Broads Festival Big event report
Mixed fortunes as salt surges hit big championships
IN OCTOBER there are few better rivers in the country than those of the Norfolk Broads. Matches can see 20lb catches finish nowhere, with thousands of fish to go at.
But last week showed just how much these venues are at the mercy of Mother Nature as a brilliant two-day festival was followed just 48 hours later by a rock-hard Broads Championships where salt incursions wrecked the fishing.
The two-day Norwich DAA Broads Festival on the rivers Bure and Thurne saw 70 anglers lining up and 41-6-0 for Martin Spence and 43-8-0 for Steve Clark, both drawn on the Thurne won each day as roach, bream and skimmers fed well. Catches of 25lb failed to make the top six. Dusty Kiddell (two points) won the event overall.
However, just a couple of days later the 88 anglers doing battle in the Mead Leisure-backed Broads Championships were faced with an entirely different river hit by high salt levels.
The 30 anglers on the St Benet’s Abbey section of the Bure failed to catch a fish and the news was not much better on the Thurne.
There was one section high up on the Thurne at Martham Ferry, where the salt hadn’t reached and this produced the top 20 weights on the day with Rob Hubbard winning on 34-6-0 of roach and skimmers followed by Dave McCall with 27-8-0.
“Everyone who fishes the Broads knows that a salt surge can change the fishing overnight and it was so disappointing that it had to happen ahead of such a big match,” said Norwich DAA match organiser Tony Gibbons.
“It’s a nightmare for an organiser as there just wasn’t enough room to try to put people on fish. It happens, though, and you just have to get on with it, but I felt sorry for those lads who went to their pegs knowing that they might not catch anything. The thing is, it could all change and revert back to being a fish a chuck just a couple of days later when the salt goes.”