Another enjoyable afternoon at Neatishead Staithe

I was back at Neatishead staithe this afternoon. A mild (12C), overcast and windless day that was ideal for fishing. This time I was sat at the end of the staithe on the left-hand side where it joins Limekiln Dyke. I arrived about 2.30pm and there were three other fishermen on the opposite bank.

I was again using my 4 week old maggots and casters that I had last Sunday and without much effort a double red maggot was reaping rewards with some fine looking roach. I was again feeding in the casters to attract the fish. The advantage of a still day is that you can see the more sensitive bites more easily and not constantly distracted by ripples and the wind blowing your gear about.

I brought some pike gear along with me today and put out a dead bait (a sprat) on a float but without much success. I kept taking the gear out of the water because my friends, the swans, were back again (the same pair from Sunday) and we also had a visit from an otter. The first thing I saw of the otter was its tell-tale sign of a stream of bubbles rocketing towards me across the water. It carried on towards the upper reaches of Limekiln Dyke and then returned the same way and we had a good view of it on the surface of the water by the opposite bank.

I had my first good fish just after 3pm:-

This bream is 36cm or 14.2 inches which is probably in the 1.5lb range. Ten minutes later I had this super roach:-

This was about 28cm or 11 inches and came in at 12oz as I did bother to weigh it. This was all very rewarding and I was definitely having a good day. Anyway, I finished up with 12 roach, 2 bream and one small perch. Oh, and the ring on the swan's leg was numbered 4BYU for any of you birders out there that like to keep a track of our long-necked friends!

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2020.

Return to the waterside

I was back fishing at Neatishead staithe this afternoon. It is good to be back there during the winter when there are no boats to contend with and the fishermen have the water to themselves. It wasn't that cold, perhaps 8C, but it was overcast and by the end of the afternoon I felt quite chilled through. At least there was very little breeze.

I had the remains of a pint of red maggots that had been sitting around in the shed for a couple of weeks. At least, at this time of year, they don't all turn into casters in a matter of days - there were enough maggots lurking in the bottom of my tin. I was float fishing as usual and began with a pair of maggots at a depth of just above the bottom. The water is still very high with all the rain we have had but the water clarity has improved; there isn't the muddiness in the water that there was a few weeks ago.

I started getting bites immediately and within a few minutes I had a couple of roach that weren't tiddlers. I fed in the casters that I had as groundbait into the middle of the water. I was sitting halfway down the staithe on the left-hand side as you view it from the car park. There were a few other fishermen present. There was a father and son (of about 9 years) at the right-hand end adjoining Limekiln Dyke. The son was doing better than the father much to the father's annoyance!

I thought I would try alternating my bait in rotation - double maggot, double caster, single caster. I also adjusted the depth of the bait to just above the bottom. This seemed to work. I was catching quite a few roach, some of not a bad size (up to, perhaps, 6oz) and I also snagged a couple of skimmers (small bream of maybe 6 to 8oz). Nothing like the bream they were catching on the river Yare at Woods End where we went for a walk yesterday! The guys there were into a shoal of bream of up to 5lb. I saw one nice specimen being landed using a swim-feeder rig.

I started to try and make a note of how many fish of each species I was catching by using casters as counters in the bait tin lid. I mostly had roach but there were about 5 or 6 perch (no size), 3 rudd, two dace, 2 bream and 1 ruffe. So six species in all.

Part of the enjoyment of sitting by the water is seeing and listening to the wildlife. There were a couple of cheeky swans (one ringed) that were seeing if we had any food for them. One was trying to nibble my boot. All through the afternoon there were robins competing with each other, tits of various sorts twittering in the tree tops, pheasants squawking from people's back gardens and, at the end of the day, the lovely sound of blackbirds chattering as they find their roosts.

All text and pictures copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2020.