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Written by Mike Grief
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 20:20 |
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There I was bashing out the bream on the Broads at St Benets on the Bure and roach on tares on the Thurne at Cold Harbour. Big Norfolk skies, sails seemingly cutting through the land in the distance, Marsh Harriers gliding over the reed beds, beautiful. Cycling along the lanes and byways great. The fishing was good too but after the peaceful Fen Rivers and Drains the busy Broads Rivers are something else. Sailboats jibbing across the river, Cruisers cutting a wash through the water and day boats coming from all angles. The water is always well coloured with all this activity and the fish on the feed but its difficult to not catch a boat, and you fear for your top 4. What else was I missing. Nets of big bream and dark hybrids from several sections of the Relief Channel, with catches of 100 to 160lb on offer, early start needed here though. Carp on the Ouse best at 26lb, with nuisance bream to 8lb in the way as the carp guys lay their table of bait and boilies to try and tempt some of these fit battleship carp. Middle Level Bream and tench abound and at last the roach have come back with the old black magic seed scoring well.Trouble is the summer we did not expect to get is now here leaving the fish to bask in the sun and move little as the oxygen levels fall whilst anglers burn on the bank. Then again that’s summer fishing.The waters have improved since my return due to the recent near incessant rain. Perhaps time I headed for the sun again? |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 August 2008 17:04 )
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Written by Kelvin Allen
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Sunday, 03 August 2008 11:21 |
 DAYS AND NIGHTS WITH THE BREAM
I catch myself wondering now and again as to how many times I have baited up a bream swim, how many thousands of lobworms have been sacrificed, how many stones of greaves have been pound up and boiled, how many loaves of bread have been wasted, how many pounds of bran have been soaked up, how many miles have been tramped and how many hours have been put in. Since that day long ago when I caught my first bream in a fenland river. I look over the log book and I’m remembering the places where I have had my memories and rod bending moments where the keep net couldn’t be lifted, as I hit that magic ton. The list ranges over 30 years and comprises waters that stretch from King’s Lynn to Littleport over to the Nene. I should say that the total cost would be nearly enough to buy an old-age pension. But has the game been worth the hours of toil. l say it has, and I have never regretted the hundreds of hours spent and the piles of bait expended in my search for bream, but look upon the experiences as the brightest and most contemplative in my fishing career.
Bream are queer things generally speaking they are a summer and autumn fish, being very seldom seen in some waters during the winter, however in recent times fenland winter bream fishing has been excellent. The roach fisherman now and again lumps into a big bream that makes his roach pole creak, and sometimes walk off with part of his line. On the Ouse and kindred waters we very seldom see them until late in June, when they come to the surface in huge shoals, and swim backwards and forwards for a few days, until they settle down into their regular holes and haunts. Now and again during this period of their career they wander into strange places and get into considerable trouble. Shoals of them sometimes are in a 3-foot shallow and also get three-quarters of a mile up a backwater or a shallow drain, rooting like pigs in the sand and mud, where the water has not been more than a foot deep. Now and again threading a weed-bed in every direction, and colouring the water below them for yards so that other small fish are reaping a merry harvest.
This is a fatal time for the bream, time and again I have known huge bags to have been made while this roving instinct is so strong within them and as for baits at this season, I have known them to take anything, it did not matter much, the bream were not particular. But as soon as they settle down in their usual summer and autumn haunts they make up for the recklessness they displayed a little earlier and get cunning and crafty beyond their norm, sometimes refusing to feed for days at a stretch. I have sat hour after hour and not a movement of the float or tip and yet I knew that bream were there and in quantities as every now an then a huge fellow would roll up on the surface, his bronzy sides gleaming like gold and as if to put the finishing touches on this insult their broad fluked tail would rise above the surface and descend in a derisive farewell.
But I didn’t mind these demonstrations I could very patiently wait their good pleasure, because the fish were there and it was only a question of time as to when I should get a little of my own back. It is no good under these circumstances, shifting about to fresh swims. Keep on tickling the ground-bait in and fish all the evening till you cannot see the float, then get up in the morning before you can see to thread the line through the rings on the rod and fish all day and every day and the time comes it may be three days or it may be only three hours, but when the float rises and sails away you are in for some fun. You are all alert now, and fast and furious grows the fun. I have had twenty fish, going over 50lb in an hour. On one occasion I had two rods out and twelve times in succession I have had a big bream on each rod soon as one rod was laid down and the hook of the other baited away went the first and before it could be played a yard the other followed suit.
If seems strange that much of this still holds true on todays bream fishing, given this was first written over 100 years previous. Based on an extraction from: Fishing Days & Fishing Ways J.W Martin 1906 |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 August 2008 10:50 )
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Written by mike Grief
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Saturday, 05 July 2008 16:54 |
HOLIDAYS Travel log June 08 JUST A THOUGHT. A recent trip to the Merseyside had me looking for rivers/drains, Fisheries and tackle shops. It was a struggle to find many although I must have missed some. A similar story with tackle shops with some closed. The beaches were "green” ie vegetation rather than sand with the sea a mile out, so little sea fishing likely. Whilst every area has its beauty returning home to fish and visit the Norfolk coast makes you realise what a grand area we live in and probably take for granted. Likewise tackle shops 4 in Kings Lynn and several others around, all better than I saw on my travels. Questioning anglers on the bank they informed me they go to the Tacklefest show at Peterborough for their tackle, whilst one said he went to Lathwaites (No names, but he said I missed bites). Difficult to get bait from a show and impossible from Laithwaites. The moral of the story, support what we have, whether it be waters or shops and keep fishing thriving in the Fens. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 05 July 2008 20:52 )
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Written by Mike Grief
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Sunday, 15 June 2008 08:45 |
Long gone are the days when anglers lined the banks of the Middle Level The Great Ouse or the Relief Channel. During the 1970s local anglers struggled to find bank space at weekends as car and buses full of anglers descended from the Midlands and the North desended onto fenland rivers.
Anglers would think nothing of alighting from the bus at Magdalen and walking , even rushing down to the Golden Mile confident they were in for a good days fishing. The Bream are still there but how many anglers venture more than a few yards from the bridge? If they failed there were always a few crates of ale on the bus to be consumed.
Anyway I digress, why not try a match on your local water, and pit your skills against the fish and fellow anglers. If you fail to catch find out how those catching are doing it and learn for next time. Alternatively find the fish in front of you and you could be a winner.
Last years matches proved what an advantage to all match fishing can be resulting in more use of the river, more cleared/used swims for all to use, and best of all it highlights where the fish may be next time you visit. Local anglers must stand a good chance of finding the fish and the correct method on the day to do well, so why not give a match a go, perhaps learn more and enjoy the camaraderie that goes with match fishing.
KLAAs first match is on the Gt Ouse at Ten Mile Bank, more info and tickets from Dave Burton on 01366 387870.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 15 June 2008 11:18 )
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