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A week at the Norfolk broads
We set off early Monday morning for the 5 hour drive down to Norfolk and after arriving a little later than anticipated and sorting all the paper work we picked up our boat from Richardson’s boat yard. By the time we unloaded the car and packed everything on to the boat it was a little late in the day so we decided to try and get to oulton broad and start from there. we drove along the river bure for a couple of hours past some stunning scenery towards Braden water when we got there there was just enough clearance under the two bridges for us to get through. After crossing Braden water it was to late to continue travelling as you have to be moored up before dark so we stopped at the first place we came to the berney arms pub and drainage mill. Soon as we were moored up out came the fishing stuff. The water here is brackish a mixture of fresh and salt water with a strong current. I tried spinning with meps plugs hard plastics soft plastics and just about every other lure I had with me and even a jig head with a jelly worm on without success not one bite and after chatting to the people who run the pub and them saying they haven't heard of anyone catching anything from there I'm not surprised I didn't have a bite.
The next day we were up early and set off along the river Waveney towards Outland broad yacht station at Lowestoft which takes a few hours travelling at 5 - 6 mph but it gives you plenty of time to take in the scenery and wildlife along the river. When we got there and moored up my brother and cousin took the kids off the boat which give me a chance to fish. I set up a quiver tip with a float and a few split shot with a size 16 barb less hook I started off using maggots to see if there was any fish about and after about 10 minuets I had my first broads fish a small Roach and then it was Perch after Perch with them taking maggots and worms I tried sweet corn for a bit but didn't have much success with it. I also got a chance to try out the rubber maggots I had planned on using for catching a few species for the lure challenge and caught a dace.
After a few hours I decided to have a brake and head out for something to eat and wait for the light to fade to try for something bigger with the lures. That night the water was flat calm and we could see a few little fish jumping clear of the water so we knew they were getting chased by something and we were hoping for pike so we set up our pike lures on wire chases and set about catching one we covered the whole of the open water and alongside all the boats and had a few fish bite at the lure but no hook ups and after a few hours we decided to call it a night. The second day in Lowestoft was much the same as the day before with loads of little perch and roach which kept the kids occupied for a good few hours.
The next day we set off for Norwich city which took about six and a half hours when we got there the lads on the boat next to where we moored up were spinning with dead bait and not having much luck one of them was pole fishing and pulling out a few little roach. So I decided to give it a miss until later that night. When we got back on the boat we tried spinning to see if we could get a pike but it started raining and with loads of weed floating down the river it made it difficult to spin and the spinners kept coming back loaded with weed so we gave up for the night.
After the uneventful fishing in Norwich we were up early and setting off for Great Yarmouth for the weekend we didn't do much fishing here because the kids wanted to go to the beach and the fare etc and it was quite busy with other boats coming and going and passing through and a few seals travelling in and out with the tide.
After spending the weekend in Great Yarmouth we set off for the river bure heading to Acle for our last day and planned to fish the whole day for anything we could catch and I wanted to use some lures to see if I could get a few species for the lure challenge I had packed some rubber maggots, fake sweet corn and some fake Tiger nuts and planned on only using them and various metals and hp's. My brother had planed on using a feeder with ground bait, maggot’s, worms and sweet corn.
I set up my rockfishl 3g - 12g rod with a couple of split shot and size 16 barb less hook and a single rubber maggot. My brother was into fish straight away taking some decent bream it took me a little longer using rubber maggots but I eventually got a Bream and after that a little Roach.
I tried the fake sweet corn but didn't get anything on it so switched back to the rubber maggots. My brother took great pleasure ribbing me about how many more he was catching on bait but I didn't mind as I was to focused on trying to catch a Perch for the lure species hunt which I eventually got as it got later in the day.
My brother also got a couple of eels on bait.
I didn't manage one on the lure but I was more than happy with the ones I had, later that night we tried for a pike again with no luck but all in all it was a nice relaxing week away bit disappointed I didn't get a pike but there's always next year.
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