Out on the Waveney Again...17/01/08

It seems like ages since I last got out on the yak for a spot of fishing. Today is Thursday and last time was Monday. Either I am too used to the good life or my home life is getting unbearable. Or maybe, just maybe, the challenge I have set myself to catch as many different UK species as I can this year is giving me an extra bit of encouragement to get out there as often as I can get away with. Well, yesterday was a super day to fish and today was going to be far less appealing according to the forecast but it was the day I could get and so I got up a bit earlier and went outside to move the car around to the back and load up. Thankfully I was taking the box with my camera out at the time because this was how my day began:



That’s got to be the most stunning sunrise I have seen in my life. As I rarely get up early enough to witness them that can be taken as no exaggeration.

I dropped the girls off at nursery and school, wearing my mukluks and with the Trident on the roofbars, and set course for Geldeston on the upper Waveney. I was after species and figured that this was a good place as I have had perch, roach, dace and rudd here and have seen carp and heard of tench from here too, all target species. The launch point is next to the Lock Inn, which is itself next to the limit of navigation for powered craft. I wasn’t the only person fishing here today:



Not him. There were a couple of pikers on the bank who said they’d had one jack. The water was coloured and the very high – it was also flowing strongly, both a legacy of the week’s rain.



Still, I wasn’t going to let that stop me and paddled against the flow for a few minutes until reaching my first mark, where the river branches off to shallow water but has a decent sized hole at the confluence:



Maggots, sweetcorn and blue cheese were the baits and I’d made up a load of groundbait from breadcrumb, oats, Shreddies (the kids weren’t eating them), maggots and sweetcorn, lobbed them in and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And stopped waiting and went upstream another mile. It’s quite desolate out on the marshes at this time of year, not as green and lush as in spring and summer (when the water here is gin clear) but Norfolk marshland been a part of my life for nearly 30 years so even when it is like this it’s still pleasant.



And waited.

And said bollocks, went back to the launch point, tried in the backwater there and then loaded the yak on the car and headed for Beccles again.

I launched down by the quay and paddled past the dozen or so pole fishermen with their keepnets, past the piker on the corner and out into the river proper. The flow was pretty fierce here too and the anchor wasn’t gripping so I tied off to a fender again and fished the mouth of the boatyard.



And waited

My mate Digsworth phoned up for a chat which was a welcome break from the boredom of blanking and we nattered away about nothing much for a while and then I hung up. I’d got my first bite you see.

I struck it and in came in my ninth skimmer of the year - a Common Bream.



It wasn’t really struggling much on the line but once I unhooked it it started to play a bit more



Sit still you bugger



Nothing was doing in the next half an hour so I tried the bay by the bridge but the current was pounding the hell out of this area and so I only stayed a few minutes. Next stop was a dyke out of the current and both lines went down.

I missed seeing a bite and was reeling in to move when I felt a fish on!



Skimmer


Half-decent though, around half a pound



Got the hook out and popped it back to swim away, rebaited, cast and reeled in the other rod. I’d also missed seeing that bite (Bream can be very light biters). A bit smaller but reasonable.



So then, a hat-trick of juvenile Common Bream.



It was time to move again and see if I could find anything near another boatyard



No. I decided to spend the last 45 minutes seeing if the roach were in the quayside basin where the bank anglers were and went and tied off to a mooring ring.


I had the lines in the water for ten minutes when I got a good bite. I missed it.

Then 5 minutes later a shake. Which I also missed. I downsized the maggot baits.

Shake. Nothing.

Bite. Nothing.

Rattle. Nothing.

I missed 8 bites from memory, of varying strength, and all had sucked out half of the maggot concerned. I reckon tiny roach were the culprits. Next time I’m in Beccles I’m going to try for them and maybe a big pike on the corner with a bait as I heard an 18 lb’er came out today and I want to get a twenty again this year. Ah, it’s nice to have targets…

A couple of hours of Midwinter Paddling...14/01/08

I reckon that anyone selling a yak when they have another to use should offer to take the purchaser paddling at least or fishing at best. After all it’s an excuse to get on the water…

Around 2-ish Nick turned up at mine while I was out hunting for a free-range chicken (been watching telly last week) and was already well into a coffee upon my return. He charmed my wife far quicker than I have ever managed clearly. As the yaks were already loaded up (my brace of Prowler 15’s) a quick donning of wet gear was followed by a trip down to the broad to ensure no mice had chewed their way through the hull.

Unloaded, we launched on the slipway and Nick had his first experience of sitting in a Prowler. It was at this point that he noticed that there was not only water beneath him but also that he couldn’t see bottom:



But he wasn’t daunted and paddled out into a beautiful, sunny midwinter afternoon.



I stuck a couple of rods out with Super Shad Raps – bigger lures for winter where possible as a pike won’t waste winter energy on a mouthful but goes for a bellyful of grub if it presents itself – while Nick got used to paddling. We skirted the margins on the south of the broad with the only hook-up being a post behind the houseboats. Up the top, where the dyke begins that leads into the Waveney, Nick had clearly got the hang of things and was at ease:



But he hadn’t seen one of my famous broadland pike. So we carried on down the other side towards the Wherry Hotel where he had stayed on occasion in the past. I decided that we ought to head into the ‘dead end’ – the bay on the northeast – where I’ve seen good fish come out of but have never had a hook-up and then skirt back up to the launch point and beyond.

