Chub Delight. Beccles...28/02/08

This morning, my fourteenth launch of the year, started off differently to intended. I had an extra half an hour of fishing time and considered driving an extra hour each way to Norwich to try and tempt one of the Barbel that swim around in the Wensum. I’d seen good carp at Norwich too and there seems to be a few Brown Trout to be had as well – three species that I have yet to have from a river in the UK. However, with heavy traffic following the school run I decided that I might as well just stick to the Waveney at Beccles for the remainder of the season and have a crack at some of the big Chub in my newly-found spot for them.

I had rigged my two match rods the same as before with the 4lb line, swimfeeder and double hook rigs and also had one of my spinning rods along with me, this time fitted with one of my old Shimano Crestfire baitcaster multipliers. These are nice reels but not having a clicker fitted they tend to not get used very often.

I launched around 9:30 from the slipway at the end of the quay and ran the gauntlet of a full bank of pole-anglers with a couple of carp bivvys/chairs/rodpods and some pikers scattered amongst them. I was most perturbed to find my usual spot for tiddlers occupied by a d**ned great cruiser and although finding a space to tie off my position was crap and casting was a problem – so was laying my pike baits in a decent position. I decided to give it a go for a while anyway so that I could at least pick up a livebait.



As usual I started to get bites almost immediately. I wish fishing had been like this as a kid! First into the boat was a small Dace which was duly rigged onto a single 4/0 circle hook, through the lips to tempt the Esox.



I am experimenting with a suitable alternative to the traditional pair of treble hooks as apart from restricting the movement of the bait I feel that with the high chance of deep-hooking pike when using a small bait I’d rather not have to risk damaging the pike by having to struggle with the forceps to remove them. Using a solitary barbless treble lost me a fish a fortnight ago, last week I lost five on standard single hooks and so the currently trendy circle hooks (almost guaranteed to hook your fish in the corner of the mouth) looked promising and I duly bought ten to try. From what I can gather these allow you to leave the fish a decent length of time in which to swallow the bait and then, when winding down, they set themselves and are used for longlines because of these properties. Out it went.

Next bite was a beautiful but tiny Gudgeon. Having taken 3 red maggots on a size 16 unhooking was simplicity itself and back he went. Such a pretty little fish and an indicator of good water quality I believe.



Anyway, I had my bait, the position was rubbish and I had just cast onto a cruiser so I decided that the time was right to head for my Chub spot. It’s only a two-minute paddle so I wandered down, tied up and cast the lines out.



The feeders had a slight difference in composition of groundbait this time. I’d not had much spare bread this week so had added some flour and porridge oats as well as the normal use of maggots. The pike line was running down by the pilings as I like to aim for the margins with these as they provide shelter for the tiddlers and features for the predators.

Bang!



A lovely solid knock and I struck into the first Chub of the day. You know when you have one of these on as they do have the strength and willpower to make a run for it! It took a bit of line before I finally had him alongside and lifted him out. It went about a pound I guess and was a decent fish. Back it went, and was soon followed by another of similar size. I know I’m usually not after the bigger fish but I fancied exploring this mark more hence I put up with the longer wait for bites and the knowledge that the fish would not be so numerous today.



My pike float went down.

I lifted the rod and started bringing it in. It was a good scrap and I was amazed to see that it was only a small jack of a couple of pounds in weight – being used to the pike on the Broad the river fish always impress me with their relative power. This two-pounder scrapped like a broad fish twice the size.



The Dace had moved up the line onto the side of the pikes jaw so I was confident that the circle hook had done as promised and hooked it firmly in the scissors. Had it hell! It was lodged down its throat! Great, fell for the hype, didn’t I! Next I’ll take up sitting in tents for a week waiting for swimming pigs to hook themselves on unnatural multi-coloured balls of protein. I didn’t much mind however as not only did I have the bait back – and alive – I was able to extract the hook with the minimum of fuss and get the fish back in the water in short order. A fat little fella, it had a few fry or small fish (about an inch long) down its throat already.



