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.

Winter Species Hunt...29/12/07

I'll start the ball rolling:

Todays fishing trip began for me the day before. My cunning plan – which I can now reveal – was to take myself, my children and my kayak over to my parents in order to have today free and have the kayak and gear already loaded up and ready to go. This would allow me to start at first light rather than a good few hours later while leaving Sunday – the alternative date and the better day of the two – free to spend with my wife and children thus not suffering from moans all week long. So, with a quick trip to the tackle shop to buy some maggots, resulting in a rod, two reels and some line as well as the maggots, the car was loaded up and it was off to ‘Base Camp’ for a few hours kip before An early start.

6am on a damp and very dark morning with 30mph winds making a racket outside put me in a fine frame of mind not made-up for by coffee and croissant. Dressed to thrill in thermals and cag/paddle pants I left the house just before 6:30 and headed for Ellingham Mill from where the plan was to paddle upstream to the first mark, the one that had produced plenty in the summer tournament. I was there before 7.



I unloaded and tackled up by the light from my head torch and launched around 7:15 or so.



So far the cunning plan was working. Trouble was, it was as windy as a politician and this was added to by the sluice being open. Great. The water was very high and the current was pretty strong. In a word, unfishable. Still, as Richi said ‘Who Dares Wins’ and I was up anyway. I also couldn’t stand the excitement of waiting for one of Starvin’s tournaments any longer and went for it. Two rods out the back with a Big S and a Super Shad Rap and I trolled the mile up to my first mark.



On arrival, I set up one rod with a 4bb waggler float and size 16 hook, the other with a leger and a size 16 and both with 4lb Daiwa line. I was hoping to christen my shiny new Shimano Hyperloop 2500RB reels bought specifically for tournamenting. I always buy Shimano reels as they have never let me down but at £15 each these aren’t the top notch ones they do. But I was impressed. Smooth as silk with a very good drag system and plenty of line capacity I was able to cast light tackle a good distance with ease. But christen them I did not. Did I mention it was unfishable? The float was dipping under from the water pressure and the tips of my John Wilson Prime match rods (I’m less snobbish with rods than reels as i tend to smash them p now and again) were waving around too much to detect bites on the leger rod. I persisted for too long and then headed upstream to try a couple more marks as the sun finally crept up over the sides of the valley.



Still nothing doing on the troll, I went right to the end of the stretch over the next couple of hours – against wind and current – and tried in the mill pools there. Nothing. And guess what? The bloody sluice was open at this end too. Deciding enough was enough I turned around and trolled back to the launch point, annoying the swans for good measure.



Loaded up I nearly knocked it on the head there and then. Ever the optimist though I decided to head to Geldeston where I figured I could get out of the current and into a side stream that usually has a good head of varied tiddlers. On arrival I had a look at the water – the current was screaming down here too and the side stream was mostly mud – the tide was down. The Waveney is a lovely river but being tidal it has its own characteristics, some of which also adversely affect the fishing. Lack of water in known marks being one of these.

Really fed up with this unfishable day I decided once more to knock it on the head. But first I’d just go and see what was happening at Beccles…..

Pulling up at the quay the bank was lined with anglers. I asked the first one if he’d had much and he was honest enough to tell me! He reckoned he’d had about 30 roach and a couple of perch, but all tiddlers. The water in this part was pretty calm too and I tested it out by lobbing a float in – yep, I could detect ok. So off I went to my Beccles launch point: the dinghy club's pontoon which is next to the swimming pool. Free parking 20 yards from launch… The water here looked reasonably okay too and at last – and it’s around 11:30 by now – the day was looking as though it was becoming fishable after a false start.

I launched. I trolled downstream towards the iron bridge which was my first mark. This is a hot spot for jacks that I have fished since I was a teenager and rarely blanked on. Today I did though. The pike just didn’t seem to want to play today. The 0.75kg anchor was holding me fine and the float was staying above the surface but sadly it was always staying above and this was not good. I got cunning then. Leger and float off, swim feeders on, and I moved down to a new spot by the entrance to one of the boat yards, opposite the quay.



Loads of people about and one or two fish coming in encouraged me somewhat and I poured a tub of maggots into a couple of pints of breadcrumb that I’d been saving over the last month or so (dry it out then liquidise. Good for fish, chicken and fishing) and added some water from the river. A couple of maggots on each hook, feed in the feeders and out went the lines.

