Cold but rewarding afternoon at Neatishead Staithe

Well, the weather has got a good deal colder but the nice thing is that now that half-term is over, the broads waterways seem practically empty of boats. As a fisherman this means that you have the bankside to yourself with virtually no disturbance. It comes as a great relief.

I went down to Neatishead Staithe this afternoon even though rain was predicted. I put on my thermals because it was only going to be 8 or 9C. Actually, the rain didn't amount to much more than a shower. I set up my gear under the shelter of a tree in the middle of the dyke. I have got out my pole rod again with some very light tackle (using two No 4 shot) and a size 14 hook. It was nice to get some bites straight away on some maggots and a few fish in I caught this nice bream:-

This fish is 13 inches in length and probably weighs a pound and a half. Notice that it has a nasty gash which looks a bit like a boat propeller injury.

I carried on fishing at this spot for a while and even though the fish I was landing were of a reasonable size, the bites began to dry up.

So I moved along to the end where the dyke meets main system and there I was catching a mixture of roach, rudd, skimmers and perch. I did have a nice fish at one point but lost it. The best of the rest was this lovely rudd:-

This fish is about 9 inches in length and may be about 8oz.

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

8lb pike at Irstead Shoals

I have decided that I am going to turn my attention to a bit more pike fishing now that the boating season is ending. I have been getting a bit fed up with catching tiddlers anyway and I felt like I wanted to have that thrill of catching something a bit bigger. This morning I dug my pike gear out of the shed and dusted it down and put some heavier duty line on a spare spool.

Having seen some guys catching some reasonable pike down at Irstead Shoals this week I thought it was a good place to start. I went down there just after lunch and set up a pike float on my trusty telescopic Shakespeare rod. Initially, I think I was fishing too shallow, so I lengthened the drop to about 3 feet so that the bait would be nearer the bottom where I thought some pike might be lying. I took my small pole rod out with me too and I want to thank the guy who I begged some maggots off because the casters I had weren't doing very well.

Actually, it was a lovely warm afternoon. It must have been 16C or so. The wildlife was good too as there were several kingfishers fishing off the far bank and a small otter was working his way along the bank underneath. I know some fishermen don't like otters but I am not one of them. There are plenty of fish for all.

Anyway, I had success in catching this very nice pike which came to the bank pretty easily and was landed for me by another fisherman:-

It measures 30.5 inches in length and weighed in at 8lb which was very nice. As you can see it has lovely markings on the anal fin and tail. Compare this to the similar sized fish I caught last winter. This one has much more pronounced markings and is more orangey colour. The previous one is more drab olive green in comparison.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Fishing the Ant at Ludham and Irstead

Since my last post on this blog in September I have been fishing quite a bit at two locations on the river Ant - Ludham Bridge and Irstead Shoals. There are a couple of things I have learnt whilst there; the first is that groundbait can be very useful in getting fish feeding and the second is how to float fish in the Ant when the tide is coming in or out.

I have used groundbait from time-to-time but not for a while because I am always trying to keep my fishing costs down. Having been fishing at places like Womack Water where bites seem to be hard to get I decided to buy a bag of groundbait the last time I was at the Bass Online shop in Horning. They are a nice helpful bunch of guys there and I picked up a bag of general use groundbait for £3.50. I have been quite pleased with the results and it has gone quite a long way.

I had previously been put off from float fishing the Ant at Ludham Bridge because the tidal flow of the river makes it hard work with the float being on the move all the time. However, after watching a guy fishing there a few weeks back I realised that you don't have to let your float trot along in the water in order to catch fish. You can let the float go so far and then hold it back against the flow. I always thought that this would put fish off because the bait doesn't look natural in the water but this is clearly not the case. Of course, the float will swing round until the line is parallel to the bank and so it means that you can only fish as far out as the length of your rod but there are plenty of fish within a few feet of the bank. It does save on a lot of recasting. You need to keep the rod tip low to the water, have the float tethered at its eye end and let out sufficient line.

The Ant at Ludham has a nice section of river on the east bank which has been assigned for fishermen under some broads scheme or other, the name of which escapes me now. I will make a note of it the next time I go. Basically, you walk north along the east bank past the moorings until the path divides into two. The main public footpath leads off to the right, but if you follow the riverside you come to a gate which you go through and there they have created a number of pegs by clearing away the reeds from the edge. You are free of the moored boats but not boat traffic but it is a nice spot. There is one peg further up where the river bends towards the bank making a relatively sheltered bay and this is quite good. The few times I was fishing this stretch I was catching lots of roach, rudd, skimmers and perch but nothing of any notable size. I think the trick to catching some of the bigger bream would be to ledger off the bottom, something I have got to try and get into.

