Aftersnow

It has been bitter over here in God's Own County and we certainly have taken a battering from Snowmagedon and Storm Emma. Sunday saw me make a break from the house we'd been mostly stuck in for over 5 days and hopefully before too much salt  got in the river system  Some hope seeing as even our first floor windows were caked in the stuff. 

Two dead bait rods, and see what occurs I thought. Yes sun, and temps at +9C. And no beastly easterly. Sadly little occurred, except for the passive aggressive  baling out of a dinghy, mostly over my 20gm Piker float. Only time it showed any signs of movement.

Windscale dawn..

Nuclear breakfast anyone?

Into the freezer

The Beast from the East is coming. Batten down the hatches. It was absolutely freezing out there on the flood plain this afternoon and they say far worse is to come. I stuck it out for a  scant 2 hours and that was only because the thought of packing up made me shrink further and further in to my Arctic issue togs.

Not all bad, had  a couple of fish on sardine, and one that dropped  the hooks. First and biggest might have scraped doubles but no time for slings and scales today, far too cold. Winter  coloured grebe and it's diminutive cousins two  dabchick kept me amused.

Mahoosive brown

Short session on the syndicate stretch this afternoon despite the Arctic blast. Strong up streamer and heavy flow through the narrow bridge made for a very turbulent pool. 

30gm Black cap feeder on a short link and 3lb Bayer through to a #16 Drennan Super Specialist. Double red maggot  Dropped down to an 1oz tip as I was expecting roach or dace. Lobbed the feeder down the inside of the back eddy and an almost instant sharp pull missed.  Couple  of casts then an unmissable, which did stay on. Bombing round and after a few surges into the main flow a slightly battered brownie of about two pounds was in the net. Slipping it back when another member went past. His companion had had one a bit bigger down the stretch a bit earlier on a dead bait.

Stood in my bait box in the kerfuffle and my pint of reds was mostly in the mud. Still enough to have  a few casts and again a decent stab round and something a whole bit bigger was heading out into the heavy flow.  Quite a gallery gathered on the bridge as the fish took a long tour of the pool and  the  crowd actually cheered when the fish, a huge brownie just about fitted in the net. An absolute beast, in really good condition apart from a deformed dorsal and a nip to the upper lobe of the tail, an escapee from an otter no doubt. 6lb.12oz. Lovely colours. Pictures done and I felt I'd done my work for the day. 

Famine to feast

Given the forecast freeze-up headed off to a small reservoir to see if the roach were willing to feed before the local still waters get frozen over. Tough going and with  a cold wind it took this pound plus hybrid to warm things up with just a handful of skimmers and small roach as back up.

Last two hours on the nearby river, the dace were a long way down the trot and again only took a handful and one chublet that fell off. Switched over to the pike and a satisfying 4 fish in the last hour, all  on half sardine down the edge with three other missed takes.

The biggest was very plump and probably 9ish. They all were leeched up.

Mat and net froze as I packed everything away.

Bagging up..

Picked up a display full of sardines on the way home for a measly £2.40.  Sardines? Pilchards? Haven't the spots you see on good old Med sardines but the pike dont seem to care.

Very nice on the barbie too. Commander in Chief is not to impressed with the smell. Wait till I get the hemp on..

Armageddon

Couple of hours up Yarco with the Little'uns. Mostly closed it being a winter Sunday. 

Stumbled across the NRA's  prepper weapons cache for the European campaign in Pownall &Sons, a huge three window display of assult riffles, hand guns and swords. Nt much room for any fishing tackle to be sure.

Bombing along

Back on the river at last and what a glorious Saturday afternoon. River still holding a lot of colour following Wednesday's deluge and being run off hard, which seems to be the general state of affairs this winter. Certainly has mixed things up with flow patterns and features.

This is the mill pool at the top of our stretch. Will need some waders to get to anything like any depth down that far run. For most its working life this iteration was used in paper making but also textile and flour processing and there was a mill way back in Doomsday times and the adjacent Brampton was a Roman settlement.

The Hall is being developed extensively, primarily for weddings so those pesky trees have had to go. Built by the Pastons it has been reworked a bit over five centuries. Oxnead itself was a lost medieval settlement. it's church and lost settlement well described here by Nick Stone:

http://www.invisibleworks.co.uk/oxnead-dmv/

So, with the river being run at a brisk walking pace and little cover it was  time to work the margins and takes came from near and far margins. The first, after a twitch back saw the float heading off for the next mill at some pace. on winding into the fish it  motored even harder and at first I began to wander whether I'd found a big hen as it was taking full advantage of the flow and keeping the float below the surface. The pressure of a locked down 3lb tc began to tell and the big hen had shrunk somewhat by the time I had it in the onion bag. Leeched but plump and pristine with a small green patch on it's almost striped flank.

The other half of the pollan was taken virtually on the drop in a slight far margin depression and the belligerent little fella did the right thing and unhooked itself as I grabbed the trace. Nothing else really occurred as the sun disappeared into the poplars behind me but what a lovely dusk to be on the river.  I had a feeder rod in the charabanc and had thought  about the bridge pool into dark but decided to  just soak up the increasing clamour of the roosting corvids and the mournful wail of the noddy train over the flood plain.

Things seen

My train  travels have involved a bit of walking and some things are just waiting for us to have a look for them. Slow you down bor. As we say in Norfolk.

A striking car park facade

Norwich Market

Stir crazy

For lots of reasons I haven't been fishing for ages. And probably not again till Saturday. Still, I have got the last  two weeks of the season off.

Meanwhile:

Closest I have been to fishing was a whistle stop tour round Hoveton and Wroxham. A bit cold, and  a bit busy on the river.

Seems part of your guided piking package is a stop off for Maccie Dees. But in full Realtree? I'd want this in my guided price I think. Thick slices of roast pork, stuffing, apple sauce and crackling? Yes please.

I like beer, that's a certainty. But £10.99?

I have been on the train a fair bit which is ok as I do like a train. Mostly.

I  had to plan to get to King's Lynn today by train or train and bus. Either way with 3 changes and waits over three and a half hours each way and  costing about three and a half bottles of Adnams 6oN A6 Imperial Stout  before the cost of provisions and victuals instead I have a day of this to look forward to. Deep, deep joy.

Back to the fishing. I really really must make the most of my opportunities for some chub. I'd like that to be on trotted hunks of flake or quiver tipped cheese paste but do think I might have to get down and dirty and try the pellet bag and smelly krill paste wrapped round a boilie an d a big lead after dark approach. Lets hope the charabanc gets back on the road.