Over the last few weeks I have made a few ventures out to do a spot of fishing. Three weeks ago on Valentine's day (14th February) I went along to Irstead Staithe and I was reasonably confident that I would catch something. Wrong! Despite it being a fine afternoon it was absolutely dead. Not a bite. This can happen in winter especially along the main rivers of the broads. Still it was pleasant sitting there:-
Not to be deterred I packed up and went to Ludham bridge but it was the same story. I had better success 6 days later on the 20th February when I went down to Martham. I had intended to fish at Martham Pits but I found that it was still closed to day tickets for the winter. Instead, I fished in the dyke by Ferrygate Lane:-
The weather was a balmy 16C but the problem here was that I had managed to put my back out and I could only stay for about an hour before having to go home (very gingerly). Still there were plenty of bites here and I caught about 4 roach. Last week (the 27th of February) having recovered I tried the river Ant at Wayford Bridge but it was becoming a familiar story of blanking. No bites here:-
Thinking that it might be the open river problem I went along to Sutton Broad. Here it is a long way from the river systems but it was as dead as everywhere else:-
You can see from this picture that the water was really brown and muddy and I wondered if this was part of the problem.
All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2023
