west end...) and my crank baits bouncing off rocks was familiar enough... but the water was really fast (Like I said before, I'm used to fishing a super calm lake) and only appeared to be about 1ft deep at most. This wasn't discouraging though. I would have stayed longer than I did, but I almost walked on top of two men about 40+ years old sitting and talking and drinking in a bush. No big, I fished a little ways away from them, but I like my kidneys where they currently reside in my belly. I couldn't help wondering why 2 grown men wouldn't just go to a bar for a drink... or one of their houses... unless they had no money and no houses. I felt like I was fishing in their living room and moved on again.

Closer to where I live in the west end, there's a bend in the Thames that goes under a bridge... where Oxford St W/Glendon Rd meets Old River road. The river is deep and slow here, so if you squint just right you don't notice that it's moving and it looks like a lake. Also, there are fish here (you can see them throwing ripples up at the surface)... but I think it's mostly carp and I've never fished for carp (so I don't know what I'm doing). Hoping for bass I threw my favourite Rapala minnow crank bait and passed the time. I walked under the bridge a bit to get below a set of rapids there and saw a carp eye me up before lazily bloating it's way into deeper water. Somehow still more amiable than the men drinking by the river. I didn't catch anything there either, but the last time I was there I got a 8" ish bass that I took a picture of. You can see the bridge behind me...

Anyways... those spots are close to me and I would fish them more often if I knew what techniques/lures/baits I should use to be more effective than I am. I'm not opposed to fishing for carp either, I just feel I don't have the knowledge I need to get started. ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!!!

Your new best friend,

-Matt

The fishing behind labatts can be good when the water is up a bit..ive seen pictures of salmon caught there in the fall and have caught some bass and such there myself...You need to be aware of your surroundings as that spot is frequented by some...we'll call them " less desirables " it is a different place after dark...Fishing in the thames in my opinion as gone down hill...you used to be able to toss a yellow twister tail almost anywere and you were bound to catch a smallie or rock bass ...nowadays im finding it more and more difficult to find fish..and this years low water levels are certainly not helping...I imagine if you were where the fountain comes out (forks) most of the people there were still fishing for carp,,,That spot is not very good for much else...There is some deeper holes near the wonderland bridge towards the dam in byron but again water levels will dictate where to go...delaware and kamoka are pretty popular spots with easy access and a good chance of hooking into something...I have seen bass , pike, walleye, salmon, and even rainbows caught there...timing is everything.. Google maps is a great resources for scouting out access points and can get you started in the right direction. I still live in London and was raised in the west end as well...I have fished many many kilometers of the Thames and have to say my best success is out of town...There are some ponds in the city that hold some largies..mostly cookie cutter 1 pounders but have pulled some 3+ pound largies out of a couple..These are ponds inside the city and are not on private property..most of the ponds outside like kamoka are private and land owners will call opp so be careful when venturing about. I wont give out any information publicly but if you msg me privately I could lead you in the right direction....

Hey,

I'm not in the London area, so I cannot help you for locations. But I can give you a few tips.

I understand that you have crankbaits, senkos and top water baits, but I recommend that you get a crayfish/creature soft plastic and Texas rig it. I fish this by reeling then pausing. I find this setup to be effective in every sort of condition. I like this setup if the bass are a not willing to chase down a fast moving bait, but are just cruising around. I get most strikes on the pause.

Another great setup that I like is using a bright coloured trick worm on a shaky head jig. I fish the shaky head like a jerk bait. I like this setup for when the Bass are active and in murky or clear water. I find that if I use this rig when there are weeds present, I just end up with my rig getting covered in weeds. I get most strikes right after I finish a jerk.

I like wacky rigging senkos, in still or little current water and I also fish it really slowly. I will cast it out and not reel in slack line until I am 100% sure that it is on the bottom, then I pop it 6 inches up and let is sink, reel in the slack line and repeat. I find this works really well when I pitch it into gaps in Lilly pads around mid day. I figure the bass are chilling under the Lilly pads because they provide shade, and when they see the quivering senko come floating down in front of their nose they cannot resist. Trouble is getting them out of the weeds, once there hooked. For this setup I will use a fluorocarbon leader.