The Ant at Irstead is always reliable but you have to fight a bit for space because boats like to moor up there. It is, apparently, a good spot to catch bream at night and people cast a ledger onto the bottom near a creek that leads off the opposite east bank. I like mixing with the boat people who are generally really friendly. During some of the poorer weather we have had recently I have even been offered cups of tea by these kind folk. Much appreciated!

I have yet to land a decent size bream there but I did have one on my line the other day which was probably 2lb or more but I lost it before I could net it. Here are some of the fish that I did catch there on the 11th October:-

The above bream is 12.5 inches and may weigh 1lb 8oz.

This 10.5 inch perch probably weighs about 14oz.

The above bream looks like some sort of hybrid and is 11 inches in length.

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

A clonking pair of perch at Irstead Shoals

In the last few weeks I have been fishing at a number of local places on the broads; Gayes staithe in Neatishead, Womack Water in Ludham and Barton Turf and Irstead staithes. It hasn't been easy going and at times rather frustrating. One of the places I like most is Irstead where the river Ant passes through some gravely bottomed shoals. Here the fishing does seem a bit more reliable and even though boats pass the staithe on a regular basis as they make their way to and from Barton Broad, there is enough slack water on the side of the river for peaceful fishing.

I was there yesterday morning from about 10am to 1pm. A lovely warm late summer morning with a bit of a breeze at my back. I was float fishing as usual and trying to use up the remainder of the maggots I had bought a week back which were rapidly turning into casters. Thinking that the maggots would work best I had been putting a pair of these on a size 16 hook and fishing in the shallower water of an inlet in the moorings. Initially things looked promising and I was catching a few roach, skimmers, gudgeon and one or two perch. However, after a while things began to go quiet and so I thought I would switch to a pair of casters instead to see if a change of bait would tempt a fish. I had been feeding in mainly casters into the water as they were what I had most of in my bait tin.

To my surprise I had a good bite and I pulled in a reasonable size roach. The bigger roach do go for this sort of bait. Again I was out with more casters and then I had something on the line which felt like a very good fish. To my utter surprise it was a very nice sized perch:-

This fish is about 10.5 inches and probably weighs about 14oz. I wouldn't have thought that perch would be interested in an inert bait like this. After a while, things went quiet again, and so I moved around so that I was fishing more in the main river. I began to have more bites and a few fish again and just before I had to go, this veritable clonker (in my opinion!) took my casters again:-

When I hooked this I thought I had got a small pike on the end of my line. This fish is approaching 11.5 inches and may weigh close to a pound.

Going back to discuss some of the other locations I have fished in recent weeks, I thought Gayes staithe in Neatishead was promising. The last time I was there I began fishing to the left of the promontory:-

Having been catching a selection of small roach, rudd and perch I decided to move over to the right side and this seemed more productive. The best fish I had that day was this small bream:-

This fish is about 10 inches in length and maybe weighs 9 or 10oz.

The other locations at Barton Turf and Womack Water were hard work. Long periods of not catching much and it is probably best to invest in some ground bait to attract in some fish.

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

A tench at Neatishead Staithe

It was a warm day yesterday and pushing 23 or 24C. I didn't have a lot of time to fish in the afternoon and so I went down to my local staithe for a couple of hours. There, at least, I could sit in the shade but, being the holiday season, the dyke was full of boats and there was a lot of coming and going, so not ideal.

I found a spot between two moored boats and where it was unlikely that the moving boats would interfere with what I was doing. I float fished with mixed coloured maggots and at a depth that was as near to the bottom as possible.

It was a bit slow, I have to admit. I did the usual thing of feeding a few maggots into the swim on a regular basis. After a bit I was getting a few bites but nothing was coming up. I was beginning to wonder whether I was going to go home having caught nothing at all! Eventually, I had a decent bite and was pleased to reel in a nice skimmer that needed a net.

A bit later I followed this first fish with a decent perch that gave a good tussle on the rod. Then I had my first surprise as, after what seemed like a normal nibbly bite, I struck into something very large that just took off and snapped my line. I suspect it was a pike. Embarrassingly, my expletive was noticed by a woman sunbathing on the boat opposite.

Finally, after more slow progress and at the end of the afternoon, when I was thinking one more fish and I will go home, I caught this very nice unexpected 10 inch tench:-

This is the first tench I have caught in the open waters of the Broads (as opposed to an inland fishery) and it makes me think that perhaps there are more out there that might be tempted by, say, a bait like luncheon meat. Food for thought.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Holly Farm doesn't disappoint

Last week I headed back to Holly Farm Lakes in South Walsham for another enjoyable afternoon's fishing. When I arrived I was glad to see that a favourite peg of mine at the very far end of the 'canal' lake was free.

