From Free Tidal Thames Fishing to Reservoir Pike — 25 curated fishing spots to explore.
London has more fishing within its boundaries than almost any capital city its size — a tidal river through the centre, a canal network built for barges, and a ring of reservoirs and park lakes left over from the Victorian water supply. Barbel and chub in the upper Thames, eels on the tidal stretch, and pike, zander, and bream in the reservoirs and canals give the city a genuinely varied urban fishery.
Anyone aged 13 or over fishing with a rod and line in freshwater in England needs an Environment Agency rod licence, whether that's a canal, reservoir, or the non-tidal Thames above Teddington Lock. The tidal Thames below Teddington is the exception — no EA licence is needed there. Most individual waters, like the Serpentine or the Lea Valley reservoirs, also require their own day ticket or permit on top of the licence.
All spots are curated and mapped — click any card for the full story, or open the map to explore.
See all 25 fishing spots pinned on an interactive map — and add your own discoveries.