From the river to the sea

First day of the new season a gentle roving affair, an hour on a low Wensum, lots of fry and minnows, and some small but perfectly formed roach and brownies. No dace. Not even in the Spoons pool.

Up through Docking and Ringstead then swooping down to the wide open horizon over the stunning North Norfolk coast. Poked about a bit before meeting up with the Loafer for a pint.

 On to the nature reserve prospecting for grey ghosts and silver shadows. What a stunning backdrop.

I worked a shallow diver for a while but the clay made me uneasy, as  I am firmly of the age now when I don't fall over but 'have a fall'.

 

 

The Loafer was on the mullet, indeed surrounded by them but couldn't convert his out of the blue chance

Back home in time to take the no longer Little Un to play cricket. Bowling is her thing 

Cracking afternoon Loafer, perhaps I take my little piece of heaven up here in North Norfolk a touch for granted.

Old timers

The embargo on Golden Pond had been lifted despite what the notice on the gate said and I'd had enough of painting BureBoi Villas. On to my Island Paradise, one rod and  a new bag of the Source.

Took a while for the fizzing to start, the much rescued and silt stained Puddle Chucker lifted and glided  to the left hand lilies, tench like. Inexplicably I picked the rod up and started to reel in, not strike. Bugger. Curfew approaching, almost everything put away. Fresh patch of bubbles, standing now to cast and holding the rod. Movement, the float glides to right this time, more breamy. No mistakes with the strike this time. Like the Puddle Chucker this old friend minus it's pelvics and a strange deformity has been round the pond and in my stink net a few times. 

Two tone now with some lovely bronzing on it's hump. I fed it the Source off the push stop for it's troubles  and slid it back into the warm waters of Golden Pond.

One for the Loafer

Eels. The Loafer loathes eels, so this one is for him. By catch on maggots, interestingly the small number I have caught from this water have been bycatch again, on corn. Put up the customary good scrap too. I guess swimming backwards helps. Time to tie up some twig rigs and give them a proper go.

Just a spring clean for the May Queen

Definitely been a bustling in the hedgerows, lovely warm winds.  Anyhoo, first rod in the water by 19:11, and  a tench and two hook pulls by 19:51.Wonder how much split tail has put on as they haven't spawned yet, as this plumpy shows. Lovely high back and neat fins

Intense mayfly event, roach going crazy on them, the current batch of roach are also high backed and plump and most haven't felt a hook in their lives. Bodes well for the future.

20:11 and a missed take. No wonder, the parent anti-tangle bag down the edge had failed.

20:59 and everything packed down except the last rod, laying on the grass, baitrunner clicking off, a lovely feisty male with fins ready for spawning. Tawny beginning it's nightly rounds. Perfect. Home for wine by 21.31 (LIDL Cimrosa Shiraz).

Corny

Haven't been on Golden Pond for a while, and the rhodos are out, but not the flag iris yet. 

Cold enough to wish I'd got gloves  and some pissy rain meant I wasn't on long. Any amount of feed going in attracted the chats which in turn attracted the puke, churning up the shallow swim but the (too long) waggler slid away a few times. Proper bream (a two tone the best of the bunch) and some hybrids. 

        

Closeness (under ten minutes from leaving the house to first cast) has sometimes bred a little contempt  but I have got my Golden Pond Mojo back.

 

Bird app eal

Another quick raid, another plump tench. increasing the season heaviest by 4oz at 6lb 6oz. Two other chances, one shed the hook after running back under my feet and a pig that did the customary 50 yard dash before transferring the hook chub like in some vegetation.

Given the abundance of birdlife round the lake I often set Merlin running and here is a screenshot of some of what was recorded whilst playing and returning the tench.

I've also been trundling round with the tribe: footie, cricket, eats and views.

Just after this a nasty haar blew in.

 

Brace, pigeon pair, a left and right etc

Brace, pigeon pair, a left and right etc. I added a small sprinkling of the new kids on the block to my Spicy Sausage and let them do their thing whilst setting up the Merlin App for a quick species count. Faint shrilling to my right in a snigger inducing thick bush. I wondered fire or gold crest, Merlin told me gold crest.

