A cold wintry afternoon

Even though I new that the forecast was bad for this afternoon I couldn't resist going back to Neatishead staithe for another couple of hours fishing. As I arrived, it started to rain and sleet and, as the temperature was only 5C, I knew it was going to be a bit on the chilly side. I set up near the end of the dyke that the boats moor in and close to where the car park can be found. I had a reasonable size roach before deciding that it would be prudent to move to the other side of the water where there was a bit of shelter under the trees. Despite the weather this early fish gave me hope for a pleasant afternoon.

The fishing didn't disappoint. I took two rods with me this time, one rigged up with my waggler and the other a pole rod that I have described before. I was thinking that I could use the pole rod to fish in front of me and the waggler to explore some of the other water further afield. I thought that if the fish were a bit timid then I could handle both rods simulateously. I needn't have worried as the bites came in thick and fast and I changed from the pole rod to the waggler and back to the pole.

The fisherman who advised me to fish in the middle of this section of the water rather than on the edge of the main navigation was right. Here there were far fewer ruffe and I only caught one all afternoon. Most of the fish I caught were skimmers (very small bream) and the bites were continuous. I had another couple of decent roach and one perch, but none needed a net. I was using maggots again and feeding the swim very regularly. I had just swapped back to the pole rod when I caught this decent bream:-

As you can see it is a bit battered; it is missing scales behind its dorsal fin and it has some sort of injury/disease between its pelvic and anal fins. It was similar in size to Monday's being about 26cm in length or 10 inches.

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016