That's what I call a weekend...26-28/09/08

You know when you can’t think of anything else, can’t do anything else, can’t be anywhere else? Well, that’s what living so close to the water is like when the weather is fine. It’s bad enough having withdrawal symptoms from being down at the Boat Show for the duration and working either side with only one launch in all that time...without looking out of the window at work and seeing it’s blue sky, bright sunshine and still. They wonder at work why I usually have the blind drawn – I don’t wish to know it’s nice outside when I’m not there! Well, Friday was a struggle. Three weeks straight without a break is bad enough but having a streaming cold as well is no fun. There was nothing else for it – by 9am I had decided to crack on, clear my desk, do some extra stuff and then – with Andrew away – do a runner at 12:30 and have a half day’s holiday.

I filled in a holiday form and dumped it on Andrew’s desk. I left instructions in the office that they could call me on my mobile and then I was away. Half an hour later and I was at the edge of the Broad – I needed to do a recce before the meet in a fortnight. I carried the yak down to the pontoon – I’d borrowed a Scrambler 11 as it seems a nice boat and I like to get some time in on different models (I’d had a half-hour impromptu session on a Frenzy a couple of days before on the river following a delivery on my way home). There was fry everywhere – and I do mean everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it – imagine inch long fish for literally hundreds of yards – that is the Broad at the moment. Encouraging for the future but worrying for the present as, to me, it points to a lack of predation which bears out my suspicions since the storm surge last winter that dumped a lot of seawater into the system.

Well, I paddled around (without my camera) for a few hours and failed miserably at getting so much as one single run. At one point Richard from the warehouse called with a technical query – after a minute he goes quiet and asks me, incredulously “are you paddling?” ;D Why else would I be skiving off work, I ask you? After a while I decided to do some exploring. Andrew often mentions a side channel that leads off and around that is now overgrown and difficult to spot - so I decided to try and get through. It was great – inches deep in places and with fry and larger fish dotted around here and there it was a very pleasant diversion. I came back out after a while and trolled back down the Broad to load up and meet my wife and children on the playground when they came on the way back from school.

Of course that just set the seed for the weekend and although Saturday was going to be impossible it did leave Sunday…so I went off in the morning and bought myself some rag, some maggots, some squid and some boned kippers. The kippers were eaten when I returned and the bait put in the fridge and freezer for the morning.

Sunday.

05:30. Dark. Silly.

05:32. Still dark. Bugger it – I’ve only got until 09:30. Bunged up and following a bad night’s sleep I headed downstairs, dressed and drank a coffee before dragging the yak and gear out into the alleyway. I’d got prepared the night before and was en-route to the beach in short order. Still dark it was foggy as well.



Still, both would pass. I got down to the beach and took note of the calm water and the beginnings of the dawn. I snapped a quick photograph and was impressed at how effective the newly-added SOLAS tape to kayak and rod tips was:



I paddled out. My original plan was to head out to the Stanford Buoy, my usual codding ground, but as time was in short supply I decided to head for the closest mark I’d input from the chart. I wasn’t convinced when I got there so headed north – into the current (around 2 knots) and paddled uphill for half a mile to another likely spot. I dropped anchor and cast in my first rod – a 3-hook hokkai rig with rag – then baited the second with whole squid on a 3/0 pennel with running leger. This followed and I did the same with a second. I then brought in the first rod and



Whiting. Straight away pretty much. Trouble was I was drifting – the anchor wasn’t gripping or wasn’t holding me against the current – 50 feet of warp on a 1.5kg anchor in 25ft of water should have been sufficient but only just…but not today. Ah well, what does it matter when it’s one of these mornings?



The local fishing boats started to come out soon after, having enjoyed a lie in!



I lifted my anchor, checked all was okay and dropped it back down again then settled back for a while. The odd rattle coming here and there.



I brought the anchor up one more time and decided to head in towards the CEFAS building – the overfall on the sandbanks out from the end of the Claremont Pier looking rather mild for once. I crossed it and got into deeper water – surprisingly still around 25ft deep which is very good for this part of the coast. I anchored and settled back. The squid rods were getting regular rattles from whiting nibbling on them but I couldn’t connect – until I got sneaky and put some ‘teasers’ on the bottom hook – little strips of squid that hopefully they’d get to first and try to pinch. It worked a treat and I brought some more in.



It was a glorious morning. Even though the cod stayed away the whiting were about and it was a perfect morning afloat. I’d landed 7 whiting and missed plenty more and it was time to head in and cook breakfast…

…before driving down to Beccles with my wife, children and sister-in-law.

Abigail was safely ensconced in the back of the Trident between the two trolling rods while Eloise was in the back of the prowler 15 with Flo. Fabienne – her first time on a kayak – was paddling solo in the not-yet-returned Scrambler 11. Flo is ‘in need of’ a new paddle, a posh one, so I’d borrowed a couple of fancy Lendal ones from the demo bundle to get her take on them and see which she preferred (I need to know these things from many perspectives). I was actually quite surprised by her conclusions – of which more later unless I forget.



The water was gin-clear. I thought the pike would be hitting lures constantly but no, not a sniff. I chucked out some red maggots on the float rod and it was only in seconds before it crash-dived…a beautiful little Rudd, my second of the year:



I apologised to Abigail – poor thing, she was being such a good girl and I had gone and reeled it in myself! I cast again and hooked up – her turn, and she soon reeled in a hard-fighting and beautifully-conditioned Chub:



After a while we pulled in at Geldeston Locks and had our picnic and a nice local beer. I flicked the rod out a few times and connected with another Chub – a bit better this time – and it tore off. Eloise’s turn:



Then one more for sister-in-law and it was time to feed the swans. I dunno if it’s mating season or what but the miserable sods were hissing and ruffling their feathers at us – although they still ate the bread. Ungrateful creatures.



The girls swapped yaks on the way back and Abigail decided to rest



You know, you can always rely on the Crame girls to be serious at all times:



Meanwhile, back on the rod-holding yak, daddy had spotted some Roach…baited up and in went the hook…



Beauty – bright, clean and hard-fighting. We had a few more bites and hen had to head off and catch up with the ladies who were headed back to the car. We soon loaded up and headed off home. Now, I mentioned Lendal paddles before…I had thought that Flo would prefer the Kinetic S most as it has a slightly smaller blade (designed with smaller paddlers and ladies in mind – she’s a petite lady). Not so – she preferred the full-sized Kinetic touring, possibly the ‘standard’ blade in the line up. What did surprise me though was even then it wasn’t the favourite – she preferred instead the Nordkapp which is a large blade designed for pushing more water than the others. I’d used it for both the morning sea session and the trip up-river and found that although it did push me along nicely it was more tiring than my Carlisle – which has a blade very similar to the Lendal Archipelago and is designed for long-distance touring with a shallow stroke (that’s me) – and so I’d assumed that it would be too much for Flo. Well, now to try her with that one and the Wing before her birthday comes around…it’s kind of silly really as she doesn’t make as much use of her paddle as most of the people on here but I’d feel happier buying her a decent paddle than some other old rubbish ;D

A cracking day - I’d had thirteen fish of four species and made the most of the great weather with my family who haven’t seen a lot of me lately. Who could ask for more?