The bottom was turning over but some of the bubbles were fizzes, the first bite and the new kid, being softer was pinched off the push stop. No such nonsense the next two times, and the 13 footer and pin were pressed into service for this lovely male and female pair. Job done and back at BureBoi Towers just over an hour all in.

Brand loyalty

I've used Source now for what seems donkeys years. With a bag down the side as a wafter and most sentimentally in 12mm under a puddle chucker. This year the 12mm have been harder to find and my last bag bought were 14mm dumbbells. Not 'quite' the same and less likely to pick up a bonus roach possibly.  

To my shame a new kid has entered the block, yellowish, pineappley and has already been added to my bag adown the edge armoury in 15mm and 14mm wafers. Essential Cell and the tench and carp seem to like them. Dilemma time as the new kid minis seem only to come in 10mm not 12mm .

Down to my last few Source 12mm I walked the nearest arm of lake and back where I had put the gear down the swim  was a cauldron. The bag rods abandoned and the trusty Spicy Sausage 4mm pellets and one of my last Source 14mms was impaled on the push stop and swing out into the mass of bubbles. The puddle chucker dipped, lifted slightly then sank away.. The strike almost hit home but not quite. The second chance resulted in a tench scale on the QM1.The next and a tench definitely on, surging strongly left under the trailing willow fronds. then off. Slime on the line above the anchoring BB. Straight back out into a patch of bubbles. Bingo.  Cracking scrap and a recapture with a split tail and 7 oz more belly (roe developing?) than last time from a different swim. 6.02 and my best of the year so far.

Spots of rain and I  ceremonially fed the last half-dozen of my Source 14 mms, the new kids already stashed in the bait bucket for next time.

Muddy mullet madness

Mission was to catch my first mullet on the fly rod. Truth be told the last mullet  I caught were on bread  on the Algarve along time ago. Last century long time ago. The Loafer was my man and he instructed me to buy a suitable line, in this case a weight forward floating line, they come with welded loops now and a handy tag indicating the reel end.

Beef wrap with mustard and  a tour of the man cave and we were off prospecting for grey ghosts. The Loafer lives a stones throw away from the mud flats and knows the tides and where the mullet and bass will show at given  states of the tide all being well. 3.30ish was the expected turn to flood so we  had a pint and pondered variously on the inevitable frailty of parents as we head towards our own dotage and the stupendous size of Dutch roach.  

Off to the first mark and I immediately went arse over tit. Pleasant. The Loafer went through a few lure combinations whilst we wait for the flood to make.

As predicted the odd mullet began to appear then enough to warrant a cast. My ghillie laid out a decent cast, the first 10 metres of bright orange WF over the oozing mud and the yellow strike indicator and a multi-worm dropper and a green lantern on the point barely 2 metres out amongst the patrolling algae browsers. The indicator moved away purposely and my duffed strike failed to drive the hook home. Out again and this time no mistake. Not a brilliant scrap by any means as it couldn't get up any momentum get away and in truth it was fairly small. No matter, mission accomplished. A thin lip (the Loafer tells me the thicks are usually further down the estuary) on the green lantern.

The commotion  put them down as expected so we headed up to the holding pool to see if any were milling about and to wait for the flood to reach us with a fresh wave of grey ghosts. Plenty actively feeding and out again with the winning combo. Bosh, a take expertly captured on video (perfect timing) and a much better scrap and a bigger thin was my prize.

Three chances in 25 minutes fishing (4 hours stuck in oozing filth). Easy this mullet lark. Whilst we were waiting for for the flood to finally reach us a double commotion under the bridge caught our attention as groups of mullet were being harried by unseen predators. Not cormorants or seals so could only been harbour porpoises holed up.

No luck for the ghillie but a cracking day out.as ever with the Loafer. Now to clean off that mud and salt water. Anything to avoid painting. 

Red eyes

 Wind has had a nip to it but the tench are feeding. Who doesn't like a tench or two?