Littleport Angling Club
(Affiliated to:- National Federation of Anglers, Cambs. & Isle of Ely Federation of Anglers)
DIVISION 3 NATIONAL WINNERS 2007.
 |
 |
 |
| Iain Vigar's National catch. | 2007 DIVISION 3 WINNING TEAM. ELY OUSE JULY 14TH. | Phil Houghton 3rd overall. |
| President: John W. Shelsher 20 New River Bank, Littleport, Ely, Cambs. CB7 4TA Tel: 01353 860787 |
Chairman: Paul I. Frost 23 Hempfield Place, Littleport, Ely, Cambs. CB6 1NP Tel: 01353 860353 e-mail-paulianfrost@tesco.net |
Secretary/Treasurer: David A. Yardy 168 High Barns, Ely, Cambs. CB7 4RP Tel: 01353 615955 OR 0781 2243655 e-mail-dave.yardy@yahoo.co.uk |
Littleport Angling Club leases the fishing rights for the east bank, Great Ouse River at Littleport, between Sandhills Bridge and the foundations of the old A10 road bridge and on the west bank from the Black Horse Pub downstream to Willett’s Farm from the Environment Agency and is subject to the traditional closed season (March 15th – June 15th).
Where to find us: If you approach Littleport from the south (Ely) you should ignore all the exits for Littleport off the A10, going straight over the roundabout junction with the A1101 (Wisbech), proceed over the level crossing then over the river bridge and take the last exit at the roundabout (New River Bank). Approaching from either Kings Lynn (A10) or Mildenhall (A1101) turn down New River Bank Road at the roundabout mentioned above. You now pass a row of cottages on your left (peg 70 - 74) then an open field, the next house is approximately our peg 61. The road follows the river all the way from hereindeed almost all the way to Ely. Peg 2 is at Sandhills Bridge. Please get their vehicles as far off the road as possible, using the verge away from the river bank and don't block private accesses.
Membership: books are £12.00 full, £5.00 under 16 or OAP and day tickets at £4.00, all available from Colebys Tackle in Granby Street Littleport, Benwick Sports, Unit 22 Northfield Rd Business. Park, Soham CB7 UF, off Soham bypass or any of the Club’s bailiffs.
Anglers has the convenience of being able to park right behind most pegs on the east bank, access to the west bank is through the Black Horse pub car park and over a stile. The river is deep in the margins on the east bank (3 – 5 feet) and is therefore unsuitable for unsupervised children.
Littleport A.C. water is permanent pegged. At the end nearest Sandhill Bridge and the Black Horse public house, is peg 2 (we don’t have a peg 1, it used to be within the 30 meter boundary of the overhead cables) with peg 74 where the old Littleport Bridge used to be, (some 100 yards short of the new bridge).
The river is currently fishing its best for many years for both roach and small breamand significant numbers of tench. Large bream (5 lb – 7 lb) can show on any peg to either feeder or long pole tactics but don’t get caught in any great numbers, 2 or 3 seems to be about tops. All species can be caught on maggot baits at any time of the season. The real quality roach will fall to hemp and tares during the summer. There has been a recent explosion of perch with loads of fish from an ounce or two up to around ¾lb to be taken on maggot but if chopped worm tactics are used in the right areas expect anything up to 3 lbers. The same tactics can produce some of the many big tench (5lb–8lb) that have recently started to show. In the winter the pegs opposite the mouth of the ‘Boat Haven’ are the most popular for the pike/zander anglers with pike in the mid/high teens common place although 20lb plus fish are quite rare.
For its members who want to fish competitively, every Sunday, throughout the season, the club runs either a club match (£5.00 entry) or an open match (£10.00). There is also a series of mid-week evening matches during June and July. All the matches organised by the club or that involve the use of club water are listed in the Membership book and reservation boards are posted on the bank indicating which areas are to be used for matches. All matches are advertised in the Cambridge Evening News (they also publish our match reports). Additionally all open matches are advertised in the national angling papers as well as the Lynn News.
There are no bait bans in any match organised by Littleport A.C. on its waters.
