Todays fishing trip began for me the day before. My cunning plan – which I can now reveal – was to take myself, my children and my kayak over to my parents in order to have today free and have the kayak and gear already loaded up and ready to go. This would allow me to start at first light rather than a good few hours later while leaving Sunday – the alternative date and the better day of the two – free to spend with my wife and children thus not suffering from moans all week long. So, with a quick trip to the tackle shop to buy some maggots, resulting in a rod, two reels and some line as well as the maggots, the car was loaded up and it was off to ‘Base Camp’ for a few hours kip before An early start.
6am on a damp and very dark morning with 30mph winds making a racket outside put me in a fine frame of mind not made-up for by coffee and croissant. Dressed to thrill in thermals and cag/paddle pants I left the house just before 6:30 and headed for Ellingham Mill from where the plan was to paddle upstream to the first mark, the one that had produced plenty in the summer tournament. I was there before 7.
I unloaded and tackled up by the light from my head torch and launched around 7:15 or so.
So far the cunning plan was working. Trouble was, it was as windy as a politician and this was added to by the sluice being open. Great. The water was very high and the current was pretty strong. In a word, unfishable. Still, as Richi said ‘Who Dares Wins’ and I was up anyway. I also couldn’t stand the excitement of waiting for one of Starvin’s tournaments any longer and went for it. Two rods out the back with a Big S and a Super Shad Rap and I trolled the mile up to my first mark.
On arrival, I set up one rod with a 4bb waggler float and size 16 hook, the other with a leger and a size 16 and both with 4lb Daiwa line. I was hoping to christen my shiny new Shimano Hyperloop 2500RB reels bought specifically for tournamenting. I always buy Shimano reels as they have never let me down but at £15 each these aren’t the top notch ones they do. But I was impressed. Smooth as silk with a very good drag system and plenty of line capacity I was able to cast light tackle a good distance with ease. But christen them I did not. Did I mention it was unfishable? The float was dipping under from the water pressure and the tips of my John Wilson Prime match rods (I’m less snobbish with rods than reels as i tend to smash them p now and again) were waving around too much to detect bites on the leger rod. I persisted for too long and then headed upstream to try a couple more marks as the sun finally crept up over the sides of the valley.
Still nothing doing on the troll, I went right to the end of the stretch over the next couple of hours – against wind and current – and tried in the mill pools there. Nothing. And guess what? The bloody sluice was open at this end too. Deciding enough was enough I turned around and trolled back to the launch point, annoying the swans for good measure.
Loaded up I nearly knocked it on the head there and then. Ever the optimist though I decided to head to Geldeston where I figured I could get out of the current and into a side stream that usually has a good head of varied tiddlers. On arrival I had a look at the water – the current was screaming down here too and the side stream was mostly mud – the tide was down. The Waveney is a lovely river but being tidal it has its own characteristics, some of which also adversely affect the fishing. Lack of water in known marks being one of these.
Really fed up with this unfishable day I decided once more to knock it on the head. But first I’d just go and see what was happening at Beccles…..
Pulling up at the quay the bank was lined with anglers. I asked the first one if he’d had much and he was honest enough to tell me! He reckoned he’d had about 30 roach and a couple of perch, but all tiddlers. The water in this part was pretty calm too and I tested it out by lobbing a float in – yep, I could detect ok. So off I went to my Beccles launch point: the dinghy club's pontoon which is next to the swimming pool. Free parking 20 yards from launch… The water here looked reasonably okay too and at last – and it’s around 11:30 by now – the day was looking as though it was becoming fishable after a false start.
I launched. I trolled downstream towards the iron bridge which was my first mark. This is a hot spot for jacks that I have fished since I was a teenager and rarely blanked on. Today I did though. The pike just didn’t seem to want to play today. The 0.75kg anchor was holding me fine and the float was staying above the surface but sadly it was always staying above and this was not good. I got cunning then. Leger and float off, swim feeders on, and I moved down to a new spot by the entrance to one of the boat yards, opposite the quay.