The wind was pretty strong on this side of the broad and the direction pretty much drove us into the dead end. There was a fair chop on the water too but the 15’s cut through it with ease. Because the water was high (at least a fathom!), the wind was up and it was cold I had kind of given up on a pike as I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of one in the last few weeks when

zzzzz



Hook-up

I thought it had got off as it didn’t put up a fight at this point – winter pike being more lethargic than the summer ones that leap around and tailwalk. In fact it went stiff as a board for a while.



It came to life alongside though. It didn’t fancy being chinned by an ugly bastard I a stupid hat and started to thrash, turn and generally tried to show me its tail. I was slower than normal in chinning it too as the gill cover closest to me was the one with the lure closest to it and two trebles going into my hand would not have been amusing so I had to turn it to chin it effectively. I soon managed it:



This was where Nick really became a friend! I am unused to the luxury of having someone to record my captures and while straightforward record shots are nice it’s always good to have a pic of oneself with a fish and Nick took to this role with aplomb:



Nice huh?



Look at those teeth – like a tiny wee kitten. How sweet! I showed Nick the teeth and how they go backwards and aren’t really anything to worry about (unless you’re a roach) and he mentioned that I might not want to kiss it. This actually seemed like a very good idea for my first pike of the year and is something I have had to do with sharks in the distant past – sharks should be kissed for good luck you see (unless you are in the water of course) and so I gave it a smacker on the snout and slid it back into the water.



It had fallen to a Redhead and my lucky hat had helped no end. Even if I did look like Jed Clampett.

We paddled off to the Wherry where we tied up and I had a celebratory smoke before we paddled back up the broad (Nick using my Carlisle posh paddle this time to see what the difference was) with my wife’s ex-Prowler 15 heading off into the setting sun.



With it getting dark we landed back at out launch point and had a natter with another friendly local piker with a somewhat larger vessel. A nice chap who mentioned being able to make a brew onboard. Info filed for the future…!

Well, being late in we had to load up hurriedly to get back as I had my parents coming for dinner and Nick wanted to drive back down south with his new baby on the roofbars so it was time to bid farewell to her, happy in the knowledge that it was going to a good home with someone who had a few tips and a couple of miles paddling to help him on his way.

Nick, I wish you all the enjoyment i know that kayak can bring. May it be a safe, fun and lucky boat for you.

2 New species & 2 new PB's for the Year...12/01/08

It was a beautiful morning here today. Absolutely glorious in fact, bright and sunny with clear skies and only a mild wind. A real change from the rest of the week. The trouble is that even though an improvement was predicted I hadn’t really taken heed as yesterday was so grotty that I didn’t really expect the day to be worth fishing on. Of course the children woke me up to the kind of mid-winter day that you wait for. So after hot-smoking a cod fillet that I’d promised for myself for breakfast and getting kitted up I set course for the Waveney at Beccles again hoping for a few more coarse species having decided to species hunt this year (I have to stay freshwater at the moment anyway as I have only got small anchors as the local chandler can’t seem to get any more 1.5kgs).

After 3 miles I went back home and got my camera.

Launching just after 11am I stuck a couple of lures out and trolled down the 1 mile to my mark, along the length of the town. The river was flowing slowly, the wind was mild and the sun was shining. I expected a pike to hit the lures but was sadly mistaken. Stupid Boy!

I anchored up just below the old iron bridge and put two rods out with swim feeders containing breadcrumb and maggots with a few maggots on a size 16 hook. These would be my tactics for the day, ones I am just starting to explore. Putting lines out into the bay where I had my chub last week and where I had my PB roach a few weeks back I sat and waited for half an hour or so without so much as a tap.

I weighed anchor (I’m getting all nautical now) and drifted down a couple of hundred metres to a hole I’d found on the finder the other day and tried there for another half an hour but still had no bites. I was starting to think it was going to be a blanking day.

Third time lucky I drifted down to a kind of crossroads – a boatyard off the port bow and a dyke off to the right 50 yards behind my stern on the starboard side. The water wasn’t particularly deep but I was aware that it was a reasonably popular spot from the bank so tied off to a moored cruiser and stuck a couple of lines down off my bow.



There still wasn’t much happening but then someone on the bank 100 yards away had a fish on the pole. Encouraged, I stayed.



I had to wait a bit longer but then got my first bite, at 1:40pm.



That was a nice looking bream, a new species for the year and my second ever



I missed another bite or two and then half an hour later a smaller one came in



I missed a few more rattles and knocks until after another 40 minutes had passed the rod flicked down and up came



Yup, another bream. A nice one this, and a PB.



They weren’t coming thick and fast, and some just gave the slightest bite and then went still being a surprise when they did come up – but not this one, a feisty bream



He soon tired



And in came my second PB of the day



I re baited and cast out again. An immediate bite resulted in nothing so out it went again and then, five minute s later I had a hell of a rattle on the rod tip. Bringing it in I was surprised to see an old friend, one I haven’t seen in 15 years or more, a pretty but much ignored fish which never attains much of a size. Although this one was a PB as well!!



