While the Cat’s Away. Day 2. 29/07/11

Right, change of scenery called for. Change of tack too. A windy forecast set me on a course for Beccles and a spot of piking. Straight from work I stopped off at a colleagues to watch myself on tele and then headed for the launch. In I went and stuck two rods out with some big-ass Rapala jointed shad raps, a blue one and an orange one. I set off upstream, caught a bank angler and then chucked them out again. Five minutes and fish on! It felt pretty good but the hooks on the blue didn’t penetrate and I lost him. Never mind. Out again, a couple of minutes and the first one came to the boat on the orange. A pound or so; swim away little fishy!

I carried on up, turned and came back down. That’s when number three hit the orange and came to the boat, a couple of pounds this time, as was his twin that came soon after on the same lure. Right, twenty minutes had passed and I decided to go on the look for some larger fish on the town stretch…

First up was a bigger fish, right down towards the bridge. Quite a strong, chunky fella that went to about 6lb, again on the orange. Still feeding even with a broken off trace and a treble in his throat.





This was followed minutes later by a half pounder that took the treble right down into the gills, blue this time.

Nothing else happened as I ran down to the second bridge so I headed back up again, another fish taking the lure under the iron bridge. I’d got a J13 in Firetiger on now and this 3lb’er had taken it. The next one did too, a 3lb’er this time, lovely.



My final one I had to wait half an hour for and came in at a couple of pound, again on the J13. That’s when it all went to hell in a handcart.



I pulled ashore at the quay and got hissed at by an emu-sized swan with his brood so left all the junk on the quayside instead of over to the bin. The 60lb braid got my lure back but it was a heavy old lump to pull up and took me ages. I got a spoon and a spinner off it, removed the trebles snagged in it before dumping just in case of further problems for people.



A great 3 hours on the water and then I was on my way home wondering where to go tomorrow...