Five minutes or so later and I got a bite. At last. I missed it of course, as I did with the first half dozen. The bites were shy but detectable on the match rods and I decided to drop down to single red maggots on one, and 6 on the other as the two were coming in sucked out so either biggies were mouthing them or tiddlers were nibbling them.

A good move. I got one of them at last, on the big bait.



Quite a nice pull on a light rod and light tackle, and after a minute it was ready to come aboard. I was quite excited by this time as it looked like a new species for me



Oh my, would you look at that! It was a beautiful light silver with white fins and a deep and wide body. And covered in slime. My first ever silver bream – a skimmer as they call them.



It didn’t really matter now if I did have to give up as it was a new species so I was happy anyway. Of course, I wasn’t going to stop fishing though was I? Single red maggot rod this time. Tap tap tap



Now in the past I’ve only ever had roach with a brown/green back and had never fished for them in winter. The ones I had today had blue backs, a rich, deep blue, and were really beautiful looking fish with their silvery flanks and orange fins.

Tap tap tap. Another.



tap tap tap. And again



It carried on like this, with many being missed and some being caught. And good ones too, averaging around 4-5 oz. My rods were positioned like this most of the time and were slightly too far forward for quick striking with the butts being quite lengthy. I’ll cut them down before next time as I have done with all my other rods. I ended up positioning them almost upright with just the tips in the holders and this worked far better.



I had too much fun and decided it was time to move in order to track down something different. I up-anchored and headed upstream a bit, back to the iron bridge. I had a roach on as a livebait now in the hope of tempting a pike – all tournament entrants were released alive by the way – but STILL no joy!

Feeder rods went down again, and I struck into a beauty this time. A real beauty that I knew was decent as soon as I felt it. Well, decent for this sort of fishing!



I had to record it; it was playing about for a couple of minutes!



It had fallen to a single red maggot and was hooked in the scissors. The back was an inch across and it was a good 10 inches long and around 4-5 inches deep. It had a green/brown back, light bronze tinge to the flanks, red / dark orange fins and was caught in shallower water than the others – on a ledge - I got it in and weighed it – a pound. The hook was firmly in though and I struggled for ages to extract it. Being concerned about getting this beauty back into the water as quick as possible I totally forgot to take a picture of it in my hand! Yes, ME! As it is my PB for a UK Roach/Rudd I am rather annoyed at myself for that. Also annoying is that I think it was a Rudd but am not 100% certain and without a decent photo to check against I suppose I can’t claim it as such (unless anyone can verify either/or from the pics of it in the water?). Anyway, it was enough to have caught it and I was well chuffed – a new species AND a PB in one day! An unfishable day at that!

I moved further upstream after a while. That’s the iron bridge in the background. I still had a livebait out along with the feeder rods as I have had plenty of pike here in the past. But still not even a sniff.



It was now around 3:30 and I had about an hour maximum of light left. I had a couple of decent half pound roach here (which I didn’t snap) and then set off back towards the launch point.



I had a good view of the church from here. And a little tap on the single red maggot…



Beauty! A perch! Only a small one, but another species, making it three for definite. That’s all I got here, but I did get cut up by a yacht under motor who was going left to right (tacking with a motor? Are you drunk?) and then decided to head on the inside of me, ie between me and the moored boats twelve feet away. And it was pretty obvious I had lines out. Knob head.



A quick troll down to the bridge and back failed to bring up pikey and so I loaded up the car and tried out the self timer for the first time ever. A brilliant day fishing an unfishable day with a PB and a newbie, some good, fresh air and a few mm of stomach lard disposed of. Disappointed not to have had my usual pike and annoyed at not photographing my biggie but after all, worse things happen at sea….



Once again, thank you Starvinmarvin for organising the tournament. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Tight lines to the rest of you if you get out too.

It began so well...Lowestoft...23/12/07

7:30, a silly time to get up when there is no school run but with fishing on the cards with excellent conditions predicted and after 7 weeks without saltwater on the yak I felt it would be churlish of me not to. So, I clambered into my Lidl thermals and Lidl Angora gear, stuck my Lidl skiing socks and hand knitted woollies on, with fleece trousers on top and went downstairs to find some protein. My father in law came down just as I was putting the finishing touches to fried tomato with two sausages, 3 rashers of back bacon, a handful of mushrooms and an egg to go with my coffee – and in a fit of compassion proceeded to save him from an ingestion of cholesterol and lard by scoffing the lot before his very eyes. I could tell he felt all the better for it. Then outside I went, fortified, and dragged out, set up and trolleyed-up the Trident and Prowler 15 for a day on the sea with a chap from another forum who’d had a go on the broad with me a couple of weeks back.

