Hunting for Sticklebacks. 13th March 2008

[Mark Crame]

Following the school run my wife dropped me off in Beccles for a few hours fishing in the wind before tomorrow, the last day of the coarse fishing season. I was armed with some size 22 hooks and was hoping to catch – of all things – a Stickleback. Set up, I launched and headed into the main basin of the quay to try my luck having been informed that there were some here last week.

 

 

Five minutes went by and then my first bite occurred – a swift rattle. It felt small…could it be?

 

 

Alas, no. It was a Ruffe. No more fish were forthcoming so after about an hour I moved further up to try a different spot. I got a few missed bites before striking into a Common Bream of about half a pound, followed by another shortly after.

 

 

Next up came a double shot of small Roach

 

 

After an hour of this, with only a few fish in I decided to go and get a bit more action in the usual spot and untied myself from the quayside for the short paddle. Tying up again, I soon had a good knock and brought in the first Dace of the day

 

 

This was soon followed by a PB Gudgeon

 

 

Soon after I had to laugh when, after a terrific battle, I landed my smallest ever Roach

 

 

I decided to see if the decent Chub were back in the usual spot. I tied up on the opposite bank to where I normally fish as I wanted to put a pike rod out in a specific point where there were no pike at all today. After a while came the first hard shake and into the boat came the first decent Chub, around a pound.

 

 

This was the order of the next couple of hours with occasional bites most of which resulted in fish-on.

 

 

Departure time drawing near I waited to get my last fish and sure enough I reeled in my feeder and there it was…another Chub.

 

 

And so I ended the day with 20 fish of 6 species - 1 Ruffe, 2 Common Bream, 2 Dace, 3 Gudgeon, 6 Roach and 6 Chub. A slow day and I missed the target species but I had some nice fish and a lot of fun. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Edited March 13, 2008 by Mark Crame

[Janet]

Mark, that was a brilliant report.

 

So good to see that others have days like me!

 

As for the sticklebacks? I haven't seen a single one for several years, despite spending hours watching local lakes, canals, ponds and rivers. I've had plenty of tiddlers, minnows, gudgeon etc, but not a sniff of a stickleback.

 

Where have they all gone to? I used to spend idyllic hours with a fishing net pulling in one after another to deposit in my jam jar. Also newts? Have you seen any recently?

 

I haven't seen one for years, and they used to be very common in this area.

 

Janet

[Mark Crame]

Cheers Janet. It's always great on the kayak whatever I'm chasing.

 

I've never seen sticklebacks around here but Dant said he had one last week and a few people have corroborated it. I haven't seen minnows here but Bullhead and possibly Loach are about at another spot too.

 

Newts we have on the marshes in healthy numbers and they sometimes turn up in my childrens sandpit over at my parents.

[musket]

Don't talk to me about bloody newts!

I've got the balance wrong in my pond and they(palmate) queue up to munch the tadpoles when they're just big enough to leave the jelly.None make it to frogs.

 

I'm going to have to dig another pond

[peterpikefisher]

if you want stickleback bring you yak up to the union canal near broxburn west lothian,

we have quite a few my son caught his first fish there a few months back

it was a stickleback.

Edited March 23, 2008 by pumphypete