Sea Fishing In Norfolk

[Elton]

Posted on behalf of Mark. Please add all replies to this thread:

 

hello,i have been living in great yarmouth for 15 years now but only just started fishing again in the sea. i went to caister last week ..in early morning and caught 13 undersized codling on lugworm...i was thinking of trying other places around area but not sure where to go.

has anyone fished on breydon water banks...near asda..or round area and if so ..what is there...and does it come under river or sea?

[WALCOTT]

Posted on behalf of Mark. Please add all replies to this thread:

 

I would'nt even think of fishing from ASDA side or River side near Breydon Water as to how the tide comes in and runs out...I have fished in Norfolk for 30 plus years..also you would only catch eels/flounders but they would be good ones...try Gorlestone,Hembsy and up the coast to Cromer there lot's of places....you have 2 rivers with tidal flow going into the Asda part and when they are in flow it's a danger to you and you won't hold the bottom any way...North/South beach at yarmouth is as good as any where....plenty place to go south towards southwold aswell.

[dant]

Walcott's pretty much spot on re: the Asda section of river and safety. I speak from what could of been a very sticky situation I got myself into whilst a teenager. Not much fun. To be honest it wouldn't really be worth the risk as the Eel population is in the midsts of a serious decline and there are far fewer Flouders in Breydon that there used to be.

Years ago we used to cycle across the Halvergate marshes and fish downstream of the Berney Arms near to the start of the estuary, hunt for a few ragworm and then catch a bucket full of Flounders, some good ones too up and above 1lb.

 

Caisters my home beach and fished it recently for just about the same sort of catch of mini-codling to around a lb. I think catches like that are pretty much the average at the moment all the way from North Norfolk down to South Suffolk. The exception being Aldeburgh's 'Dirty Wall' stretch and Orford Island which have seen much better catches of fish but they're an hour South of Gt Yarmouth.

 

As a very, very rough guide. You've got the deeper water up on the North Norfolk shingle around Weybourne, good for Whiting and Codling after theres been a bit of a blow and fairly reliable for Mackerel on feathers in the Summer. The shoreline then gradually shallows and turns to sand as you move south through places such as Trimingham and Mundesley then on through to Cart Gap and Winterton the beach can be very shallow in places with gullys and bars that can be good value for Bass in a month or two but very few fish it these days so it's hard to tell.

Then on round to Hemsby and Caister its fairly shallow and fishes better on the tide up. This area is suseptable as much of the coast is to quite dramatic changes after storms so consistent advice is fairly hard to give.

Quite a number fish Gt Yarmouth North Beach out in front of the Iron Duke and seem to do ok although theres a weed bed offshore that can cause havoc with drifting loose weed on certain tides.

The mouth of the river at Gorleston fishes ok both seaward and river side and might be worth a go for a few spring run Codling as might Hopton, Kessingland and Pakefield although the latter is snag city.

 

The suffolk beaches are fairly similar in character down towards Southwold where it shallows up quite noticeably with a prominent sandbar and at an awkward distance. If you fish Southwold, fish the tide up as you can run out of decent water. Great Sole beach in the Summer though, with good fish reported most years but with a name like Sole Bay maybe thats not surprising. Walberswick the other side of the river is very shallow but a fair bet for bass in the Summer, especially in the river.

 

The water then deepens gradually down through Sizewell, Dunwich and then quite noticeably past Thorpeness and on to Aldeburgh.

 

To be honest a lot of the fishing is concentrated in certain spots like Cromer Pier, Weybourne, Pakefield and especially Aldeburgh to name a few so lots of areas of the coastine rarely see a hook. I guess the best way to figure it out is to get out and about and give it a go..

 

If the moderators don't mind me saying so - probably the best place to get detailed info on the area is from the World Sea Fishing Forum, East coast section. They're a good bunch and generous with advice and much more experienced than the likes of me in the main. The Leader Lines website is good for reading catch reports..

 

Good Luck.

[WALCOTT]

Walcott's pretty much spot on re: the Asda section of river and safety. I speak from what could of been a very sticky situation I got myself into whilst a teenager. Not much fun. To be honest it wouldn't really be worth the risk as the Eel population is in the midsts of a serious decline and there are far fewer Flouders in Breydon that there used to be.

