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Opening the Season…17/06/13


Mark Crame

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With the freshwater season opening on fathers day the option of fishing it was limited to a chaotic padlding session with my and other familes so of course the fishing was reduced somewhat and the catches non-existent, having time only to troll with no bait fishing possible. It was a pleasant enough day though and not really an issue as I had the 17th off. A general invite went out and so, gathered by the slip at Beccles quay were five of us. John had travelled up from Kent to fish with us as he had a couple of times in the past on the opening day, Ian and Nick had come over from Norwich and myself and Mike from the Lowestoft area; a good mix of the Anglian region and a foreigner!

 

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Setting off around 10:30 a quick return was required as Ian had a damaged paddle and, with a spare in the car it seemed a better idea to fetch it now rather than a few miles up-river! Lucky really as Id left my keys in the car doorFollowing the false start I headed to the first of my favoured swims, one which usually produces chub to a pound or so, in the bay by the iron bridge. So what would be my first fish of the season? A 5bb waggler on my new Fladen Vantage 2 piece 8 foot rod and DX2000R 5BB spinning rod loaded with 4.4lb tournament monofilament and a size 16 Vantage match hook had a single red maggot popped on the end and I cast it in the gulley between the edge and the bridge support to glide down just above the bottomnot a chub as expected but a surprise gudgeon!

 

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I love gudgeon, pretty little things that they are and this was species number one in the freshwater side of the current Anglers Afloat tournament (seven saltwater species already accounted for). I rebaited and cast again, getting harried by tiddlers for which a maggot was too big until a few casts later I pulled up a shiny little roach.

 

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In the meantime, across the river by the other supports, Ian was flicking out a small leadhead and jellyworm on a 6ft 5-25g rod which was his chosen method for the day and hed beaten me on the off with a perch so was made up that his new tactic had paid off. I was chuffed, it looked like fun and he told me he felt every bump.

 

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Another roach followed before a dace showed up, gobbling down a red and a yellow mounted in tandem. Number 3 on the species board!

 

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So, no chub and no perch, the usual catch here but then, down went the waggler and off it shot. No monster, a tiny finger-sized chub. At last! A better fight than the others but still not much of one! Then it went quiet and I moved across to the other side of the bridge and river by a little overflow pipe that usually provides some hectic sport.

 

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Nothing here and nothing back across at the top end of the swim Id been fishing earlier, trotting the waggler downstream. Time to troll some lures and find the others then, the two LP Magnet 6BB baitcasters and XtrafleXX 10-30g rods Id had the bass on last week trying for a different quarry. I started with a Minnow 11 in redhead and a Minnow 14 in blue mackerel and kept my fingers crossed for a repeat of opening day a year before when Id had a double figure pike a few hundred yards away. Alas it was not to be and I passed the pool and the jack territory by the boathouses without a twitch, the others all trying in the tree-lined bank just past here.

 

John was enjoying himself with his centrepin having had roach, dace and a ruffe but the others had not had anything apart from Ian with a six inch pike again on the jellyworm. Seems an effective way to catch on the river! I passed them and headed upstream, chatting briefly to a guy fishing from his boat with his wife Id seen the day before and remembered from last year. They were passing a few pleasant days in the sun down here from Nottingham and catches had been steady if not mind-blowing on his float rod, also fitted with a centrepin.

 

I carried on for a mile, swapping lures between minnows and jointed lures of various colours and removing weed of which there was plenty before swapping once more to an orange Minnow 11 a few hundred yards from Gillingham bend where Id bank fished with my brother and friends as a kid thirty or so years before and where Ian had had a good pike three years back. Id just passed it when my rod started to bang away and I turned to grab it, crashing straight into an overhanging tree! Rod camera on and recording, paddle backwards and start to fight! Nothing too large but feisty as summer pike tend to be it gave a good account of itself before I hand-landed it and whipped the trebles out, only a couple of pounds in weight but number five ticked off!

 

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Mike, following a few hundred yards behind, called out that he was also in and I went over to take his picture. A better fish in the three-four pound bracket it had taken a trout-patterned J13. It was funny how five of us trolled a mile and a half without anything and then two came so close together. Nick then passed us and we headed up towards Barsham where I planned to chuck the waggler out again by the drain, knowing it tends to hold fish and often some reasonable perch. Mike said it used to produce ruffe as well so I was hopeful of a couple of additions.

 

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Pulling in to the cutting the water clarity was far greater than the main river and there was plenty of weed growth though not the sort that would cause any problems. With the water being down I stuck my paddle between the hull and my anchor trolley and pushed it into the mud, sufficient to hold me still here. First cast produced a small chub, second a roach and then finally a better pull and proof that Id forgotten to set my drag as a small perch made a run for it from the deeper water under the outflow. Number six!

 

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The others arrived then and called Ian over as he might get a n ice perch on his jellyworm and sure enough he did, a three-quarter pounder by the look of it.

 

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He was most pleased and to celebrate he flung the jellyworm into the railings above the pipe! Watching him clamber 4ft up the pilings and onto the nettle-strewn bank in shorts had me chuckling but he managed to avoid falling in before casting out again. Id not had a touch for five minutes and figured that something was spooking the fish; it fell to Ian to show me what as a couple of, rather inventive, profanities crossed the water and his rod bent right over. Pike on! A nice battle with much line being taken ensued before a five pounder graced the net the largest of the day and once again proved his new tactic.

 

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John had turned up now and pointed out the time; the plan was to eat and drink over at the Lock Inn at Geldeston and he wanted to arrive in time this year! So, ruffe-less we set off once more with no more fish and a lot more weed before we had to clamber up the pilings and order our pints of locally-brewed Green Jack ale and a five lunches sadly their excellent haddock could not be claimed as another species!

 

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I had to leave straight after eating as my wifes car was playing up and I needed to give back up just-in-case. That meant a straight paddle the three miles back, against wind and flow, without time to troll though I had to have one last cast at Barsham, getting another small chub. A final twenty minute run and I was back at the slipway and off to get the car and load up. A good day out to start the season!

 

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Wetter than an otter's pocket.

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