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.