The Poach Pit

Seven years on I returned to the Poach Pit, even more overgrown and neglected now. 

The small swim is tucked out of the way from prying eyes. Mostly.

The Pit is still being worked and the diggers and trucks pass in front of you, but they're maybe two or three hundred yards away.

It's probably six to eight foot deep, two to three rod lengths out, possibly the deepest part on the whole water, but was only "chosen" because it's the only accessible spot.

Two swims were baited, one hard against the margins to my right and another ten yards out on the left. I fished them on rotation and used a single rod so that one swim was always rested.

Scanning the water there was a group of maybe ten fish in front of me, but I was shocked at how small they were, maybe 4-8lb. 

I needn't have worried, the first fish I caught was an "almost leather" of just over 17lb, with just a single scale on the root of the tail. It was followed by a beautiful common of maybe 12lb.

Two days later I was back, fishing from about 09.00 to 14.00. After an hour the rod bent round and an extremely angry leather carp led me a merry dance until hitting the net. Another just over 17lb and a stunning fish.

Bites were steady and I ended up with six fish, three 10-15lb, one of 17lb+, an incredible mirror/koi of 18lb+ and a common/koi of 19lb 12oz.

The fights from the largest two fish were savage, the mirror running maybe thirty of forty yards before erupting on the surface and then attempting to tail walk.

The condition and colours on all these fish were amazing. The mouths are unmarked, the fish have undoubtedly never been caught before and there's not many places in Old Blighty that you can say that about these days.

In between catching those carp I watched a marsh harrier quartering the nearby marshes, saw a pair of kestrels, a buzzard, watched the kingfisher fly back and forth and listened to  cettis warblers and chiffchaffs calling in the undergrowth a few yards away.

The lost world, just out of the way of the hustle, bustle and bullshit of modern life.

So lucky to have a place like this

I'll be back down there at the end of the week hopefully. 

 

Scheming

This week I've been prepping for mullet, the baited spinners and floats were dug out, traces tied on the vice and I even went through the fly gear and ended up giving one old rod away and immediately ordering two more.

I know, I know.

A few days ago I had a walk around a working pit where I fished seven or eight years ago. It still looks lovely and I started thinking about the carp that were landed and lost.

They were most certainly previously uncaught and fought like demons, they were absolutely savage.

Me and Lord Pualous of Clacton were both broken several times on 15lb line as well as having hooks bent. It seems mad but it happened. 

It was massively overgrown and there was only one swim where you could fish. Unfortunately even that one is now underneath a huge canopy of brambles and birch.

I had a look on the opposite bank. It was almost totally inaccessible. Almost....

I found a bit of bank that was slightly sunken and flat for a couple of yards. Hmm.

Couple of days later I returned with power  secateurs and gave the swim a light trim, just enough of a gap to fit a rod in. Two at a squeeze.

Oh and I deposited five or six kilos of seed and maize in the swim.

 

It's a bit of a mission to actually reach the pitch, a fifteen minute walk, a climb over barbed wire and finally a hundred yards through dense birch trees. But the swim is now prepped and baited, so I'll be having a go very soon.

I'll also be looking for the mullet regularly and if and when I see them, I'll be after them within minutes, as the gear is assembled and stored in the van.

Can't wait to get fishing.

The End....And The Beginning

Last day of the season. Where to go ?

I didn't fancy a long drive so decided to stay local and fish The Forbidden. 

Started piking about 11.00. Bored by 14.00 and fishless. That is all.

Back at the van the ever so boring pike gear was dumped and the float rod came out, but not before a feast was prepared.

Six sausages, three rashers of bacon, two eggs and even chips, courtesy of a bloke parked up next to me. It was filthy food and thoroughly enjoyed.

The wind dropped and the sun came out and for a while it was quite warm. Well, warmish, I still had all my winter gear on.

Loose feeding maggots every cast, I waited. Hoping, though not expecting an early bite. The first bite came half hour late, at 17.00 and after that I had enough action to keep me interested. 

Mostly decent dace, all spawned out and a bit "soft" ( well, you would be wouldn't you ? ).

