Ripping It Up…31/01/2014

Ripping It Up…31/01/2014 Can I get a fish worth catching this month? Can I get a big one for the Warbird 220 Challenge? Can I beat the weather? Not on the sea, not a chance. It had to be the river and fingers crossed for a pike on the troll. I’ve not fished the Waveney since the surge except right up past the sluices so I decided to give it a try in the hope there’d be a chance… It’s the first time I’ve trolled properly from the Midway. I pulled up at the pool and carried it one-handed onto the pontoon, rigged the cameras and rods up and hopped in, heading down through the ton stretch. The water was right up, dirty and ripping through. I drifted with only the occasional steering stroke and as still faster than I wanted to be; clearly a lot of run-off coming through from the marshes. Still, the weather was mild enough as I passed through the town. Biteless. I had my banker Eco Narrow on the one rod and a handmade wooden one that my mate Paul from Heroes on the Water had sent me to try out. He’d done alright with it cast but I troll and the two tactics aren’t always compatible in a lure. Well, I wasn’t able to see the action of the lure but from the vibrations of the rod tip as I moved along it certainly looks like a winner to me. Maybe not to the pike on this occasion but I think it’ll produce the goods when conditions are more suitable. I turned just short of the quay and started paddling back again. I had to put my back into it as the funnelling by the bridge made things quite heavy going…between the bridge supports I’d estimate about three knots as ripping through there so I passed my launch point and headed upstream to Barsham where it bends and widens and deepens, still hopeful. I got to Barsham and sapped over to an Eco Snake, being the only sinker I had on me, and started chucking into the bay by the sluice in the hope that I could find a lurking pike. I only found lurking snags though but fortunately I wasn’t tied up on the side that the pipeline drains from… Things weren’t worth further exploration upstream so I decided to head home again, trying to hold my speed down and got all excited when I hooked a tree as I rounded a bend a bit tight. That was it for excitement though and after a few hours of at least being out I pulled up at the pontoon, hopped out and went home. No freshwater entry for the Warbird Challenge then.