The weather has been sunny and dry recently and, although not as hot as some of the days we have seen, it was a pleasant 20C. The only problem about fishing on the sunny side of the lake is that eventually the sun is right in your eyes and you can't avoid seeing its reflection in the water.

I was using my new Maver Abyss X Series rod with 5lb line, a waggler weighted with 2 BB shot and a size 12 hook. I had sweetcorn and luncheon meat with me and I was finding that the sweetcorn was doing very well. Later in the afternoon I switched to the luncheon meat and started to hook some heavier fish.

I was catching a series of carp from the word go. Early on I had this nice 15.5 inch mirror:-

Most of the carp I was catching were only up to one or two pound and nothing much of any size. They were a mixture of commons and mirrors. I also caught a few roach and a couple of very small tench. The nice thing about these waters is that the roach don't dominate the fishing. Most of what I was catching were carp (unlike at Dilham).

At the very end of the day I had a nice tussle with this 21inch 6lb fish:-

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Disappointing Dilham

I had an afternoon at Dilham Fishery the other day and I found the whole experience very disappointing. Now that it is high summer, the rudd are voracious and they were grabbing the bait before any other fish had a chance. Having become a bit hooked on catching carp, it is annoying to spend a whole afternoon catching rudd. I like to float fish but clearly this is not really a good option here. I tried putting the bait near the bottom of the lake like the owner suggested but the rudd take it before it has got anywhere near that depth. Still I did talk to one fisherman who had been there all day and he had caught seven carp. I did manage to catch one small crucian and a small bream. I don't think I will be going back to Dilham for a while.

I had an evening fish at Neatishead Staithe last night and had an enjoyable time catching a few roach, perch and ruffe. The staithe is very busy now with boats so there are lots of people about. I sat there until the dusk was quite deep before giving up.

I think if I fancy a proper tussle again, I might go back to Holly Farm! Another place that I haven't been to recently is Mill Road Fishery at Stokesby.

New Season

Well the new fishing season began on the 16th June and I have already been down to my local waters a few times. Neatishead Staithe is my nearest point of access to the broads and I had a couple of visits down there in the week after the season started. The first time I was there I sat in the middle of the dyke but things turned out to be slow so I moved a few yards to where the dyke joins the main channel and fished relatively deep. I caught quite a few small roach and one two small skimmers, perch and rudd. Nothing of any size. Another fisherman on the other side of the dyke did, however, reel in a very good size bream of maybe a couple of pounds.

I came down again a couple of days after my birthday and was trying out a new rod that I had been given. I have been looking for a river rod of something in the 12ft range and had settled on match class one (a Maver Abyss X Series) . It was a lovely morning and it was enough just to be sitting by the water watching the kingfishers flying backwards and forwards. They must have a nest up towards the village as they were carrying fish in their beaks as they flew past.

Last week I decided to head up to Barton Turf. On the Sunday afternoon I fished by the parish Staithe on the side by the boat yard. There are some lilies there and it looked like a promising location. Barton Turf is such a lovely place that you just want to soak it all up. It's quite busy at the weekend with hire boat owners worrying about getting a mooring for the night but everyone is very relaxed and friendly. I had a few small roach, perch, rudd and even gudgeon.

The next time I came was another fine sunny day. I thought I  would try a different location and headed to the left past the punt club moorings to the public moorings beyond the board walk. I chose initially to sit by water close to the end of the walk again because there were some attractive looking weeds close by the bank. In the end I was only catching small fish and it was far too hot in the full sun, so I moved on round the corner to some shade fishing in between some moored boats:-

I decided to fish deep here and started to have some success at catching some decent size roach on casters. The best of the day was this one:-

This 9.5 inch fish probably weighs 11oz. I will have to come back to this spot and try again sometime and see if I can improve on this.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016

Return to Dilham Fishery

I have been back to Dilham Fishery a couple of times; once this week and once last week and had an enjoyable day's fishing each time. Last week I moved round to peg 8 or 9 where the water was slightly more clear of weed around the margins. Having lost sizeable fish that had shot straight into the weed I didn't want this to happen again. However, having said this, the spot wasn't as fruitful as peg 2 and I was catching mostly rudd and one or two crucian carp (see below). Later on when peg 15 became free I moved round to this as it had been recommended to me. Here I caught three reasonable size tench and this was one of them:-

This fish is about 13 inches in length and probably weighs between 1 and 2lb. I also had a very nice mirror carp to finish the day of maybe 3lb.