More Chub followed, including the first PB Chub of the day (they keep getting bigger!)



The pike float went silly again and the disappeared once more. I began bringing it in and for 30 seconds or so I felt the pike on the end of it. Then it was gone. 1-1 on the circle hooks!

The tide turned and things went quiet. I decided to go and catch some fresh bait over by the boat yard again and then reeled in a small Chub that would be ideally sized. Out he went and I went off to the boatyard for a spot of action. First in was the first Rudd of the season, a midget.



Some small Dace, Roach and Gudgeon followed and after half an hour I set off to try the other side of the bridge, midstream and fishing blind.



Waste of time. One bite which I missed. I went back to my Chub hole and caught the second PB Chub, around a couple of pounds, slightly bigger than the first PB Chub but not enough difference to get the camera out for – I just had a good look at its gold-tinged scales and thickset body. And then I found a pike route.

Down went the float, wait, reel in - Fish On!

Thirty seconds later – Fish Off!

1-2 on the circles.

Ten minutes later:

Down went the float, wait, reel in - Fish On!

Thirty seconds later – Fish Off!

1-3 on the circles.

Ten minutes later:

Down went the float, wait, reel in - Fish On!

Thirty seconds later – Fish Off!

1-4 on the circles, and this time I’d lost my baitfish. Muttering ‘Oh my word’ I up-anchored and headed back to the boatyard for some more bait. I had a Gudgeon first and then caught the sixth species of the day – a juvenile Common Bream which I should really have snapped before sticking trebles into it (I changed over while I was waiting for bites)



Back I went to my new-found pike route and fished for a further half an hour. I snagged up and lost all but my swim feeder on the one match rod and had already tangled and cut off (into the yak) my other match rod so I was only fishing the pike rod. Nothing happened, making the Bream the last of my sixteen fish for the day – 6 Chub, 2 Roach, 3 Gudgeon, 2 Dace, 1 Pike, 1 Rudd and 1 Common Bream. I paddled back to the quay, loaded up and set off for the school run. Two weeks left before the close season…

Getting Extreme! Lowestoft...25/02/08

Monday is a free day for me at the moment but I’m without a car that day so it’s sea or nothing. Last week, with the fog, meant nothing so today just had to be sea. Unfortunately I can’t get fresh lug on a Monday and don’t like keeping it to go rubbish from the weekend so I was relying on some frozen/thawed/froze/thawed/frozen/thawed black lug and some squid of the same ilk so wasn’t really expecting to do a lot today – just get out, have a crack at it and top up on sunlight and fresh air.

Having phoned the coastguard, 9am saw me on the beach with a pretty flat sea and light wind. I had checked the forecasts for weather, wind and surf beforehand and had taken the sail as I was intending to head south with the tide (HW 12:01) and come back with wind and tide using sail power for the trip home. Beautiful sunny day it was, and not too cold. I was using my spinning rods as my normal sea rods have got cracked and damaged rings now so are avoiding the tip for some planned re-entry drills with rods out when it’s warmer and I have some companions in case of need. Might as well use knackered rods for that eh?



I paddled out about a mile and arrived in 20ft or so of water between two sandbanks. There was a fair chop over them so I paddled against the tide through the northern one and anchored up, fishing towards it in the hope something would be around. Something was.



Enough weed for one hell of a cake! After an hour of this I decided on a move and so headed slightly inshore off the CEFAS building at Pakefield – in the hope some of my friends there would look out of the window and get the hump at being stuck inside! I doubt they’d have seen me though as I was still probably ¾ mile out but these thoughts amuse me. I should have phoned really… anyway, I put some baits down, two hook flapper on one and two hook flapper and flowing legered pennel on the other. And waited.



It took a while and then I got a lovely knock. Reeling up it felt quite feisty and sure enough a plump codling of around the 3lb mark came up, gave me a grin, and dropped off. Dinner most definitely not served!



