Neatishead Staithe

I haven't been fishing for just over two weeks and so I was pleased to get away to the waterside this morning for a couple of hours. I have moved to the Neatishead area of the Broads and so I was keen to try Neatishead staithe which is on my local patch. The staithe is on Limekiln Dyke which feeds into Barton Broad. The village is at the end of the navigation and so is quite a way inland from the open water. The weather today was sunny and still and, even though still cold, it felt warm in the sunshine.

When I arrived about 10.30am there were already a number of fishermen strung out along the water. I had wanted to fish near the main channel and there was a space on the left-hand side near one of the waterside seats. I was float fishing as usual with a waggler weighted with five number 4 shot and a size 16 barbless hook. As soon as I arrived I scattered a few mixed coloured maggots into the water. I hadn't been fishing long when I had a good bite and to my surprise reeled in this nice bream:

It is difficult to tell whether this is a silver bream or a common bream. At this size they are known as skimmers. This one is about 26.5cm long or 10.5 inches and may weigh about 14oz. I suspect that I appeared to be a bit of a smarty-pants for having sat down for five minutes and then pulled in something that needed a net.

We had some other types of fishermen hanging about the waterside. Briefly on the opposite bank was a kingfisher. It made me look up as I heard that distinctive plop in the water as it dived for a fish. There was also a young heron that was hanging about, presumably waiting for a kind fisherman to chuck him a fish. He did an interesting manoeuvre as he picked up a fish from the surface of the water - a sort of flop onto the water surface and then a rapid take off.

I was surprised at how deep the water was. Having plucked out a bream I decided to fish deeper and deeper and got to around five foot or more. There were quite a lot of ruffe at this spot and I caught perhaps five or six of these:-

Funny little fish these. In response to being caught they puff up their gill covers. They also have a spiny dorsal fin like a perch. This one is about 14.5cm long or 6 inches.

I also caught a roach, a gudgeon and a perch whilst I was there for those couple of hours. Having spoken to a couple of the other fishermen I learnt that the inlet for the mooring was a better place to catch skimmers and avoid the ruffe. I also found out that this was one of the fishermen's favourite locations for catching pike in winter (up to 28lb) and big bags of roach and perch. I am looking forward to it!

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.

Nice little fish as dusk falls

I had an hour or so at sunset this evening to fish the dykes. We started the day with a heavy frost but lots of sunny weather meant that the temperatures rose to about 8C in the afternoon. There was little or no wind which was nice. The water is still exceptionally clear and I think this puts fish off feeding during the day, but as the sun goes down, I think they feel safer to venture out into open water.

I was using the same equipment as last time and I had bites straight away. After a few roach, I had a small perch and then there must have been a shoal of rudd as I was catching one after another. They were of a reasonable size too and one required a net and must have been about 8 ounces. A very nice fish and the largest rudd I have had so far I think. I sat there in the gathering dusk but eventually it became impossible to see my float, so I gave up and went in.

A 31 inch pike!

I have been fishing on and off over last week without catching anything of note. I noticed that it became appreciably harder in certain spots to catch anything at all and I found myself moving round to parts of the dyke where fish could always be found. It was cold at times and the water had become exceptionally clear, so perhaps that explained why the fish had been reluctant to feed. There were certainly no big perch about, although a friend nearby caught a good one but didn't get a picture of it. I did purchase some worms for bait, but didn't have much success with them. Perhaps it is the way I present the bait. I did get bites but I think this was usually a fish taking the worm at its end, away from the hook.

Today it has been about 9C or 10C but extremely windy as storm Imogen has been crossing the country. I have been avoiding really windy days for fishing as it is such a pain having tackle flying about, but I had some extra time today and so I thought I would go to the dyke at the back of the house which provided a bit of shelter. I changed my tackle to a slightly heavier waggler (taking five No. 4 shot), a barbless size 16 hook with a 3.5lb leader. I always tend to put the shot nearer towards the end of the rig, but leaving the leader virtually free. I think fish prefer a naturally falling bait.

I think the cover of having choppy water was enticing the fish out and I was catching a selection of roach and rudd really easily. I also had one small perch, but nothing else. I had been trying a worm again and as I was reeling in a roach that had successfully taken the bait, a pike made a lunge for it making a big splash. I decided to set up my pike tackle using a carp rod that my brother had lent me. This consisted of a No1 Drennan pike waggler, a single threaded weight stopped with two swivels, a semi-barbed size 6 treble on a 20lb trace.

I had just dropped my bait into the water, literally just beside where I was sitting, when the float disappeared under as soon as it hit the water. I had been intending to cast a bit further down the dyke where I had seen the pike and hadn't expected this sort of take. I sort of did a double take about the float, wondering if something had gone awry but I realised that this was a pike and struck into the fish. I could see its greenish sides as it twisted in the clear water.

It didn't take long to land. It was a fairly big fish and it ended up going tail first into the net. This is it:-

You can see it has a fairly big belly where it has probably been feeding on smaller fish. The forceps in the picture are 30.5cm and this makes the fish about 79cm long or about 31 inches! This is the largest pike I have caught since I have been down here and I reckon it was pushing 8lb  or more (I must get myself some scales). A nice way to end the day!