River Wensum Norwich centre

[Dave German]

Having a Day there soon, would i be btter with pike, chub/barbel or other tackle?

 

[Dan Tungate]

Hello Dave

How soon is soon? I ask as the Riverside stretch in Norwich usually fishes better the older the season gets as the fish from the Lower sections of the River Yare migrate upriver to avoid the salt tides.. I reckon about another months time the fishing will start to hit it's peak..

Tackle wise forget about the Chub and Barbel gear as neither species are present in this length.
You're looking at fishing either the pole, waggler (taking the average depth of at least 7-8ft+ into consideration) or a light feeder rig for Roach, perch, Skimmers and larger Bream. Theres not to much tidal pull in the city stretches so a feeder of around 3/4-1oz should cover most situations.

The Piking is generally pretty good during the Winter as the Pike follow the silver fish shoals upriver. The Perch potential is pretty un-tapped with a good chance of an outsize fish.
The ideal for the predator fishing is having the use of a boat to cover as much ground until you find the fish as they can fairly well spread out at this time of the year..

Bank access, I'm not too sure of in recent times as I havn't fished the area for a few years. Should be fine. If you're using a pole watch out for the cyclists along the pathway..

Hope that helps..

 

[Dave German]

Thanks dan, nov 10 is the day, think i'll go with a feeder rod, red & lobworm plus a few mags. Save me piking til I get to hoverton or wroxham.

 

[Dan Tungate]

No Worries Dave!!

I should think the fish will be in situ by then.
Maybe, if I were you I would fish the stretches further downstream, behind Carrow Road. Another thing you could do is ask a Norwich tackle shop if theres been any matches and if so, where the winning weights have come from..

anyways good luck..

 

[Mark Wintle]

Can I ask a silly question?

Why do the fish migrate upriver from the Yare to the Wensum in winter to avoid the salt tides? I should have thought the salt effect at its least in winter due to stronger freshwater flows than summer. Tidal effects are consistent through the year though affected by moon, sun and air pressure. It is true that very high tides can occur when pressure is low (like today with a big full moon spring) and that might be more likely in winter though surely mitigated by the much stronger flows.

I would have thought it more likely that the coarse fish migrate upriver to spawn, which is exactly what the dace and roach do in Christchurch Harbour to go up the Dorset Stour during autumn.

Is this one of those myths that gain truth through the repeated telling? Or is it sustained by very occasional actual happenings whereas the main reason is something else - like the spawning migration?

 

[Dan Tungate]

Hello Mark..

It's not a silly question..

I understand what you are suggessting as regards to spawning cycles and migration but I don't think this is the case for the Norfolk Broads.

I would be fairly certain that the annual up-river migration is down to avoiding the salt tides.
There are many factors involved including the ones you've mentioned.

The Norfolk Broads are a unique UK wetland system which is completely govened by tidal cycles, perhaps only comparable to certain areas of the Dutch coast..
Its a lot to do with the the Broads geographical position and it's surrounding, flat topography.
The mouth of the entire Broads system is at Great Yarmouth and the aspect there is a very open one.
Occassionally in a worst case scenario, a strong tidal cycle happens to coincide with a strong low pressure sytem that moves down The Channel and out into the North Sea, producing strong north easterly winds which serve to drive the already high water right up into the heart of the Norfolk Broads. Salt tides have been known to push anything up to 15 miles+ inland.
The man-made 'Broads', boat dykes and such things can act as fish traps.
There have been in the past, fish kills running into the tens of thousands.
I've wintnessed a few in the past, including an occassion last year where I had to race home to get a landing net in order to transfer some very distressed fish from Upton Boat Dyke into the surrounding un-connected marshland dykes.
So since the medieval ages when the peat diggings started the fish have learned to minimise the risk by moving many miles up-river..

The fish in the Broads also spawn in certain places many of which are quite a way down river. For instance if you go down to Rockland broad which would be affected by the worst of salt tides in April you can find water weeds thick with fish spawn..

I would say that salt infiltration is a regular occurance up to say the 8-10 mile houses, with only the worst cases of 15+ miles being occasional..

Dan T

 

[Paul (Brummie) Williams]

bejabers!....and i worry where the roach are mid Severn and Wye, lol......glad i ain't got the lowland river problem of salt ingress.

Dan, i personally believe the statement "So since medieval times" is very relavant in winter fish holding areas.......some of the best winter swims i can think of, at least for our older river species, are very close to medieval settlements that became large towns or even cities, our ancestors had to survive, and i believe they really thought about where to settle.........a few roach must have been a good evening meal!