I had my old Shimano TR100G’s on as well, these are cracking reels but are starting to feel a bit rough now after a decade or more of use. They could probably do with a good service and some replacement parts but frankly they can be replaced cheaper. They still work alright so I guess they’ll do for choppy bottom fishing where they take a hammering. They responded alright to the next knock, but nothing was hooked so down the bait went again.

15 minutes later another knock and this time I brought up a fish – a small codling, undersized but with the hook well down in its gut.



Using forceps I tried to get it out but proceeded to snap the shank of the hook. It wasn’t going to survive so I cut it up for bait. A pity as although I don’t mind knocking fish on the head I don’t like to do it when it’s not necessary.



The wind had picked up by now and I was in 2-3ft+ swells, anchored from the rear and with wind over tide. The waves were coming from my rear quarter / beam and I occasionally got some water into the cockpit but not much. I had a few more knocks but failed to connect with anything else and around 12:30, with slack tide making tight lines difficult to keep) I broke down the rods and used the rod pod for it’s intended purpose (for once), hauled up my anchor (knitting the line into a cardigan) and got everything stowed for the sail in. It was getting a bit uncomfortable now (although not worryingly so) and with use of rudder and paddle I got in position for the off before strapping the paddle down and ‘hoisting the mainsail’.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

#

Apologies for the tilted horizon, but 7MPH+ in a 3ft swell with a yak that is not responding to the rudder only allows a quick snap! You can see from the bow wave an idea of what was happening. I went downwind and off both sides, into the beach, out to sea and parallel all for good measure and had a blast. At one point though I thought I was going to spill – I was running along the face of a wave and a gust tipped me up, filling the starboard side of the cockpit to the brim and making me lift a leg and lean the other way to stay in, which I did. Suggested mod for the Trident from this being a 5th scupper hole as per the Elite purely for the transducer so I can drain the water (the thru-hull doesn’t allow draining very well). Having recovered, I carried on



I headed back out to sea to go around the Claremont Pier and then turned in again and ran along and up to my launch point, coming into the sand on the sail, the rudder working again in water that was a bit calmer than I had sailed through. It was a blast! The cleats worked well and really took the strain off my hands – 2.2 square metre sail and 15-20mph winds with higher gusts being quite a powerful force. I kept my hands on them still so that I could adjust as needed and if I went over I could yank them out of the cleats to collapse the sail to save being towed to Ijmuiden!



Once back onshore, without lunch, I took one last snap and trundled home. I had a great time - I’d managed not to blank and had 4 hours on the sea, although it’s the first time I’ve come in earlier than planned.

Mission Accomplished, Target Eliminated...20/02/08

I’ve been fed up all week. It’s been ten days since I got on my yak in the water, 12 days since I fished properly. I should have been fishing Monday but was fogbound for the sea and car-less for the river. Bear with a sore head, that’s me – but sore-headed bears go fishing, especially (it would seem) when your morning lesson is cancelled…

This was the scene on Monday:



Today was the same and I had to warm the hatch on the radiator to be able to open it. My day had begun badly and I was angry whilst loading everything up before the school run. Eldest daughter deposited I headed off for my usual launch point at Beccles and tied up in my usual spot. I was fishing two match rods with swimfeeders (breadcrumb and maggot) with 2 size 16 hooks on each. I also had a third rod for piking, the wire trace fitted with only a single 2/0 hook as I wanted to try fishing for pike without having to perform surgery on the yak with the rest of the gear on there and would be livebaiting. I was also trialling my new RAM tubes – two on the waist position and two up front. I also have two more on the side of the tankwell for storing rods and actually used one as a holder today out of necessity – added bonus!

Here’s the waist one – superb for a quick strike:



The forward ones were unusable so the RAM 117’s will go back on those balls.

Now, today I was a man (or bear) on a mission. I had a target species. A hard-biting, quick and powerful fish, for its size, I was determined (hopeful) that I would get a Gudgeon. It was cold, it was a bit foggy, and it was very, very still. A few anglers were about but not many and I settled down to a bit of peace and quiet.