I also went down to the fishery on Tuesday afternoon and headed straight back to peg 15. The weather has been warm and muggy of late and it has been inducing some thundery showers. Before one of these curtailed my fishing in the early evening, I had one or two nice bream such as this one:-

This fish is about 13.5 inches long. It seems that the lake bream a prone to getting some sort of skin disease as this fish had sort of white nodules around its head and this is not the first time I have seen this. I also had a couple of crucian carp of which this is an example:-

This fish is about 10.5 inches. I had a brief take of a larger fish but it came off the line. I think one of the problems of this fishery is the quantity of rudd in the water. They are so numerous that they tend to snatch the bait before anything else can get to it and so is a bit of a nuisance.

All text and pictures are copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Dilham Fishery

Last Thursday I went to Dilham Fishery for the first time. I hadn't known about it until I had done a search online and it is even closer to me than Holly Farm. The postcode of the fishery is, if you wish to find it, NR28 9PZ. I turned up on a cold, blustery and slightly misty day. There is a single, attractively laid out, lake sitting in front of the owner's house. There is a car park and a toilet block. At first I decided to take one of the higher number pegs on the further side of the lake, simply because there were some water lilies there that looked promising for carp. Then once I had seen the lady owner, she suggested that the low number pegs nearest to the house did well (other popular pegs had been taken), so I moved. Up till that point I had caught a few small rudd.

I was fishing with my trusty old Shakespeare Eros Telescopic rod and, being windy, I decided to use a waggler float and a size 12 hook. It worked quite well, but casting in strong wind is always a pain especially as the surroundings were quite thick with bushes and trees. It didn't help that the best looking patch of lilies was near to the opposite bank. No doubt, if you stood anywhere nearby you would have heard me muttering under my breath about irritating wind.

I was fishing with cubes of luncheon meat again and using a can of sweetcorn to attract the fish. Initially, the bites were not very frequent, but I started to catch some reasonable size rudd and roach. The rudd were predominant and I had to put up with pulling these in all day, to catch other fish in between. The rudd were taking the bait in a classic fashion. Diving at it as soon as it hit the water and then swimming off with it horizontally, dragging the float behind them.

About 1.30pm I had my first serious fish and one of several bream:-

This fish is 12.5 inches long and may weigh about 1lb 8oz.

I had started to try and fish a bit deeper by then and I lost my first serious carp as it dived straight into the reeds. Just after 3pm I had my first common carp and these fish are very healthy and give a battle royal. I struggled to keep it out of the weeds:-

This 18inch fish probably weighs about 3lb.

About 40 minutes later I had another nice bream:-

This one is bigger than the last and is 14.5 inches and perhaps weighs nearly 2lb.

I think I lost another carp around this time as I just couldn't stop it as it went into the reeds. At 4.30pm I had the largest bream I had that day:-

This one is 15.5 inches and is probably 2lb plus. I carried on hoping that I was going to catch another carp and twenty minutes later I was successful and landed this big common:-

I decided to weigh this 20 inch fish because it was a really chunky fish and it came in at 5.5lb. So a nice end to the day.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Previous visits to Holly Farm on the 28th April and the 4th May

I had a couple of visits to Holly Farm on the 28th April and 4th May. This view is from the 'canal' lake furthest from the car park on the 4th May. Notice the reed bed to the right which was where the fish appeared to be lurking. I realised my Middy Battlezone 4 metre Carp Margin Whip was no longer up to the task of dealing with fish of more than about 3lb. Besides the elasticated end had lost its strength and I need to put a new one in. One of the reasons to take a stronger rod was fish like this one:-

This 55cm or 21.5 inch mirror weighs 7lb and is the largest carp I have caught there to date. I have put it in sling of my own making so that I could weigh it.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Consistent results at Holly Farm

I was back at Holly Farm Lakes again today for another happy day's fishing. I have been a couple of times since my last blog post but didn't make a note here of how I got on. I will do so after I have described today's events.

Holly Farm seems to be very consistent. Every time I go I seem to catch plenty of fish and so do the people who are fishing near me. Today was warm (about 15C) with sunny spells. Very nice for sitting by the lake side and only a gentle breeze. One worry is the strength of the sun, so I do wear a hat, put on sun cream and if I feel the need put up my 40 year old fishing brolly! I am sure some people think I am a bit mad but it keeps the sun off me.

