The Thames at Teddington
Weir pool · Brackish water · in The River Thames
The normal tidal limit of the River Thames: a large weir and lock complex where the freshwater river meets the tideway, with a deep scoured weir pool, a fish pass and an abrupt change in the whole character of the water below it.
Safety: moving water and currents — can cause serious injury or death. 3 more points apply here.
FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.
Also associated with this ground
Recorded as present here without a documented method or strength behind them.
Barbel · Chub · Northern pike · European perch · European flounder · Roach
Recorded here, but not a species to target
These are recorded here, but they are not fish to take. Each is either assessed as Critically Endangered or protected by statute in this jurisdiction, and taking one may be prohibited outright — elsewhere every rod-caught fish must be returned. Read the species page and check the current rules with the authority before fishing.
How people fish it
Practised here: Coarse fishing.
Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.
- Ledgering
Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.
- Float fishing
Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.
- Feeder fishing
Legering with a weight that also carries bait, so that free offerings arrive in exactly the same place as the hookbait, cast after cast.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- The normal tidal limit of the River Thames: a large weir and lock complex where the freshwater river meets the tideway, with a deep scoured weir pool, a fish pass and an abrupt change in the whole character of the water below it.
- Exposure
- Urban and sheltered, with buildings and trees on both banks.
- Depth
- Deeply scoured in the weir pool, shallowing through the tail; the tideway below drains to mud at low water.
- Tide and flow
- The single most important boundary on the river. Above the weir the Thames is a freshwater navigation; below it the water rises and falls seven metres twice a day and salt reaches up on big tides. Migratory fish concentrate at the barrier.
Through the year
A year-round coarse fishery above the weir, flounder running up to the barrier through the colder months, and a documented migratory eel and smelt presence that is one of the clearest signals of the tideway's recovery.
Safety
Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death
A large navigation weir with a recirculating hydraulic beneath it, in a river that carries substantial flow after rain, immediately above a tideway with a seven-metre range and strong streams.
What reduces it: Do not enter the water below the weir, keep well back from wet structures, and treat the tidal water below the lock as a different and faster environment from the river above it.
Drowning and immersion — Can cause serious injury or death
A soft, undercut or steep bank gives way, or a wader steps off a shelf, and an angler enters water that is deeper and colder than the surface suggests, in clothing and boots that fill.
What reduces it: Test the bank before committing weight, wade only where you can see or have felt the bottom, wear a buoyancy aid on any water you would not want to swim in clothes, and do not fish alone at night on a steep or undercut bank.
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
UK coastal and inland water is cold enough for most of the year to trigger the involuntary gasp and the loss of swimming ability that decides most immersion deaths, and it does so within the first minute, long before hypothermia is relevant.
What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, carry a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag, and plan on the assumption that an unplanned entry into the water is survivable only if somebody knows immediately.
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
The tidal Thames has a large range and a strong flow, with steep slippery walls and stairs and very few places to climb out. The foreshore floods fast and the water arrives behind as well as in front. The tidal river drowns people regularly, and cold water shock is immediate for most of the year.
What reduces it: Know the tide times for the specific reach before going down to the foreshore, set a time to leave and keep it, never go down alone, wear a buoyancy aid, and identify your exit before you descend rather than when you need it.
Rules and access
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Shore angling in England is not rod-licensed, but access rights, landowner permission, local authority and harbour byelaws, national and inshore fisheries measures, and site designations all apply and all change. Check the current position with the relevant inshore fisheries and conservation authority, the harbour or local authority, and the landowner before going. This water is tidal and transitional, so the freshwater regime may also apply above the tidal limit: FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Freshwater rod fishing in England requires a current rod licence AND separate permission from whoever controls the fishing, which is frequently a club, riparian owner or navigation authority rather than a public body. Close seasons, byelaws and local rules apply and change. Check with the Environment Agency and with the controlling club or owner before going.
Who holds the answer:
- The Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for the district, which makes and enforces inshore byelaws.
- The Marine Management Organisation, for national recreational sea fishing measures in English waters.
- The local authority and, where one exists, the harbour authority, for access, byelaws and shellfish classification.
- The Environment Agency, for rod licensing, close seasons and fisheries byelaws in England.
- The club, association, riparian owner or navigation authority that controls the fishing.
- The national fisheries authority for England, for the rod licence, close seasons and statutory rules
- The navigation authority for the non-tidal river, for locks, weirs, moorings and boating
- The port authority for the tidal river, which administers navigation and controls access to certain structures
- The angling club, association or landowner controlling the specific bank
- The local authority or public health body, for any fish consumption advice on urban and tidal reaches
- The Port of London Authority, below the tidal limit.
- The Environment Agency as navigation authority above it.
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- The Thames at Windsor — 10–25 km · River reach
- Marlow weir pool, River Thames — 25–40 km · Weir pool
Sources for this place
- Environment Agency fisheries management, byelaws and rod licensing information — Environment Agency (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Freshwater and transitional-water fisheries management in England, the structure of rod licensing, close seasons and byelaws, and the monitoring of rivers and stillwaters.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Angling Times — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British coarse and match angling practice by water and by named reach.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which waters are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat requirements and biology of the freshwater fishes of Britain and Ireland named here.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.