I’d been there about ten minutes or so I guess when the phone rang, my wife and my youngest daughter. Of course being on the phone means a bite developing but as it was my daughter and not my wife I ignored the rod tip banging away like an Iron Maiden fan on sulphate until she put the phone down like the good daddy I am. Then struck into the first fish of the day…

The slender, torpedo-like body shot through the water with the speed of a thousand gazelles. This was my fault of course as that was the speed of my reeling. And lo and behold, my first fish was my target species for the day! First of the year, first on the yak and first I’d had for years - Gudgeon! A pretty little thing this, probably weighed a good few grammes too. I think it was a delicacy in Roman times. Mind you – they used to eat a right load of rubbish back then so it’s hardly a recommendation.



Next up was a nice, solid tug and a line that went careering off to the side as I reeled it in. For a tiddler, the Dace is a superb little fighter and a pretty little fish. This one was a PB too, so that was a bonus. Two fish, two species, this was going to be a fun day! Onto the livebait rod it went.



A sharp rattle. I struck and wound down onto fish three and species three! Mr. Rutilus Rutilus, that good-old boy everyone knows so well: the Roach. A splendidly shiny little chap with red fins, silver scales and a deep blue back I made a complete hash of the pictures and got him out of focus. It’s just not good enough Crame.



Something was happening to my livebait. I wound it in and could see it had been hit by something. It was still alive though so I popped it back out and pulled in the first double shot of the day; Roach and Gudgeon:



I brought in a few fish here and there of these 3 species and then noticed that my livebait had got himself caught up in some pilings. I had to untie and go and release it, using my paddle to free it off. It then did it again before I could reel in the slack so I repeated the exercise and positioned it further away while I got sorted to return to my spot. Down went the pike float and I was into a good fish, a solid one that I didn’t get to see. It had the Dace and spat back the single hook. Not impressed with that – trebles would have seen that fish aboard. Glad I used the paddle instead of my hand to free the fish from the piling though!

I carried on taking out Roach, Dace and Gudgeon singly and in double shots for a while longer and then:



A double shot that consisted of a Gudgeon and a juvenile Common Bream! They were not in my swim today so I was lucky to get one to make species number four. I had another one later, one of which is below:



I decided to make a move. The bay by the bridge is shallow and although bites are few and far between they usually develop into a decent fish and so far I’d only had tiddlers. It took 15 minutes to get a bite, but then, dropping the tip back and then shaking it meant it was time to strike. Pulling line from the reel on its way in, via my port and starboard sides, came a beauty of a fish.



Species five and another PB! A beautiful chub larger than my first ever back on the Nene with Pete.



I was well chuffed, and five minutes later had another slightly smaller with another good account given by itself. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I felt a bit bad moving spot but decided to carry on species hunting. The livebait rod (at this point holding a Roach) had done nothing and I went and tried it and the feeders in the dyke. Ten minutes with only a slight shake and I decided to go back to my first spot, where more of the same followed.

And a run from a decent pike. Another solid river pike that dropped the single hook. I cast out again and after a few minutes the float disappeared and I struck into it and wound fast….as it pulled back. A smaller fish this, it was scarred up and cut up from spawning bites (lovebite from a pike anyone?)



This one actually stayed on the hook. It was around a couple of pounds in weight and although light it was quick and gave a fair scrap.



I got the by now dead Roach out and proceeded to remove the hook in short order. No onboard photo though as I was getting ‘CARD ERROR’ on the camera which took a removal of battery and card to reset. I carried on fishing for the tiddlers to the right of the cruisers:



And for the pike on the left of this cruiser.



I watched my pike float go down again, struck, felt a good fish and then off. Twice more this happened; I had a total of 5 dropped runs in all. I don’t know what the answer is but the single hook is not going to be a regular feature in my piking rigs that’s for sure.

The day was coming to an end and so I decided to make one last move back to the bay by the bridge to finish hopefully on another large fish with my last casts. The pike had gone off the boil ages ago and I was getting more of the same with my tiddler bash so off I went for the short paddle.