Scott turned up just after 8:30 and after calling up the coastguard we trundled down to the beach. There was ice on the yaks and it was very foggy with maybe 100 metres visibility but the water was calm, the wind was light and the air temperature was surprisingly mild, a nice morning on the beach.



I lent Scott my Extrasport cag and trousers and clambered into my Gul drysuit for the first time and put my Chota mukluks on over the top.



We launched just after 9, an hour after high water, and began paddling out for a mark I’d found on the charts that was 3.5 miles away – a hole of 22 metres surrounded by depths of 17.



Sadly the slack water was about done and we weren’t making headway so we went for plan B and headed on out to another mark near where I’d fished last time with Lozz and Gavstick, a mere 11 metres at the entrance to the Stanford Channel, between the Stanford and South Holm buoys.



The fog had started to lift and by the time we were in position visibility was getting pretty good and the sun was out. I had sweated like a monkey on the way out but the Lidl thermals had wicked it all away and I didn’t feel clammy at all – or cold. We’d spotted a couple of charter boats out on the way but these had headed for deeper water and the only sound was the lifeboat out for the usual Sunday morning training session.



Chucking down our anchors, I got my rods set up – Scott had already tackled up on the beach. Less than five minutes later and he was in – his first yak-caught fish, a codling that was just about sizeable but which went back.



Not that I was jealous or anything, mind. The upstart! Still, my turn came a few minutes later and I got a lovely thump. Bringing it up it felt a reasonable fish but I made the error of getting the camera out and ready and slacklined. Of course it dropped off and I swore. I was rather pissed off until, five minutes later (and a few missed bites for Scott) my rod went again, same rod with a 4/0 pennel holding blow lug and squid. Well, the camera was ready but I got it up on the surface first before messing about:



As ‘Wilson’ would say: “Do you think that’s wise…?” Oh, sorry, wrong Wilson. As the other, piscatorial, Wilson would say: “Oooh, yes, haha, ooh come to Johnny, ooh haha, ooh it’s not as big as I first thought haha…” Sorry, I digressed. However, it allows another photograph of the same fish to be inserted with a text break between pics:



Well, that was it, a lovely, plump 2.5lb codling with crabs in its belly and my hooks in its throat. A keeper:



Scott was hitting knocks as I let down again, and I kept hitting and missing them as well – the party was in full swing and I sent a text stating this. And that, sadly, was when our luck started to change. The current picked up as slack water finally ended and I noticed Scott creeping past. I’d given him the 0.75kg anchor, as the P15 is less buoyant than the Trident, while I had the 1.5kg on. While mine held fine his didn’t and after a couple of drifts we tied up to each other and then both started to drift. The leads were bouncing along and we were overtaking them – bites would not be seen and every now and then we got snagged and had that sudden rush of water that would make a great enema if it was internal but which makes you sh*t yourself without having to go to all that effort. It wasn’t funny so we lifted anchor. Or rather failed to, and I had to cut myself off (preferring to do that than ditch the line and buoy as I don’t know when I’ll get out next to retrieve it). Had I stuck to a mono link I’d have been able to pull the anchor inverted but the cable tie just wouldn’t go.

So, we decided to head inshore and after being passed by the lifeboat had to paddle like hell to crawl into the harbour, the current screaming down at a vast rate of knots. I was sweating out the louche living of the past few weeks and as knackering as it was it felt good. The swell was still almost zilch and we went and sat for a while inside the harbour, where a single shore crab volunteered for tomorrows bisque duty.



Bored, we headed back out and into the bay



Drifting out of any current, Scott managed a few tiny codling while I headed towards the rock breakwater by ‘kiddies corner’.



Here another crab jumped in but apart from that nothing so we decided to head south and maybe get in some fishing off Pakefield. We addled for a bit and then decided that as headway against the current was not particularly good we’d end up with limited fishing time so beached, broke down the gear and walked back to mine for a cuppa.



Do you think the yellow suits me?

Although we had a cracking start that turned into a comedy of errors it was a bloody good trip, very pleasant and a great escape from that pre-Christmas lunacy. Now I just have to get a pair of 1.5kg replacement anchors and get back out to get the ones I missed! I think Scott enjoyed it and I enjoyed having him along. I shall also enjoy the now-filleted cod that will be smoked tomorrow morning in time for my pot-caught Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow night. Have a good Christmas everyone and here’s to a few more tight lines before the New Year.