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.