Just like so many rivers, this stretch of the Great Ouse at Littleport can very good one day and then on another absolute crap - you wouldn't think there was a fish in it. Fortunately there are a lot more good days than bad during a season. The main conditions that dictate are, whether there is any flow and if there is any colour in the water. The man that knows how to fish this river in all its moods hasn't been born yet.
Species present (in order of importance):
Roach: loads 2-4oz, quality fish fall to hemp and tares during summer/early autumn months for pleasure anglers but these baits rarely work for the match angler. The quantity of larger roach seem to disappear during the winter but they will feed, particularly if you’re prepared to fish until the light begins to fade. Ouse roach love groundbait, particularly those with high content of crushed hemp and be warned, the larger stamp fish will not ‘chase a bait’, nail it solid and over depth.
Skimmers: mainly hand sized up to 1lb - 1½lb but then very few between these and 4 to 5 lbers
Bream: mainly between 4 - 5lb but some even to 7lb (and bigger?). Up to 10 years ago we always fished ‘right over’ for them, but now they are more likely to be caught in your half of the river fishing over groundbait, squat and caster
Eels: 6 - 8 lb used to be easily possible if you know how but not so prolific now.
Perch: all sizes several in the 2-2 ½ lb bracket, even up to 3 lb 10 oz
Tench: many more are being caught with, I think, the proliferation of chop worm tacticks, they go around 4 - 6lbs and as many as three have been caught at a peg during matches.
Small rudd and bleak, up in the water as you’d expect, but only when its bright and the water is clear. There used to be large rudd, right over, in the low 50’s pegs, but they haven’t materialised for a couple of years. Bleak have re-emerged after many years of absence and their numbers are increasing each year.
Pike & Zander (not worth considering in matches – ‘cause they don’t count)
Ruff ("kiss of death", if you catch a ruff there's precious little else in the swim at that time)
Gudgeon: had started to appear after an absence of many years we caught them during the summer just over the first shelf (I had 93 in one Saturday pleasure session) but I’m not sure anyone had one this season.
Dace: very few, its a real event if someone catches one and they are very small (1 oz)
Carp: these are very big, I had a mirror of 22½ lb in September 2001 whilst fishing for tench but its over 15 years since someone got one out in a match and that only went about 5 lb.
There are many pegs (anywhere between 2 - 51) where it is possible to catch the odd bream or two averaging 4-5lbs (possibly up to 7lb). These are caught on either red maggot, worm or worm/caster cocktail fishing a ground bait feeder. When the water is highly coloured and running hard then chances are that they might feed throughout the match but this is exceptional. The most likely area to produce big weights are the low 30’s (30 – 40 lb) and 49 – 52 which regularly produces for pleasure anglers and produced almost 80 lb in a match run by a visiting club in the summer of 2006. The roach at Littleport love ground bait, unlike on many rivers, and its almost impossible to over feed with hemp. Heavy feeding with maggot (2 pints in a match) can work and often brings the bonus of eels mostly around 8 – 10 oz but up to 1½ lb. On any of the pegs hemp and tares can be deadly in pleasure sessions with catches of 20 - 30 lb. common place, the fish average 4 to 6oz with a few 1 - 1½lb. 50lb is not unheard of on the right day feeding anything up to 2 or 3 pints of hemp just over the pads at about 6 - 7 metres. BUT, nobody has found a way to make them feed like this in matches, only the odd fish here and there so the best bet for the roach, and hand sized skimmers is bronze maggot (my preference not the fish, other club members fish reds or whites and catch well). Pleasure sessions have shown that there are sufficient perch in most pegs to make them worth considering for an all out attack and of course there is then the chance of a tench or two. During August and September boats, of which there could be many if its a sunny day, are an annoyance rather than a nuisance and don't affect the fishing.
Bait to cover any peg on the Littleport stretch during the summer
(or indeed anywhere on the Ely/Littleport Ouse) · 2kg ground bait (2 if you’re on the bream, otherwise 1kg will probably be enough), I prefer very dark with plenty of crushed hemp.· 1 pt bronze maggot plus few red for the hook · 1pt casters · ½pt pinkie · 1pt red and white mixed squat (for the bream or just a handful for bits on the inside if its really hard).· Plenty of hemp (anything up to 2 pints and expect to feed at least a pint even on a bad day) · 1 kg dendro's, few lobs and red worm for an all out attack on the tench/perch (you'll probably be taking most home with you but have them just in case).