I arrived about midday and was pleased to see that the peg at the far end of the 'canal' lake on the north side was free. This is nice and close to a reed bed where the fish tend to hang out. I have stopped fishing with my Middy Battlezone carp whip as some of the fish I have caught recently are far too big for it. More on this later. Also, last time I was out, my old Abu Garcia reel broke and so I have been out and bought a Drennan Feeder 6-40 from the Red Range. It was only £19.99 but I am very pleased with it. I used this in conjunction with my old Shakespeare Eros Telescopic rod which can cope with most things.

I was fishing with cubes of luncheon meat and pieces of sausage which work very well. I used my carp pole float on 5lb line and a size 10 barbless. Most of the fish I caught today were mirror carp. I also had a common, several roach and skimmers. I don't intend to give the calculate the sizes of all the fish, however, you can work this out knowing that the disgorger in all the photos for comparison is 12.5cm or 4.9 inches long.

Here they are in the order I caught them:-

The above was the nice little common.

I have now bought some scales and so I was able weigh the above 45cm or 18inch mirror. It weighs 3lb. The average size of the fish on my first two visits to Holly Farm were about 16 inches and so this one is slightly larger than average.

The above 47cm or 18.5 inch fish weighs 3.75lb.

A nice little skimmer (above).

The above 53cm or 21 inch mirror was the largest of the day weighing in at 4lb.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Back to Holly Farm Lakes for another lovely days fishing

Last Thursday, the 21st April, I returned to Holly Farm lakes for another day's carp fishing. This is the view of the lakes from near the car park:-

It was a lovely sunny day, but still with a cool breeze that became more noticeable in the afternoon when some hazy cloud moved in. I arrived about 11.30 and headed down towards the lake furthest from the car park. I wanted to fish where I had been before, facing into the sun, but most of the platforms on that side had been taken. I did think about the platform furthest away on that side by the end of the lake but the reeds were quite close at that point and I thought that I might end up losing fish and tackle in the margins. So I ended up on the other side again near the end of the lake.

After setting up with my pole rod again, and fishing with sweetcorn, I had a couple of nice carp before lunch fishing close in to where I was sitting and just in front of the platform:-

This nice looking mirror was about 37cm long or 15 inches. For comparison, the last time I was here the average size of the carp I caught was about 16 inches.

This similar length fish looked a lot more rangy.

Things went a bit quiet about lunchtime and I found it a bit frustrating as someone had arrived at the platform I had rejected opposite and was catching a lot of carp, one after the other. I kept wondering what I was doing wrong. In these circumstances I alter my tactics and try everything; fishing close in or far out, in the margins, at a shallow depth and then on the bottom. Nothing seemed to be working. Then an hour and twenty minutes later (!) I caught another mirror:-

This nice coloured and healthy fish is 15 inches.

The guy opposite me (a nice bloke who chatted to me as we fished) had hauled in a pretty big roach which must have been a pound and a half at least. Not much later I caught this decent one as well:-

This fish is 30.5cm or just over 12 inches. Looking at this chart from the Idler's Quest this fish might weigh 1lb 3oz! Looking over my recent fishing I haven't caught anything of this size and I reckon this might be a personal best!


Another half an hour later my fortune and the guy's opposite me reversed. I began fishing literally just over the edge of the platform at a relatively deep depth and started catching carp at a rate of about one every 7 minutes:-

Interestingly, it is not necessarily the larger fish that gives the biggest tussle. Sometimes, as with this slightly smaller 14inch mirror (above), a healthy fish is less keen to be landed.

This was a nice 17.5 inch mirror.

This one was 17 inches.

This was a smaller but chubby 13 inches.

This was a slightly damaged fish of 14 inches.

Twenty minutes later I had this bronze beauty of 20 inches, the largest I have caught so far.

This poor fish of 15.5 inches has a severely damaged or deformed mouth.

This is a younger fish of 12 inches. I did catch a very small carp around this time, so the water has either been restocked or the fish are breeding successfully.


Things quieted down for about an hour and so I changed tactics again by fishing very shallow but right in the margins at the end corner of the lake. My friend across the water was by then catching carp regularly again.

Another dark 15 inch fish.

Twenty minutes later a nice bronzey 19inch fish.

This penultimate fish was 15 inches.

This final fish was 18.5 inches.

It is interesting to see how all these 15 mirror carp vary quite a lot in shape, scaling and coloration. Some are a lovely bronze whilst others are pale and silvery. What doesn't make me so happy is that a lot of these fish appear to have damaged mouths and I suspect that this is because they are caught time and again and the fishing line cuts into the flesh. Of course, I am as much to blame, but I feel bad about it.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.