For carp I use either bread molded around the hook, or corn, I don't use a sinker or anything as when I fish for carp I can 99% of the time see them, so I just cast the bait in front of it.

Hope this helps.

P.S - Where is the photo?

For carp I would recommend using corn. If you do a search on this site "Hammercarp" gives great advise on how to prepare it and fish it. Catfish are another option that you can catch on chicken liver or worms or cut bait or shrimp. I have caught bass in the Thames , but further east than where you have been fishing. Behind East Park Golf course is where we caught fish using spinners or curly tailed grubs on light jig heads. If you have a car you have the option of trying Sharon Creek conservation area at Delaware. There are bass in the ponds in the Ponmills area, but access is restricted to a couple of ponds. The Trout farm at Komoka has a pay pond where all bass must be released and only bar bless hooks may be used. Some people also fish at Springwater Conservation area south of Orwell or Lake Whittaker Conservation area north of Aylmer. There is one of the pondmills ponds on the grounds of Parkwood Hospital, but I cannot say for sure that they allow fishing there. I think ,but I'm not sure that there is another pond behind Regina Mundi high school, Best of Luck.

FishingNoob said:

P.S - Where is the photo?

Click to expand...

Is it there now? The image uploader doesn't like me...

I've fished the thames for about 5 years.

Lots of ponds to fish out off around london for bass and fanshawe lakes old,s a nice population of walleye, smallmouth bass and largemouth bass.

a very small jerkbait as always made it great for me in the thames.

in december a huge run of silver bass makes it to the fork of the thames and it's great.

Thanks for the advice! I don't have a whole lot of money at the moment, so I'm sort of stuck with what I have... although I might be able to get some corn, and I made some boilies off a recipe I found on here so I'll try those out either tonight or tomorrow and let you know how it went.

Hey man, I had great luck in the thames this year. Im in the West end, I mainly fish around springbank park/storybook gardens area. Ive caught a bunch of smallmouth on Jigs mostly......crawfish pumkinseed color, or dual tail power grubs. Caught a bunch of walleye on the same jigs in the same area. Caught a 28 inch pike as well with the above set up. I catch carp with white bread(I like it better than corn) and caught a bunch of catfish as well using whole wheat bread.

Some seriously good fishing in the western end of London.

Goodluck man, happy fishing!!!

Thought Id reply to this as I have been fishing the thames my whole life. If I were you Id set my eyes on some jigs and grubs, nothing has beat them in the thames. Stick with brighter colors as the water turns quite frequant this time of year. Trick to this is to stick with smaller jigs to retrieve slow and be able to pop the jig. I always run 1/8 oz jigs. Right now the silver bass are in there run and in another two or so weeks the waters will be flooded with walleye. I have fished from St. Marys all the way to Chattam and can tell you theres not one spot to focus on. What you do wanna keep a eye on is rushes of water with drop offs. With the water so low this year the fish cant make it over most of these and there you will find what your looking for. Good luck and if you have anymore questions, send them my way. Cheers.

I fish the thames once or twice a week. Im in the west end and i too prefer to use crank baits and top water as well. I have more luck on poppers then crank baits although i have caught small mouth on both. Lately i have been catching a ton of smallies, white bass, and monster carp in the thames, havent seen as many pike but that doesnt mean they arent there.

Just got back from fishing this morning ill post some pictures shortly.

Pictures from this morning....

6.3 pound carp....


7.1 pound carp..


White bass....


White bass....




Caught the carp on bread ball rig. Both of those white bass were caught on spinners, and the smallies seem to love them too. Those white bass were caught last weekend, i caught a couple today and had a bunch of small mouth crush on my heddon torpedo. Couldnt set on the small mouth and didnt bother taking pictures of todays white bass because i already have some from last weekend on my phone.

These were all caught in the same spot on the thames in the west end. Like i said they will hit top water all morning but as it starts to get later i switch to spinners and they love them.

Ill take some more pictures tomorrow morning when i go. I also have videos of me landing all 4 of those fish if anyone is interested.

I have yet to encounter any drunk old men, but there is a bunch of broken line etc. im guessing from kids although every time i go i am the only one there.

Cheers and gl on the water.