Winter bait requirements: · 1 kg ground bait (low feed content) + PVI binder in case it runs. · ½ pt bronze maggot plus few red for the hook ·½ pt casters ·½pt pinkie · ½pt red and white mixed squat · Hemp (2 pints even on a bad day) · 1 kg worm.
Basic lines of attack on most pegs in June/September:- ·
6 - 7 metres pole short line (there's nearly always a wind to upset presentation so a whip to hand is usually out and there's always a possibility of a proper bream or tench in the pads). ·
10 - 12.5 metres, depending where the shelf is ·
Feeder for mid river or further across, may also be useful for the long pole line if strong winds spoil presentation with the pole.
How would I fish the match? On the whistle I would make half a dozen quick casts with the feeder to get some feed down (ground bait with squat and a few casters). Then 4 balls ground bait on the long pole line (3 solid, one fairly loose to break up on the way down), followed by 6 large pouchfulls of hemp with a few casters in each (I always put a handful of caster in pint of hemp and mix well for this line) and about dozen maggots. Finally groundbait and hemp (as for long pole) at 6 - 7 metres. I would start on the feeder giving it about 30 minutes, if I didn't get any indication of fish I would then catapult 2 balls of feed onto that line with a view to have another look later. I would then go onto the 6 - 7 metre. I expect that this will be my main catching area. During the 30 minutes on the feeder I would have been feeding hemp to my two pole line every 5 minutes and half a dozen maggot to the long pole. Even if there is flow, it is my experience that the better roach are lazy and won't chase a bait so I tend to fish the bait held back most of the time and anything up to 18 inch over depth depending on strength of flow, this is also how the eels want it. When I say flow I really mean drift as it is rarely fast enough to make the held back float tilt. It is also very rare to get the roach up in the water so I fish anything from 1½ - 2 gram floats with an olivette about 3 feet from the hook and two or three No12 droppers below, to get the bait down quickly in the depth of water. The inside line will also be tried for hemp. Feeding chopped worm on the same line will attract perch and give a good chance of bonus big roach on worm pieces. As I've already said, the roach in our river love their ground bait and hemp. If it runs hard, cut out all loose feed except hemp (its out of your swim before it hits bottom) and feed regular rock hard golf ball sized balls of ground bait containing very few samples. Recently (January) it has run so hard that even a 3 gram wasn’t enough, you can try a lollipop but I usually switch to small wire cage feeder on the same line. The better quality fish fall to a bait nailed solid and over depth. Double pinkie on a 22 consistently take better fish than big maggot. Caster sometimes produces but often its the same size fish but you have to wait 4 times as long for a bite.
Peg by peg run-down.
Pegs 2 & 3: The depth on the inside (as far out 11 metres) is shallow compared to most of the next 51 pegs with a shelf at around 10-11 metres of 8 - 9 feet. There is another shelf at 14 - 14½ with more like 12-13 feet of water.
Pegs 4 - 51 depths of all these are very similar 9 - 10 feet on the first shelf mostly around 7 metres and 13 - 14 feet for the next shelf around 11 metres although distances out for the shelves may vary a little. From here to the end of the section (74) its shallower on the inside and only 10-11 feet at 11 - 12 metres. The waggler is often more successful than the pole from here on. Despite the shallower water this area really comes into its own when temperatures drop, dispelling the theory that the fish move into deeper water in the winter.
Pegs 53 - 58 The inside is only useful when its really hard, very small (10 to the ounce) roach from in amongst the reeds using cloud ground bait and squat. You have to go out to around 12 metres or so for the next shelf and the proper fish. These pegs can also prove to be quite snaggy with branches from the willow trees on the opposite bank so be prepared to lose some hook lengths.
Peg 59 & 60 same depths as previous 6 pegs, with no reeds on 60 (or the small roach)
Pegs 61 back in the reeds and you really need a swingtip to fish the feeder or lead because of width of hole cut in reeds. You are now in big perch country - up to 3lb 2oz matches last season. These fish are usually solitary although one pleasure session last season produced 5 all over 2lb.
The pegs from here on are so shallow on the margins (less than ½ keepnet depth) we no longer use these for matches.