A week on the Norfolk Broads

By Ashley Tappenden

Hey all!

I have recently been on holiday to the Norfolk Broads with my family. We rented out a boat at Potter Heigham called "The Ring Of Light". A seven-berth, centre-steering river boat with a top speed of 8mph! That’s 2mph over the river speed limit! Lol. Anyways - we rented this out boat for a week. A lovely 11.5 metre long and 12 foot wide boat which sleeps 5 – 7 people:

We arrived on Monday the 14th of August and headed off from Potter Heigham, down the River Thurne, to a mooring spot near a place called "The Lion Inn". We moored up on the edge of the boatyard opening, in the midst of open water. We were all full up as we’d had fish and chips at Potter Heigham, ( and the best fish and chips I've ever had at that!). So we didn’t go out that night. Instead, I went fishing ( as you have to do when you're on a river!). The holiday started off me trying to spin and lure -fish for pike - but I soon went off that because I got addicted to feeder fishing with my LineaEffe feeder rod! The first night, mind you, I was only float fishing with the Regency match rod and Magma reel, and I had a few fish out ...mostly roach and skimmers, but it was a nice start to the hols.

Tuesday saw us taking the boat ( very slowly!), to Acle. But it was very pleasant and scenic at that. As we were waiting to get there, I was in my room reading the latest issue of IYCF the bankside bible, besides taking a few snaps of the area and the boat.

Finally, when we got there, I got out the feeder and the float rod away I was again! I was using some "explosive feeder" groundbait, in conjunction with a homemade red-coloured breadcrumb I had made, with some coconut milk in it as well. It was the dogs’ you know what’s when mixed! I also added some sweetcorn, hemp and "skinz" feed pellets to the mix, and I used that mixture all week in my swimfeeder. That day consisted of me catching numerous species of fish, on feeder and on the float - from roach, to skimmers, to perch and even the occasional eel. It was very surprising that, considering I was using a size 14 hook on the feeder, every eel I caught over the week was on the feeder, and all had been lip hooked!

Then night time came and I fished until about half past ten - the bites were coming thick and fast, and I caught a nice array of good sized skimmers and perch, the odd small roach and a couple of eels. Then at about 10:25, my LineaEffe Feeder rod started bouncing like mad, so I struck into it and I was in. The rod had a nice bend in it and the fish was fighting quite aggressively - and for a little while, I thought it was a big eel. Then it surfaced and I thought to myself ..."Nice - this is a pretty big skimmer!" I got it in the net and upon unhooking it my jaw dropped. It was a roach, and the biggest roach I have ever seen at that! So out came the Avons. I zeroed them and the fish turned the scales round to 1lb 4oz - a new PB roach!

My 1lb 4oz Roach...

Wednesday, we were off to Great Yarmouth. What a long journey! So I thought I'd clean the boat a bit while we were going there and as I was walking round to get the mop, I slipped and was hanging on to the top of the boat! My mum thought it was funny and decided to take a picture of it! I managed not to fall in, luckily!

There's not really much to say about the fishing in Great Yarmouth. The river Yare was all saltwater where we were, but the only saltwater fish in there were eels, and if you were not catching them you were catching small crabs!

On Thursday we went from Great Yarmouth back down to Stokesby, a lovely little place near a village with only 200 residents! My sister and I fished out on the bank right near the boat. My little sister had a float rod out, which I helped her with bit and she was catching a few little roach; whilst I had the feeder out.

I was still catching a few eels every now and then, plus a few roach. It was all good fun - especially the sight of the rod tip when you get an eel bite, it goes right round ...STAYS round and bounces like mad, and the fight is pretty good too! I had a nice bite after a few eels and roach and I struck into it and it was a nice skimmer. The strange thing about the bream in rivers is that they actually put up a bit of a fight!

Here's a pic of my best skimmer of that day, not huge but nice none the less...

On Friday we stayed in a place just a bit up-river and again I caught a few nice fish - mostly skimmers and roach, but nothing very big. The biggest I think I had out was about 4oz(!). But good fun to catch as I was catching a fish every cast. My dad ( who doesn’t really fish.) and I then had a mini-competition to see who could catch the most fish. He said to me that as I had baited up the area I was fishing, prior to the mini competition, that was why I had been catching much more than him. I then offered him to switch places with me and he accepted, and it was to his surprise that I was still catching much more than him without any loosefeed! That was pretty much all we did that day - as we stayed in the pub that night to eat and have a quiz night, which we came 3rd overall in.

Saturday we went back to Acle for the day, as we thought it was a nice place and it was on the way home anyway. I was fishing again off the back of the boat with a float and feeder. Although this day was not as productive as the last time we went to Acle, the float seemed to produce a nice few perch, with the biggest being this 13 ouncer:

A few roach came out as well as a pretty nice eel, about 1lb, on the feeder! The rest of the fish were mostly skimmers and roach, but although it had been good fishing, it still wasn't as productive as the first time we fished there in the week.

On Sunday we headed back to the Lion Inn moorings on the Thurne, where we went the first day, as we were almost at the end of the holiday. We finally arrived at the place we stayed last time on the Thurne, and you know what I did? I fished, believe it or not! Again on the back of the boat on swimfeeder. I had a few roach out on the float - and my little brother kept feeding bread to an amazing looking black swan that was hanging around the boat.

It was good fun that day, with skimmers coming out regularly, averaging about 10 or 12oz each time!

I then had a lovely skimmer out at about 1lb on the float, but I dropped it back in the water accidentally before I could get a pic of it. Then, about 30 seconds after dropping the fish, I had a fierce take on the swimfeeder and it was another good skimmer. I thought it was the same one! But this fish had a little belly on it and upon weighing, it turned the scales to 1lbs 4oz - the same weight as the roach! So I had a joint biggest fish for the week - not that big, but fun none the less!

I carried on fishing until the early morning, around 3:25 am, to make the most of my fishing. I had a few roach out, but no pics. The only picture I have is of me taking a self portrait with me and my little LED torch in my mouth - the only light I had all night, whilst waiting for a bite.

The next morning came and I was upset that we had to go, but happy in some ways because the bed I was sleeping in on the boat was too small for me by about a foot! Lol. Guess who had to clean the boat in the morning because of them being the dirtiest, because of the fishing!

Overall, a great holiday - I'd love to go on holidays like that more often! But I’m glad to be back!

Thanks for reading all!

Tight lines!

Ash