RIVER THAMES,
EynSHAM DOWN

This 2 km stretch of the Thames is famous for its Bream shoals and big Chub. You’ll also find some lovely Roach, Perch, Pike, and a few Barbel. In the past, Carp and Tench have also come from here.

Parking

There is extremely limited parking at Eynsham.

How to find us

When you access the towpath at the Toll Bridge downstream Right-hand bank, you’ll find our water starting at approximately 400meters down.

The water stretches for approximately 2 km.

View it on Google Maps.

Species

The carp (Cyprinus carpio) comes in many different guises; The wildie, the leather, the mirror and the common carp.

Tench is a freshwater fish native to Europe. Thick and heavy, the tench has an olive green or darker back

The bream lives in schools and eats worms, mollusks, and other small animals. It is deep bodied, with flat sides and a small head, and is silvery with a bluish or brown back.

The northern pike gets its name from its resemblance to the pole-weapon known as the pike. Pike can grow to a relatively large size; with maximum recorded weights of 63 lb.

Perch are carnivorous fish found in small ponds, lakes, streams, or rivers. These fish feed on smaller fish, shellfish, or insect larvae, but can be caught with nearly any bait

The Rudd is richly coloured, with a green to Brassy-bronze upper back, burnished golden flanks becoming silver-white on the belly and have crimson red fins.

A high-backed, yellowish green fish with red eyes and reddish fins. It lives in small schools and eats aquatic plants, insects, and other small animals.

A group of small carp-like freshwater fish, almost all of the genus Barbus. They are usually found in gravel and rocky-bottomed slow-flowing waters with high dissolved oxygen content.

The dace is a slender fish, with a silvery body and brownish fins. It is more slender than the roach and smaller than the chub, with duller fins.

A shoaling fish, dusky silver in colour often with a brown to bronze sheen. They are quite distinctive with a blunt snout, rounded body and very large mouth.

The brown trout is a golden-brown fish with a dark back and creamy-yellow belly. Its back and sides display dark, reddish spots with pale borders. It can be distinguished from the similar rainbow trout by its plain, dark tail fin and by the lack of a purple side-stripe.

They have long and narrow bodies like snakes. Adult eels can be as short as 10 cm or as long as 3 m. It depends on their species. Eels have fewer fins than other fish; they do not have all the belly and chest fins, the back and anal fins are long and usually connected to the tail fin and the fins do not have spines.