They were cracking fish though, with one going 9.5 oz, a double pre spawn for sure.

Sorry about the hideous latex gloves.

The Forbidden is a most undacey ( yes, that's a real word ) bit of water, deep and slow, lacking in any pacey areas.

In fact, for much of the year it's static. But who knows the ways of fish ? Next season I'll have a proper go for them in January/February. 

I've fished an enormous amount this winter. We've been lucky in that there's been very little flooding compared to the last few years, which has meant that fishing has been possible for the majority of the time.

The winter rudd fishing on the Gt Ouse has been incredible, both in numbers and quality.  Not only rudd, but big perch and silver bream, decent roach, zander and pike.

I didn't do as much chubbing as usual, a few trips locally, a couple to the Lark, but that was it.

Loads of trotting though, on both the upper and lower Stour, a bit on the Blackwater and Little Ouse too. Fantastic dace fishing, with roach, chub and brown trout thrown in too.

So, goodbye to 2024/25 season and full steam ahead to a spring and summer of mullet, tench, crucians, big roach, asp and sea trout.

Oh, and a big bream too

I read something this morning and the bloke said " Money can't buy you happiness, but you can go fishing and that's the same thing "

Touché. 

On The Float

When I was breaming in the pre baited swim yesterday I had several rattly bites that most certainly weren't bream, so I headed back to the swim the next day armed with a float rod and a pint of maggots.

The river had almost zero flow and was clear with the merest hint of colour.

A peacock quill with a chunky tip was selected so I could sink the line and fish slightly  overdepth with three no 8s anchoring the bait in position.

When a fish took the bait, the float either went straight under or, more often, lifted as the anchor shots were moved.

First half hour was slow but as light levels faded bites increased and from then on it was a bite a cast. 

Mostly good quality dace, plenty of roach, a gudgeon and a rogue chub. A good one too.

Of course, I had to have another go at it, so went the next day. Almost identical results, more good dace, another nice chub and lots of roach.

Two really good sessions on a section of river where I've seen no more than a couple of anglers in the last three years.

Where to next ?

Busy

Doing "stuff". Fishing related stuff. And fishing of course. Full week of work on the horizon.

After the season ends of course.

Pre baiting with seed and corn on Saturday in the bream swim ( secretly hoping for a rare carp...or even rarer tench ).

Started on a new ( for me ) book, "A Glorious Waste of Time" by Jim Gibbinson. Unmistakably him. No nonsense, logical and just a touch of teacher. Good though.

Cleaned the van out at the weekend.  Couple of days away and it was like a skip, stuff everywhere.  Bit of velcro here and there and some bungies and it's looking tidy. Or tidier.

That's the " before" photo in case you didn't know.

Blanked on the upper river on Sunday evening.  Wasn't feeling it.

TCG had two chub though, with the biggest at 5lb 5oz. Kept telling me it was because I should have used cheese paste, not bread. He's the Billy Graham of cheese paste, a proper evangelist, preaching the good news to the uncoverted.

I stuck to bread.

I woke up the next day undecided what to do. The forecast told me it was to be the last mild day, so I made the trip to Cambridgeshire to fish with Waaaak and caught some nice, but not huge rudd. Loads of fish with several over a pound to maybe a pound and a half.

Lots of hybrids too, some roach x rudd, bream x roach and one that looked like a rudd or roach x silver bream.  Is that even possible?

The weatherman told me it was going to be 14 degrees C and sunny in Ely. I almost put my shorts on.

In reality it was about 8 deg, cloudy and with a horrible north easterly pushing upstream. I got cold and left early.

As I drove back the car thermometer rose until I parked up at the local river with it at 14 deg.

Quick go in the pre baited swim then.

A nice dace, a chub and last cast on dark a clonking bream.

I normally avoid bream if possible but these ones from The Forbidden are in pristine condition and most certainly uncaught. In the three or four seasons I've fished this section I've only ever seen a couple of anglers.

A few days of the season left, then it's all change. Summer species, fishing in T shirts and shorts and plenty of time away in the camper

That's as close to a plan I've got so far.

