It has been seven months since I last posted anything here. In the mean time life has changed considerably, of course, and I do wonder when things will return to normal.
I have been fishing a few times since the new season started. Today I thought I would give the river at Potter Heigham a go as I haven't really tried it much before. It was a hot day to be by the riverside and as I drove there the outdoor temperature recorded by my car was touching 29C. It had been slightly more overcast with thin cloud in the morning which prompted me to think it wouldn't be too hot in the sun but by the time I arrived it was blazing hot. Fortunately, after walking one way up the river and back again I found a nice spot in the shade of a willow tree and I was very thankful. If you go over the bridge from the Latham's side and turn right, you will see where I mean. This was where I sat looking over the Thurne:-
I was float fishing as usual with a pair of red maggots on a size 16 hook (you can see my float in the picture). The maggots were getting a bit smelly and I was pleased that I had used them up by the end of the afternoon! The water does move quickly here and it was coming in with the tide - something I am not so used to. I set the depth for near the bottom (which was perhaps 4 or so feet deep) and to keep things under control I fished reasonably close in.
I wasn't getting any bites to start with and when that happens I try different things out to see if it makes a difference. I began feeding in my maggots and casters upstream of where I was (so that the food would get near the bottom in front of where I was sitting). I also reasoned that with all the boats going backwards and forwards the fish would be close to the bank. I was right and they were very close to the bank - I started getting bites with the float only a couple of feet from the edge.
After a while I began to catch a few roach. These were quite small but I was quite happy. I had shade, there was a nice breeze, I had tea to drink and I was getting regular bites. The afternoon wore on with the same pattern and I caught, perhaps, six roach. I was thinking about packing up when the float went under again and then I knew I was into something more substantial! I did not know how substantial until this large dinner-plate of a fish surfaced and I was gobsmacked! I had only brought my small landing net with me and I was wondering if it would fit in. Here is the beauty (a bream):-
The disgorger is 13.8cm long and so the fish is about 44cm or 17.5 inches long. I intended to weigh it but as I had it in my net in the water, giving it some time to recover, it swam off as I fished around in my bag for my scales! However, judging by other bream I have caught, this one is about 3lb. I reckon this might be the largest broadland river bream I have caught so far. I did carry on for a bit after this but, apart from a reasonable perch, there were no more bream such as this to be had.
Interestingly, a bit downriver from where I was sitting and across on the other bank, a family were swim feeder fishing and I could see that they had caught two eels.
All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2020
