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Old Stomping Grounds - Ade Kiddell
Top catch was from a dutch visitor Djon Okkerse who managed a catch of 27 barbel in just a few hours, the fish were shoaled just below a weir-pool and Djon soon had them feeding and caught steadily from late afternoon until dusk, along with the barbel Djon also managed 7 bream and 5 chub for a real red-letter day.
On the way back to Norwich old mate Tom Sayer called and suggested we had a days fishing whilst I was back in the UK, we arranged to meet in the Angling Direct Norwich Store. I am out of touch with Angling in Norwich these days but I knew the guys at AD Norwich would put me and Tom on to some fish.
Having been away a while it's always great to catch up with the guys and have a cuppa, Tom arrived and long time friend and top angler Glenn Hubbard who is a mine of information when it comes to Norfolk angling suggested myself and Tom pay a visit to the River Yare which has been fishing exceptionally well this year.
Armed with 3 pints of cracking casters, a pint of fat and juicy Fluoro maggot and a kilo of dendrobena worms myself and Tom made our way for an afternoon of catching up and hopefully bagging up on the Langley stretch of the Yare. Typical broadland landscapes with wide open marshland and water meadows, and a tidal river full of roach and skimmer bream.
I first fished the yare with my father many years ago and over the years I have had many pleasure sessions along with a lot of big matches, back in the day the Yare often held 120 peg sell outs along with summer league and winter league contests as well as an open on most weekends. With the increase in commercial fisheries came a decrease in interest for venues like the River Yare and as a result fishing in the area was under threat, lack of income and issues surrounding parking and access soon had the local farmers considering other uses and fishing was under threat. An action group was formed and after some hard work and tough negotiate fishing was secured for the future, sadly the man at the forefront of the hard work Keith Ford is no longer with us a bench in his memory sits beside the river looking out over some of his favourite pegs. Anglers owe a lot to people like Keith and Andy Wilson Sutter who now runs the matches along the Yare, sellouts most Saturdays on what has to be one of the best river venues in the UK.
Thanks to Tom I managed to borrow enough tackle for our session and we set about catching a few fish, to get the best from the broadland rivers requires feeder fishing at its best, a balanced feeder approach, with the feeder weight just enough to hold bottom, any disturbance of the hookbait or feeder will register as a pluck and a drop back on the tip. By feeding more or less line to form a bow as the feeder hits the bottom it is possible to control the amount of effort required to show the bite. It's a fine art perfected by the top match anglers that fish the stretch, a long way from the chuck it and chance it feeder fishing is often seen as.
For the feeder we had a mixture of Sonubaits worm fishmeal and F1 dark groundbait a perfect mix for the bream and roach we were targeting, the mix would be used as a carrier for a mix of chopped worm and castor along with a few chopped maggots. I use this method in lots of situations and it's a proven approach for many species, it works well on both rivers and lakes. Into a pot I add a generous helping of worms a handful of castors and a pinch of flouro maggots, then get busy with the scissors until the mix is a coarse paste.
With everything ready, we got down to the the fishing, a decent pinch of the worm mix into the feeder then plug both ends with the groundbait mix, a single or double fluoro maggot on the hook and we were off. Casting to the clip with the rod held high and then lowered as the feeder sinks and finally a few turns of line on the reel to set “the bow”. In less than a minute a quick pluck and a drop back signalled a bite, a controlled strike set the hook and a small fish was hooked, I looked round to see Tom already netting a decent roach himself.
That set the scene for the next couple of hours, basically a fish a cast with roach up to 6oz odd skimmer bream up to 2lb, a few small eels and a tidy rudd all added to a building net. A change to worm on the hook often produced a better fish but I had to wait longer for the bite. Tom was matching me fish for fish with plenty of banter to keep the contest interesting.
After about 3 hours the flood tide eased and the river sat still for just a few minutes before the outgoing ebb tide took over, this can be a difficult time to get a bit, but not today as the fish just kept feeding. Early evening we ran out of casters and worms so called it a day, a cold pint of Norfolks finest was called for but not before we compared nets. Scales weren't used in this friendly contest but both of us were surprised just how many fish we had caught over the 5 or 6 hours we fished.
An honourable draw was called, we safely returned the fish and chatted about old days as we walked back to the car. One thing I miss out here in France is the banter generated between mates, its great to meet different people every few days like I do, but catching up with old mates is great, even if we hadn't caught I am 100% sure myself and Tom would have had a great day, in amazing surroundings with good mates, thats fishing.
Old mates and Angling direct colleagues Richard Wells and Scott Kingsley are on their way to visit us in France, in the next few days, lets hope we have a story or two to write about the visit.