Ruffe they’re called, or Pope, or Blacktails, or Stone Perch. Around here they are known as Snotties. They were once regarded as a delicacy although I imagine they’re a bugger to fillet.

I had another bream which I forgot to snap and then had another come up in a bad mood



Not a PB this time!



I figured enough bream had come aboard for now and I ought to do some trolling and find another position to maybe get a perch or roach onto the list. The pike still weren’t playing and so I carried on upstream as the sun started to drop



I anchored up again near my launch point with a good view of the church.



It’s got the tower separate to the rest of the building but that’s not relevant. The water was pretty calm and the shadows were lengthening as I dropped the lines down.



Within a few minutes I got a very solid bite and the rod tip swung down. Pulling into it I felt a really solid fish battling away on the other end. This was a good fish, better than the rest – I figured it for something different to what it turned out to be



Yep, another bream. But this time an even better PB! I had to weigh it and it tipped the scales at 1lb 7oz.



Chuffed to bits I sent it back down and although I stayed a while longer I had no more bites.



I went ashore and by the time I’d loaded up it was dark. A cracking afternoon of slow bites but two good species and two personal bests.

Start of My Yakking Year...03/01/08

Three days into the new year and I finally managed to get out this morning. The whistling of the 30mph winds had kept me awake for much of the night and I wasn’t feeling at my physical peak (!) but as a husband I know better than to postpone an agreed yakking permission so after dropping my youngest off at nursery I got kitted up in thermals and drysuit, loaded the kayak onto the roof bars, grabbed my tiddler rods and finder and set course for Oulton Broad fearing the worst.

It was worse than tournament weather! For the broad to have a 1ft swell meant that the wind was going to be a handful and as I was intending to have another blast with my Pacific Action sail I felt it wise to stow the rods in the rod pod until I got around to fishing. Car parked and kitted up I fitted the sail and let the wind take me off the slipway and onto the broad itself. It did that without the sail.

Unfurling it and with the rudder deployed I took off. From an almost standing start I was moving across the water pretty sharpish. The picture will give you some clue as to the speed I was going



I was somewhat surprised as I figured the wind being so strong should have been taking me quicker but I carried on out towards the middle of the broad.

BLOODY HELL! I came out of the shelter from the tree-lined bank and rocketed off! Sadly the GPS wasn’t connected up properly so I couldn’t get a speed reading but comparing it to last week’s sailing I’d estimate I was attaining 8mph+ and when I got hit by gusts I began to feel a little nervous – no texting today, I needed to give full attention. I crossed the broad both directions and then turned downwind again and fairly flew down the length of the broad towards the dyke entrance. Three pikers in a dinghy stood up and watched me pass, apparently gobsmacked! I didn’t even have time to enquire if they’d caught yet I was going so quickly.

What a blast. Once into the dyke proper I furled the sail and dropped the anchor down, plenty of fish were showing mid-water, around 3ft off the bottom but floatfishing was out – the float would be under all the time with anything less than a pike bung and I wasn’t after pike for once. I was on dual beam and most returns were coming on the 83 kHz window.



So it was on with a swimfeeder and lines went down.



Failing to get any bites I moved further down for a bit and then entered an inlet. Still nothing. I decided to paddle back the mile or so to my launch point and try in the boatyard. I wish I’d planned my morning better as the effort against swell and wind had me soaked inside the drysuit as I inched forward into the teeth of it. Not a great deal of fun. Especially as it was 3 degrees not counting wind-chill on face and hands (had my ushanka on to keep my ears and head warm, top kit) and the odd snowflake was landing on me. Still, I made it down again after 20 minutes or so and tried the boatyards.

I passed what would have made a good Christmas dinner on the way too:



Still nothing, I went back to the launch point, fetched the car and headed for the river I fished on Saturday at Beccles.

Having 2 hours of fishing time left now I used a different launch point to my usual one and am pleased I found it – a slipway and a 400m paddle to my mark in more sheltered conditions was a welcome change.



The local fauna was around in abundance too



Tied off to a cruiser I stuck some groundbait down and blanked steadily for an hour, getting the occasional visit from my bird:



before trying another spot



It must have been twenty minutes before the first bite. And I missed it. In fact, I missed 6 bites in all out of 7 – mostly shy bites but I had my swimfeeder snag and get pulled down onto the hook and bump one fish off. However, I didn’t blank as the one bite I DID manage to connect to saw me charged and rammed by this feisty little chap:



I played it a little and then swung it onboard. Around 1/2lb in weight and a solid, chunky fish this was the first Chub I have ever had out of the Waveney and only my second of the species ever. I must confess to being surprised! It was a lovely looking fish though and after the obligatory snap



I put it back to swim away and carried on fishing for another half hour before packing up and heading home out of time and out of bait. Not the most productive start to my year’s yakking but a memorable one for sure; warp-speed under sail and a decent chub for the species list.