The River Season So Far… Jeannette Halliday

This entry was posted on 23rd June, 2016

Even through the river season has only just started, Beccles shop manager, Jeannette, has already managed to get out for a couple of matches. Here’s her report from her first two outings on the Yare for the new season.

From turning your own homebreds and opening little parcels, praying for a good result, to picking your peg out of the bucket that morning – June 16th holds such a wonder for me and I have no shame in saying I am far too excited to sleep the night before! This year was no different and I headed down to the River Yare to take my chance on what is possibly the biggest match river in the country. I wasn’t alone and 104 out of the 105 anglers that had booked on turned out to join me.

I was first in the draw queue and pulled out 107 from the bucket. This meant I was pegged at the concrete bridge section of the river. It’s on an ebb tide, so I knew this could result in a really good day for me. However, I was first faced with a bit of bad news – due to the heavy rain over the first weeks of June the car park that serves my section of the river was completely flooded! This meant I was faced with a trek in from Langley, but I wasn’t going to let that dampen my spirits.

Once I arrived at my peg I popped my box down and just sat for a few minutes watching the water. I was pleased to see a few roach topping out – a good sign for things to come. I set up everything I could think of, hoping to cover all eventualities, but the first day is always about bream weight – and who is lucky enough to sit on some feeding fish. I heard the ‘all in’ call – it had begun – and I managed to get a plump little 4oz roach on my first chuck.

Mally, who was catching next to me, also had some success and we were looking at a half decent weight already in the first hour of the match. All in all, we both experienced a few unfortunate quiet spells and drew in fish of smaller stamp than you really need for a good weight. When the scales arrived I weighed in at 24lb 2oz, which I considered a very nice day’s fishing. Mally weighed in at 24lb 6oz, just pipping me.

Although ours was the best section of the river that day we were at the wrong end of it! Further down weight of 30lb, 34lb, and even 37lb had been recorded – filling two of the placings, with the 30lb taking our section. That being said, some of the sections were a lot harder to fish, so I was very pleased that I had had a few bites.

Peg 119 won overall with a brilliant 74lb and Glenn Hubbard picked up 2nd place with 58lb from the boards section. The whole day very enjoyable and was, as ever, organised brilliantly by Andy Wilson-Sutter, with honourable mention going out to Kevin Humphrey for helping out with the peg draws.



Saturday June 18th welcomed the start of the Nisa King of the Yare league and it was the first time in a number of years that I had decided to compete in the competition. 81 anglers joined me, so it wasn’t quite the dizzy heights of Thursday’s turn out but a great attendance nonetheless.

Even trying with my best drawing arm I failed quite miserably and pulled out peg 46. This is in what they call ‘roach bay’ and unfortunately this didn't fish well on Thursday, with just 5lb coming from my chosen peg. I decided to set up both pole and feeder as there had been one roach weight in the bay, so perhaps a few fish to be caught this way.

Three minutes after the ‘all in’ and I already had a roach on the tip, closely followed by a small hybrid. This got my hopes up and I continued to catch a few here and there – up till the turn of the tide at least.

This is where disaster struck – I hooked a proper heft on the ebb tide and proceeded to loose the whole set up. Four more hooklengths and a shorter recast, resulting in the very same, sounded the end of feeder fishing for the day for me – especially as by this point I was very frustrated and all bites had stopped for most people. I decided to turn my attention back to the pole line and pray!

My prayers were rewarded and I got a 5oz roach on my first run through! Could the fish be there after all? Yes was the resounding answer and I started to make a few bites, as well as landing a lovely fish that made me grin from ear to ear. I continued to make a few bites and, running into the last hour, the stamp improved and they started to queue up for it.

The weigh-in showed I had 15lb 8oz which was good enough for the section win!

All in all a nice days roach fishing – can't grumble about that!