It's Coming

Yes, it's bloody cold and grey and miserable but spring is sort of here.

The fish know it. At dusk the river is full of topping roach.

Tonight it was freezing but there was activity everywhere. I had a couple of roach and missed loads of bites from a couple of different swims.

I was feeding sweetcorn and the roach were on that too, though they prefered bread.

I went to reel in to re cast, only to find something that was definitely not a roach attached to the line.

It was a pig of a chub, in pristine condition and a very welcome addition to the roach.

After that, the wet net froze rigid, the rings iced up and my fingers stopped working, so I packed up and went home. Looking forward to the next session already.

Searching

Much as I love the chubbing, I was keen to find out if I could get a winter bream from the "forbidden" stretch and if you know bream the way of doing that is give them a bit of bait.

Of course, the pre baiting coincided with much colder weather, but if you don't try you won't know. I'm sure that most fish still feed in very cold temperatures, but only at certain times and for shorter periods.

Those times are often around dusk and that suits me.

I picked two swims. First one a very deep run with cover on the far side and reeds on the near bank and the second a wide, featureless, shallower bit. Why ? Because bream like wide bits in small rivers. I know that sounds daft but it's often the case.

I've now baited and fished them four times with mixed seed and sweetcorn.

First swim, not a bite. There are roach topping which are probably on the bait though.

Second swim. After the first baiting I arrived just before dark for an ultra short session. First cast the tip went round and a lovely winter bream around 4lb was the result.

I also had some roach. A great start.

Next two sessions just roach and yesterday I decided to fish in to dark for an hour. It started slowly and after twenty minutes ( I'm an impatient sod ) I started thinking about a move. 

Then a had a tiny bite, the tip barely moving, just like a bit of debris had slowly hit line. I left it and when I wound in the worms had been shredded, so had obviously been in the fish's throat.

Next cast, again a very slow small movement on the tip which I hit and yes, "the rod hooped over". Decent fish too and in lovely condition.

6lb 13oz but looked bigger. Not huge by national standards but the best I've had off this river for a very long time. Well chuffed.

I had a couple more of those bites. I don't think they are shy, I think with it being cold they are barely moving when feeding.

I just hope we get some milder weather before the season ends because I think there's a chance of a fish or two if it does. 

Also, it's very clear with no flow at the moment. If we get flow, colour and warmth we could gave some top fishing.

As always, time will tell.

On The Border

The Waveney to be precise.

Bully said he'd pick me up "between nine and ten". At 07.30 I had a text saying he was on his way, the hungry fecker, so I was rushing about getting my gear ready whilst trying to eat toast and drink tea.

Bully, being a pensioner, spent the previous day polishing his split shot and counting his maggots, so got up early ( they always do, weak bladders on oldies ) and couldn't wait to get going.

An hour later we arrived, I set up on the corner, got some feed out and started fishing. 

It's how I roll boiiiii

Bully sent an application for planning consent for his fishing platform or whatever they call them and got the control room set up very professionally.

We both started getting bites, Bully had roach and ruffe, I had rudd and perch. After a while I had a few bream to 2lb and ever increasing quantities of rudd. Not big fish, but plump specimens in fine condition ranging from 6-10oz.

The action continued on and off all afternoon before going totally dead at dusk.

Nothing big but plenty of bites, banter and interest.

We packed up, me taking five minutes and Bully about twenty. Got back to the car and I said I was popping down the road to Lidl, " I'll be back in ten minutes "

Well, it was more like fifteen, but Bully was still packing the car, trying to get out of his Mothercare chest waders and checking and double checking everything. He's very meticulous. And slow.

Poor old boy, he doesn't deserve the abuse. He takes the ribbing with a smile and is a fine fellow and great company. 

Another great day out.

Naaaaarfolk

On the Broads for the day with Dicky Boy and his mate, local boy Phil.

Out early on the boat in the blustery wind, no bites in an hour or so and getting hungry, so moored up and walked...ooh...ten yards to the cafe for a magnificent Full English. 

Back out and we found a bit of shelter. First cast the float slid away and judging from the bend in the rod I'd got a pike, not the hoped for perch. Nice fish of around 10lb, so very welcome.

Phil was explaining to us what the echo sounder was showing and it really is anazing how much information you can get from a state of the art fishfinder.

The main river had pockets of fish but the boat yards were absolutely stuffed with them. Quick go on the pole and it was a fish a chuck, mostly roach and perch.

We had plenty of takes on lures and a light jigging rod, but these were mostly small fish up to a pound or so. Great fun though.

We kept searching to try and find some bigger ones and after the umpteenth move we found them and in fifteen minutes we'd had five perch over 2lb to 2lb 12oz.

As fast as the action was it was very brief and we moved out on to the main river for the final hour or two. I had another pike around 8lb, as did Dicky.

We had plenty of smallish perch as they hammered the roach shoals in front of the dykes and Dicky managed another decent fish over 2lb before it was time to pack up.

We finished off with a great curry and a beer, days out don't get much better than that. Wunderbar.

Perfect Day

My version of Lou's ideal day. I didn't feed animals in the zoo.

Earnt a good bit of caaaaaaash during the middle of the day, back by 15.00, two cups of tea and half a packet of digestives. So far so good.

Five mins in the car down to the river. Tried a new bit downstream of the weir and on the way saw a barn owl quartering the meadow and then watched a kingfisher fly backwards and forwards past me for several minutes. Lovely.

Previously not had a chub from here, but after missing the first bite I made no mistake the following cast. Not a big one, but very welcome.

Sunny, mild with no a breath of wind, bloody boooooodaful.

Another chub on dusk, then back for a curry and to top it all Liverpool beat Everton.

Wunderbar.

Loafing On Hold

Even The Loafer has to work occasionally.

I've been limited to a couple of very quick dusk sessions, both of which produced a few chub.

Gaining lots of light now, birds are singing and General Winter is on the way out. Good riddance.

On one of the fishing FB pages there was discussion on low temperatures and how the fish ( chub, dace and roach ) are affected.

I was told with certainty that cold temps "definitely slow them down". Technically this may be true but when it comes to catching chub and dace I've never felt it's a problem.

They may feed later in the day, typically around dusk or dark, but they will feed no matter how cold it gets. 

More fishing next week, can't wait.

Undercover of the Night

Bucket of mash in hand, walking along the now forbidden banks, baiting swims ready for a short dusk into dark session.

Seven swims fished, all blanks apart from one, a fantastic snag ridden deepish area where I had four bites and two decent chuuuurb.

That'll do.