There hasn’t been enough rain lately to make the river
viable and I just can’t get my head round struggling down the Valley at the
moment. I fancied a change and I haven’t
taken the boat out since March, partly through being housebound and mostly
because we had the closed season. So I
spent Friday afternoon in the garden listening to England grind the West Indies
down on TMS and sorting out some gear. I
tackled up two feeder rods with helicopter rigs to which I’d add open end feeders,
tied up some short hooklengths and even found some groundbait I’d forgotten I
had. I can’t remember what brand it is
bit it contained hemp and smelled pretty good.
I also found a couple of other bits and pieces that had been missing for
a while even though I’d hunted high and low for them a few weeks ago.
I didn’t set an alarm the following morning but I was still
awake early and on the road heading north before 0800 with ‘Dose your dreams’
pounding out of the speakers. The roads
were relatively clear and I made it to the slip in no time. Whenever I’ve been away for a while I always
anticipate trouble at the slip but there was none, the boat was on the water
easily despite the level being as low as I’ve ever seen it. Not only that the engine started easily
without even using any choke and I was soon heading out into the wetland wilderness. The day was mostly cloudy but still very hot
even with a moderate South Westerly. It
was good to be back, the broads looked lovely in the full green summer uniform.
My first stop was a quiet weedy bay that I enjoy as much for
its seclusion as the sport it provides.
When the Bream are here it’s a lovely place to spend time but the weed
can make the fishing difficult. As usual
the area had changed significantly since my last visit and the clear channel I’ve
fished in the past just wasn’t there.
After a bit of mooching about I managed to find a clear area so dropped
a marker over the side and rowed a little way upwind. There was just enough space to drop two feeders
into the clearing, on one I used a size 14 hook baited with a grain of corn and
one maggot, the other was a 16 baited with three maggots. I was fishing by 1000 and bites came from the
start, I caught a succession of beautiful Rudd averaging about 4ozs along with
a single small Roach but no Bream. In
hindsight I’d have been better off fishing this spot with a waggler.
After an hour I’d had enough so rowed out of the bay through
thick beds of Mares tail and set off exploring.
There’s another bay close by that I haven’t yet fished in summer but today it looked like
a jungle of weed so I decided to give it a miss. I ended up tying up to the reeds and fishing
the boat channel, a spot I know holds Bream but one I usually avoid because the
boat traffic drives me mad. For some
reason I expected the traffic to be light today…
The good news was I caught a Bream of about four pounds
after ten minutes or so but bites were slow.
I didn’t mind this as it gave me a chance to chill out a bit but the bad
news was the boat traffic was as irritating as any ‘normal’ summer. Most of the craft were no problem but there
are always a few that either through ignorance or oblivion have you winding in
frantically. I stayed here for a couple
of hours with Harriers constantly floating across the panorama and boated half
a dozen Bream averaging a couple of pounds along with a couple of small Roach. The trouble with Bream is they are slimy
buggers and I must be getting squeamish in my old age as I don’t like handling
the bloody things. All were unhooked in
the net, where I photographed one of the smaller ones just so I could post a
fish on here. Eventually the bites
slowed up and the armada sped up so I pulled up the weights and headed off to
quieter water.
My last stop of the day was back towards the slip and is a
very hit and miss spot. When the Bream
are here it can be hectic but when they’re not it can be frustrating. Once again I had bites from the off, mostly
Small Rudd and the occasional Roach on maggots.
In the end I fished both rods with corn just so I could make a brew and
I did catch a couple of small Bream.
When the big bowl of groundbait had all but run out I decided I’d had
enough and slowly tidied up. There was
another reason for my trip to Norfolk; Maddie’s surreal university term has
finished so she’s coming home for a week.
After a brief diversion collecting her from her house in Norwich the two
of us were heading back to Suffolk.
I’ll probably do this again before too long, mostly because
I just like being in the boat and exploring but fishing this way I rarely stay
in one place long enough to get a bed of feed down and get into a proper catch
of Bream, maybe next time?
No comments:
Post a Comment