Sunday 11th March 2012

Final Sunday of the Season


Weather +5c to 13c  Bright and Sunny 


With the river still running fairly "Dirty" after last weeks rain, we set off extra early to make sure we get our chosen swim on what is normally a busy last weekend of the current season. Myself and brother Neil are loaded and on our way by 5:20am. Its still fairly dark but the morning daybreak can be seen creeping up in the East as we head West into Norwich city center. By 5;45am its starting to get light and Thirty minutes later we are ready to cast out Two rods each at The Playhouse swim that was so productive last time we fished it. Neil positions a dead Smelt just on the edge of the flow and a live bait mid river. I do the same but towards the front of the boat. I also set up a light bomb rod to top up our live baits as we had struggled to catch many in the heavily coloured   water. Within seconds the rod hoops over and im into a fairly decent fish. I play it fairly gingerly on a light hook length and soon slip the net under a nice skimmer Bream of almost 2lbs. Just as i return the fish Neil has a take on the dead Smelt. This results in a 6lb Jack in the boat only 15 minutes after we started. I eventually catch a few Perch and small Roach for the live bait bucket and at 8:10am Neil has another lively 7lb fish on a live Perch. One of the live baits i caught earlier was a small Ruffe and Neil try`s this on his next cast. 
No sooner the float has cocked, its sliding away. It catches Neil a bit by surprise and its no surprise the run is missed. 
This proves to be a false start as we then struggle to tempt any more bites despite trying various bait changes.

Sun bathing at the Law Courts

After another blank Two hours we decide to have a move down stream towards the Law courts. We try our normal spots without any interest so have our Bacon rolls in the now warm sunshine. There are many more anglers about on the various bank side swims throughout the city but nobody seems to be catching much. Just as we are about to move to the Riverside road section, a EA officer arrives on the bank to check our licences ! With no way of him getting to us we end up having to shout our licence numbers out so he can check them... The 
last time we saw anyone checking licences was, The first weekend of the season !!!

Even the EA officers were drawing a blank

We move further down stream and by now are bathing in full sunshine with most of our morning clothes now lying all over the boat. The bars and cafes along the river are all full of people enjoying the early spring sunshine, not ideal for Pike fishing tho.
We try for another hour but have to admit to defeat and end up cruising back down the river like a pair of holiday makers.