Ups and Downs

Ultra mild weather, end of the season, they'll be feeding like mad won't they? Well....

Two day trip to the Fens with Bully and Waaaaak. Thursday I say all day staring at a totally motionless quiver tip. I'm impatient at the best of times but this was super dull and by the end of the day my enthusiasm was rock bottom.

Friday morning we'd arranged to fish in the town. Yes, its busy with walkers, boaters, tourists and the dreaded lure anglers, but it's a very pleasant place to spend a day a day fishing and chatting to your mates.

I was up at dawn, keen to get stuck into a few fish and started on a big deepish bend where bites came immediately. 

Decent roach and silver bream initially, but the rod whooped round as something bigger grabbed the sweetcorn. 

A clonking rudd in pristine condition, quickly followed by another. They went 2lb 7oz and 2lb 3oz on the scales. That'll do nicely.

Waaaak turned up after his long drive from East Norfolk, ramshackle and disorganised as usual ( it's OK, the more like each other the more abuse we dish out ). His indecipherable muttering was even worse than normal and after dozens of " What!? " And " Speak up !" from me Wak explained that his speech clarity was poor because " I can't be bothered to open my mouth properly ". Funny ol' buh eh ?

His casting was atrocious, the feeder not hitting the same mark all day, but as usual he caught plenty, including a decent silver bream and "personal best" rudd.

The cameraman made a cracking job of the photo as you can see.

Stove on for tea, followed by Norfolk's finest sausages covered in ( HP or or unbranded Sir? Your choice ) brown sauce in a soft white bap, devoured in glorious spring sunshine. How civilised. 

Food was delivered to Bully, fishing a hundred yards downstream, outside the "hot" area and struggling a bit. "How do you expect me to eat all that ?" he said. Five minutes later it was gone. I knew he couldn't resist.

The fishing died off a bit in the afternoon, but we were still catching on and off. We weighed the biggest silver bream, cracking fish of 1lb 1oz and Waaaak had another of probably 12 or 13oz. Real beauties.

A lovely day and as we often say, "Shining Times" ( copyright Chris Binyon RIP ).

The next trip can't come soon enough. Happy days.

The Clock Is Ticking

The beginning of the week was a real downer, with the oldies having health issues, poor old things. This meant that time has been taken up with helping them out and other family  stuff.

At the end of last week me and TCG headed to another Suffolk river in search of chub. TCG knew exactly where he was going and marched off with five pints of maggots to the hot chub hole.

I fancied a swim with a big snag under my own bank, with a lovely steady flow. I've never chub fished this river but was ultra confident of a bite....it looked perfect. 

A single swan shot on a fixed link with a big lobworm was flicked close to the snag and less than a minute later the tip pulled round and I was in to a decent fish. It was typical  crash, bang, wallop snag swim stuff.

I managed to net the fish, along with several reeds and a rotton bit of wood. It was industrial but effective. 

4lb 13oz  and in lovely condition. 

Unfortunately, it turned out to be the only fish of the session.  TCG also found it tough, feeding non stop for several hours, with just a solitary dace to show for his efforts.

Oh well, you never can tell.

I've not been fishing for a week and with the time ticking down to the end of the season, it's time to get out on the bank and enjoy the last two weeks.

As we speak, the river is up and coloured, but by the weekend it should be fining down and with no rain forecast I'm planning to fill my boots next week.

I went out worming last week on the first mild evening for ages and had a massive haul of chunky lobs. My back can put up with no more than an hour of wum hunting and in that time I had over two hundred. All big'uns too.

I've honestly never seen anything like it, they were everywhere. Now I've got to make them count with some big perch and chub.

I've also got fresh maggots in the fridge for a bit of dace fishing, plenty of dead maggots and liquidised bread in the freezer and some cracking dendras and red worms in the compost heap, so I'm prepped and ready to go.

Last night the mighty Liverpool won again and with Arsenal drawing at Forest I reckon it's in the bag. Poor old Ipswich look a cert for the drop though, couldn't even beat that shower at Old Trafford.

Enough ramblings, I'm off to pack the van with fishing gear.