Hunting for Sticklebacks...13/03/08

Following the school run my wife dropped me off in Beccles for a few hours fishing in the wind before tomorrow, the last day of the coarse fishing season. I was armed with some size 22 hooks and was hoping to catch – of all things – a Stickleback. Set up, I launched and headed into the main basin of the quay to try my luck having been informed that there were some here last week.



Five minutes went by and then my first bite occurred – a swift rattle. It felt small…could it be?



Alas, no. It was a Ruffe. No more fish were forthcoming so after about an hour I moved further up to try a different spot. I got a few missed bites before striking into a Common Bream of about half a pound, followed by another shortly after.



Next up came a double shot of small Roach



After an hour of this, with only a few fish in I decided to go and get a bit more action in the usual spot and untied myself from the quayside for the short paddle. Tying up again, I soon had a good knock and brought in the first Dace of the day



This was soon followed by a PB Gudgeon



Soon after I had to laugh when, after a terrific battle, I landed my smallest ever Roach



I decided to see if the decent Chub were back in the usual spot. I tied up on the opposite bank to where I normally fish as I wanted to put a pike rod out in a specific point where there were no pike at all today. After a while came the first hard shake and into the boat came the first decent Chub, around a pound.



This was the order of the next couple of hours with occasional bites most of which resulted in fish-on.



Departure time drawing near I waited to get my last fish and sure enough I reeled in my feeder and there it was…another Chub.



And so I ended the day with 20 fish of 6 species - 1 Ruffe, 2 Common Bream, 2 Dace, 3 Gudgeon, 6 Roach and 6 Chub. A slow day and I missed the target species but I had some nice fish and a lot of fun. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.