The winter holding areas are something that really gets my mind thinking.........

 

[Mark Wintle]

I see the difference in that it is the low pressure effect that causes the tidal surge. We get Channel tidal surges but nothing like as bad as North Sea ones, and the size of the harbour and strength of tide (very small tides in this part of the world) are much much less. We get low flow salt effects which is where the flow of the rivers is much diminished due to drought so that the tide has much more effect; 1976 was a good example, and the coarse fish move up river and all you get is tiny bass instead of dace. In 76 as soon as the rains and flow returned so did the coarse fish.

 

[Dan Tungate]

Hello Paul

As regards the medieval bit, I'm not sure which way round it would be. Would people settle in areas where there are numbers of fish in the hard Winter times or would the fish settle in the sheltered areas provide by peoples taming and usage of the river, boat channels, dykes, turning basins e.t.c.. It could be a mix of both?

The Norfolk Broads as we know it would look vastly different had the medieval people not started digging peat for fuel. I for one am glad they did..

The problems for The Broads are only going to increase at the same rate as the water level rises in the sea..
Theres been talk of a River Yare barrier but I'm not sure if I'll see it in my lifetime..

 

[Dan Tungate]

Hi Mark..

It's interesting finding out how different tidal waterways work in different parts of the country.

The Autmnal and Winter North Easterlys do excenuate the reach of the saline surges but due to the nature of the rivers, often the tide dosn't need much help.

I can remember a time fishing the River Yare at Cantley (where I grew up) which is around 15 miles from the sea a long time ago, where I had a number of Flounders, Eels and a small Sea Trout on the flood tide and Eels Roach and Bream on the ebb.
Theres also been quite a few cases of Bass being taken on Pike livebaits in the Brundall area on the Yare..

Theres also an interesting situation and potentially troublesome one, on the Thurne Broads closest to the sea. At it's closest to the sea, Horsey can't be much more than a mile from the beach.
Theres salt water seepage in the groundwater which has raised the salinity levels in the Horsey, Waxham and Martham North Broads to the point where theres a population of a species of brine shrimp that are usually found in estuarys that are flourishing in Horsey Dyke.
But this has caused a problem for the Thurne if the already higher salinity is supplemented by fresh salt water from the lower river as was seen a few years back when there was a big fish kill in the herbery Woods boatyard...

 

[Dave German]

Dan, i'll see if thats an option, my problem is transport, normally on my daytrips to norwich i'll fish the bure or the broards but this time its going to be tother way.

 

[blankety blank]

Dave

Ihave just taken a walk down along theWensum (by the yacht station) and its full of numpties fishing for pike.

one bloke was using a match rod, with a mepps spinner on the end (no trace) to which was impaled a 6ox live roach. He was casting it in and leaving it.

Almost everyone else was using telescopic rods. No'one was using a bite indicator, no-one had an unhooking mat (the banks are concrete) and no one had a decent sized landing net.

Pity any poor pike they might happen to catch. It fair made my blood boil it did. What is really irritating is that they weren't breaking a single law in fishing for pike like this.

 

[Dan Tungate]

Thats Bad News..

An idea, might be to give the EA a quick call, as it's odds on they won't have a licence..

It's not nice to see and I'm sure if you offered a few suggestions they'd tell you where to go. I've tried that sort of thing before..

 

[Dave German]

Just got back, brilliant day all roach (to half a pound & perch to well over a pound) thanks lads

 

[Dave German]

mr. blank thats where i was & i didnt see another angler all day

 

[blankety blank]

I think it was half term when I went down there. All the anglers i mentioned looked like kids.

glad you had a good day!

 

[Dave German]

Did have a great day, think it must be paved with roach, only wanted maggot feeder though, lots of people asking how i was doing, most friendly place for a long time.

 

[Dan Tungate]

Hi Dave

Glad you had a good day up at Norwich..

How high was the water? As you must of been fishing one of the only spots on the Norfolk tidal river systems that you could be guarenteed a few fish, as a result of the huge tidal surge of last week.

It's funny to think that I was only describing tidal surges, the effects of e.t.c only 10 days or so before we had one...

 

[blankety blank]

i wouldn't be surprised if the roach had all been pushed up the river by the salt .

If car parking wasn;'t such a hassle i would spend some time down there trying for a decent perch or two on small lives and worms.

I'l wander down there at lucnhtime and see if anyone is about.

 

[Dan Tungate]

You could be right although I should think a lot of fish from the lower river are only arriving upriver around now..

Theres always Morrisons car park they're not ususally too vigilant or theres parking on the road at the right hand rear of the station...