Down went two feeder rods, a couple of feet from the pilings, and I sat and waited for ten minutes. Then, a lovely sharp knock on the righthand rod and I struck…a decent fish this….solid and weaving but not fast, maybe no the chub I thought at first and nor was the bite quite the same either as it happened..

You beauty!



A pound or so of beautiful, quality winter Roach! A nice gold sheen, deep red fins…a cracker. Back it went and while baiting up to catch my last fish (I’d decided to knock it on the head at a certain figure) the other rod went. A cracking dropback and shaking bit saw my last fish of the day come cruising around either side of me



To finish the day on a fine winter Chub after a fine winter Roach…what more can one ask?



I paddled in, passing someone hauling out one of those beautiful Broads pike. I decided to go and take a snap for him after bringing the yak onto the slipway



I wasn’t at all jealous or anything…



18.5lbs of Esox – just look at that head!



He asked me how I’d got on. I told him about the 5 dropped pike and followed with:

2 Bream, 1 Pike, 3 Chub (inc PB), 8 Gudgeon (new species) 5 Dace (inc PB) and 36 Roach. Six Species, one new, two PB’s.

That’s what it’s all about!

A Broads Paddle...11/02/08

Yesterday we went down to Nicholas Everitt Park in Olton Broad with some friends so the kids could run about. The water was flat calm, air temperature was nice and clarity was good. Liam, a long-time kayaker, had today off so we hatched a plan to get on the water today. Initially planning for an early-morning sea paddle on our own we altered this to a morning paddle with his two eldest which allowed his wife some space to get some stuff done at home and my wife some free time with my eldest to do some sewing/crafts while the youngest was at nursery. Cunning eh? We were doing the ladies a favour…..

9am and we were all set to go. What a beautiful morning:



I went down the slipway, whereas Liam chose to slip down to the pontoon. I was hoping for a nice action shot but he managed to stop in time:



We even had a couple of visitors while getting him and the children afloat;



I wandered back to my yak – I took the Prowler 15 for a spin today – and paddled out to meet them, two rods out with lures on. They sat and waited for me to join them.



The water was low, the sun was climbing and the mists were slowly burning off.



We paddled along the side of the reedbeds that border the southern side of the broad and go onto Carlton Marshes. This is a nature reserve or something and the water is quite shallow here. When it’s a bit higher the jacks hang around here but nothing was doing as we headed past the beds and down onto the Dyke.



Being a bit uneventful for children, the sarnies were depleted by 10:10am!



Then, low on the horizon, swooping down around the bend in the river came what at first appeared to be a pair of Heinkel 111’s on a low-level torpedo run on our little arctic convoy. Of course not having eaten any yak-cake I soon identified the inbound intruders as swans and they, satisfied we weren’t up to no-good, climbed and headed elsewhere.



Hmm, was I seeing double? I know it’s a double kayak but all kids are a handful without being duplicated!



We soon reached the Waveney and after investigating a hippopotamus that turned out to be a floating piece of old and decayed wood (that filled my tankwell on its way back to a new life in an aquarium) we stopped for a run about. Well, for the children to run about that is – I had a smoke. I then admired a piece of sculpture I knew about but had yet to see – wouldn’t mind catching one this size!





After making use of the facilities and taking a good look at some hire-canoes (Mad River Aventure 16's - Liam is getting an open canoe for the family this year) we headed back to the broad passing a couple of chaps first-testing the 1930’s designed sailing canoes they’d built over the winter – Liam doubtful but I thought they were quite nice looking things. Bet I’d leave them standing with my PA sail!



I helped the one chap while he adjusted his rudder and he asked if I was the guy who went off Lowestoft in a yellow yak as he’d seen me a few times.

Tracing a route down the centre and then northern side of the broad I headed down towards the lock and then swung back up and landed at the launch point again. I’d had no fish, only a couple of snags and an absolutely cracking paddle on a beautiful spring morning. From 3-10 degrees in the space of a few hours, peaceful with very few other water-users and in absolutely top conditions it wasn’t really important whether or not I’d caught – it was just enough to have been out. And the beer and grub back at Liam’s house went down a treat!