Loads of people about and one or two fish coming in encouraged me somewhat and I poured a tub of maggots into a couple of pints of breadcrumb that I’d been saving over the last month or so (dry it out then liquidise. Good for fish, chicken and fishing) and added some water from the river. A couple of maggots on each hook, feed in the feeders and out went the lines.
Five minutes or so later and I got a bite. At last. I missed it of course, as I did with the first half dozen. The bites were shy but detectable on the match rods and I decided to drop down to single red maggots on one, and 6 on the other as the two were coming in sucked out so either biggies were mouthing them or tiddlers were nibbling them.
A good move. I got one of them at last, on the big bait.
Quite a nice pull on a light rod and light tackle, and after a minute it was ready to come aboard. I was quite excited by this time as it looked like a new species for me
Oh my, would you look at that! It was a beautiful light silver with white fins and a deep and wide body. And covered in slime. My first ever silver bream – a skimmer as they call them.
It didn’t really matter now if I did have to give up as it was a new species so I was happy anyway. Of course, I wasn’t going to stop fishing though was I? Single red maggot rod this time. Tap tap tap
Now in the past I’ve only ever had roach with a brown/green back and had never fished for them in winter. The ones I had today had blue backs, a rich, deep blue, and were really beautiful looking fish with their silvery flanks and orange fins.
Tap tap tap. Another.
tap tap tap. And again
It carried on like this, with many being missed and some being caught. And good ones too, averaging around 4-5 oz. My rods were positioned like this most of the time and were slightly too far forward for quick striking with the butts being quite lengthy. I’ll cut them down before next time as I have done with all my other rods. I ended up positioning them almost upright with just the tips in the holders and this worked far better.
I had too much fun and decided it was time to move in order to track down something different. I up-anchored and headed upstream a bit, back to the iron bridge. I had a roach on as a livebait now in the hope of tempting a pike – all tournament entrants were released alive by the way – but STILL no joy!
Feeder rods went down again, and I struck into a beauty this time. A real beauty that I knew was decent as soon as I felt it. Well, decent for this sort of fishing!
I had to record it; it was playing about for a couple of minutes!
It had fallen to a single red maggot and was hooked in the scissors. The back was an inch across and it was a good 10 inches long and around 4-5 inches deep. It had a green/brown back, light bronze tinge to the flanks, red / dark orange fins and was caught in shallower water than the others – on a ledge - I got it in and weighed it – a pound. The hook was firmly in though and I struggled for ages to extract it. Being concerned about getting this beauty back into the water as quick as possible I totally forgot to take a picture of it in my hand! Yes, ME! As it is my PB for a UK Roach/Rudd I am rather annoyed at myself for that. Also annoying is that I think it was a Rudd but am not 100% certain and without a decent photo to check against I suppose I can’t claim it as such (unless anyone can verify either/or from the pics of it in the water?). Anyway, it was enough to have caught it and I was well chuffed – a new species AND a PB in one day! An unfishable day at that!
I moved further upstream after a while. That’s the iron bridge in the background. I still had a livebait out along with the feeder rods as I have had plenty of pike here in the past. But still not even a sniff.
It was now around 3:30 and I had about an hour maximum of light left. I had a couple of decent half pound roach here (which I didn’t snap) and then set off back towards the launch point.
I had a good view of the church from here. And a little tap on the single red maggot…
Beauty! A perch! Only a small one, but another species, making it three for definite. That’s all I got here, but I did get cut up by a yacht under motor who was going left to right (tacking with a motor? Are you drunk?) and then decided to head on the inside of me, ie between me and the moored boats twelve feet away. And it was pretty obvious I had lines out. Knob head.
A quick troll down to the bridge and back failed to bring up pikey and so I loaded up the car and tried out the self timer for the first time ever. A brilliant day fishing an unfishable day with a PB and a newbie, some good, fresh air and a few mm of stomach lard disposed of. Disappointed not to have had my usual pike and annoyed at not photographing my biggie but after all, worse things happen at sea….
Once again, thank you Starvinmarvin for organising the tournament. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Tight lines to the rest of you if you get out too.
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