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The River Season So Far… Jeannette Halliday
What a funny river the Yare can be…
As the new season approaches I always get so excited, like a child at Christmas, I don't know what it is but June the 16th is such a magical time! Sorting the tackle, tying new rigs, preparing the homebred maggots and the lack of sleep the night before are all things I associate with the opening of the rivers.
Around 100 other anglers fished the opening day match and the river didn't let us down, it fished really well and you needed at least 30lb to make the frame. What was even more impressive was the fact that the top 6 weights of the match came from 5 different sections!
I drew peg 142 and managed a very respectable 19lb 10oz of Skimmers, Perch and Eels. It wasn't enough to get amongst the money, but I was happy conferring either side of me the anglers had 6lb and 7lb respectively.
One week on and it was time for the second match of the season, I was eager at the draw bag and full of hope for another decent weight but unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan. With a big flood tide running for the duration of the match it was tough, I managed a few bites but nowhere near enough.
Moving onto this week and it was all change, a nice Ebb tide for the duration of the match gave me high hopes that a few Roach would feed and enable me to make a back-up weight on the pole line.
Drawing peg 46, in area they call Roach Bay, suited me just fine although the longish walk to the peg didn't!!
Right on the whistle, with the pole all set up and ready to go, I fed the bottom shelf (around 11m out) with four big balls of ground bait, caster and hemp, before leaving it to settle and fishing the main flow with a standard feeder, to see if I could perhaps pick up a bonus Bream or two.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be, an hour had passed and all I'd managed to put in the net was one Eel and a Roach.
I quickly moved onto the pole and started to pick up the odd fish, however it really wasn't happening, reports where soon coming in from different area's that the river was fishing hard, so I guess this eased my nerves, as I knew I wasn't the only one struggling.
For the duration of the match I fished hard, swapping methods regularly and chopping and changing everything I could to try and get a few bites and more importantly put a few fish in my net. I eventually ended up with a hard earned 8lb 2oz, with a mixture of Skimmers, Eels and Perch.
On the weigh in it appeared that everyone in the section had similar, with 6-8lb weights all along the stretch, apart from two, as Stu Northropp and Steve Kindlesides had fared better, with a weight of 16lb 7oz to Stu (section winner) and 12lb 3oz to Steve (section runner up).
It hadn't been my day and it was just another reminder of what a funny river the Yare can be, but that's partly one of the reasons I love it so much, that and the friendly banter back at the White Horse pub in Chedgrave! I deserved a pint after pushing the barrow to and from Roach Bay!
Fingers crossed for a better result this week.
Tight Lines
Jeannette Halliday