Years ago we used to cycle across the Halvergate marshes and fish downstream of the Berney Arms near to the start of the estuary, hunt for a few ragworm and then catch a bucket full of Flounders, some good ones too up and above 1lb.

 

Caisters my home beach and fished it recently for just about the same sort of catch of mini-codling to around a lb. I think catches like that are pretty much the average at the moment all the way from North Norfolk down to South Suffolk. The exception being Aldeburgh's 'Dirty Wall' stretch and Orford Island which have seen much better catches of fish but they're an hour South of Gt Yarmouth.

 

As a very, very rough guide. You've got the deeper water up on the North Norfolk shingle around Weybourne, good for Whiting and Codling after theres been a bit of a blow and fairly reliable for Mackerel on feathers in the Summer. The shoreline then gradually shallows and turns to sand as you move south through places such as Trimingham and Mundesley then on through to Cart Gap and Winterton the beach can be very shallow in places with gullys and bars that can be good value for Bass in a month or two but very few fish it these days so it's hard to tell.

Then on round to Hemsby and Caister its fairly shallow and fishes better on the tide up. This area is suseptable as much of the coast is to quite dramatic changes after storms so consistent advice is fairly hard to give.

Quite a number fish Gt Yarmouth North Beach out in front of the Iron Duke and seem to do ok although theres a weed bed offshore that can cause havoc with drifting loose weed on certain tides.

The mouth of the river at Gorleston fishes ok both seaward and river side and might be worth a go for a few spring run Codling as might Hopton, Kessingland and Pakefield although the latter is snag city.

 

The suffolk beaches are fairly similar in character down towards Southwold where it shallows up quite noticeably with a prominent sandbar and at an awkward distance. If you fish Southwold, fish the tide up as you can run out of decent water. Great Sole beach in the Summer though, with good fish reported most years but with a name like Sole Bay maybe thats not surprising. Walberswick the other side of the river is very shallow but a fair bet for bass in the Summer, especially in the river.

 

The water then deepens gradually down through Sizewell, Dunwich and then quite noticeably past Thorpeness and on to Aldeburgh.

 

To be honest a lot of the fishing is concentrated in certain spots like Cromer Pier, Weybourne, Pakefield and especially Aldeburgh to name a few so lots of areas of the coastine rarely see a hook. I guess the best way to figure it out is to get out and about and give it a go..

 

If the moderators don't mind me saying so - probably the best place to get detailed info on the area is from the World Sea Fishing Forum, East coast section. They're a good bunch and generous with advice and much more experienced than the likes of me in the main. The Leader Lines website is good for reading catch reports..

 

Good Luck.

 

When the weather was crap to take the boat out of Gt Yarmouth we used to go into Breydon water and anchor up out of the channel which the Hol boats use,and we had bag fulls of lovely sized Eels and some nice Flounders..I think we had them to nearly 2lbs one year...then we would go to the Berney arms for a liquid lunch...good days...went to take boat out one day..got on board etc..checked everything and found someone had been and nicked the gear box...thats on a 30ft boat just above the yacht station,how they got it off still makes me think now.

[dant]

Yarmouth's a funny old place these days. I should imagine that much stranger things have gone missing on a regular basis than a boats gear box. I can't quite get my head round how they may of managed to get that out though.

 

I wonder what has happened to the Flounder population? I know in some parts they get caught and used for pot bait but there's not really a great deal of that sort of thing off the East Coast and there's definitely not as many Flounders about as there used to be. I should imagine I've been out around 15 times'ish off the beach this year, since November and I've only had one particularly small and very rancid Flounder in all.

 

I think the Eel population is in pretty serious trouble..

[WALCOTT]

Yarmouth's a funny old place these days. I should imagine that much stranger things have gone missing on a regular basis than a boats gear box. I can't quite get my head round how they may of managed to get that out though.

 

I wonder what has happened to the Flounder population? I know in some parts they get caught and used for pot bait but there's not really a great deal of that sort of thing off the East Coast and there's definitely not as many Flounders about as there used to be. I should imagine I've been out around 15 times'ish off the beach this year, since November and I've only had one particularly small and very rancid Flounder in all.

 

I think the Eel population is in pretty serious trouble..

 

I caught a 1.3/4lb Flounder off the beach at happisburgh about 2yrs back and thats the last I have seen...but I have not gone for awhile...theres not alot off the beach at Walcott either,at the mo so people tell me.