Happy neaw year and hope you had a good christmas and got all the new rods you wanted. The last couple of weeks of December were very quiet, as usual we have few boats go out in the run up to Christmas. With the water still exceptionally clear it was a struggle for the few boats that did go out. The wind and rain just after xmas brought better water conditions and with plenty of boats hired we had very few that blanked and 3 twenties in the week running up to new year. This last week has been a real struggle for the boats that have been out and the wind has been a real sod. Unfortunately the boats have been a little hard to handle in the wind. I've done ok as although in two days fishing over xmas i had just two bites, both ended with twenties in my arms so happy days for me. One boat this week boated a perch at 2lb 15oz so that's grabbed my perch radar!

A bit of a lull in the blog which i'm sorry about but now the boy is 3 months i'll get back on it. Over the last month or so the river has been generally low and clear, we've not really had any rain and there's no sediment in the water. That being said there have been some nice fish come out with several twenties in the last week or two. The PAC visit passed with no hitches and although the volume of fish wasn't high they did have a few mid doubles and two twenties so not all bad. Since the new moon last week the river has come right up and is about a foot higher than last week so fingers crossed with the rain that's coming as well.

Since the start of the pike season it's been a little hit and miss. The first two weeks of October were hard with hot weather and bright sunshine, that being said we had the regular duo of the Denfords putting 48 pike and many decent perch in the boat over 7 days. It was hard but they have much experience on the bure and put it to good use. Other boats around that time did struggle and catches tended to be in deeper water with some colour, mainly around Horning. The last ten days have been better although deads aren't really coming on yet, the water is still warm and the pike are still active. Over the past ten days the catches are still a little low but we've had fish of 19lb on lures and plenty of doubles to live bait and pike have topped at 20, 22 and 23lb so all in all not a bad start to the pred season.

Firstly, this is not aimed at holiday makers or anyone in particular. Can we all please remember how fragile these fish we love are. An angler on the Bure was witnessed at the weekend keeping a pike in his boat for more than ten minutes while he took many pictures with himself and his son. This was apparently a 24lb fish and luckily appeared to swim away but could easily have not! This was a private boat owner from the local area so should know a lot better. There's no reason you can't unhook, weigh and photograph in a couple of mins :) Tight Lines

Well, the weather isn't looking good for the start of the traditional pike season. It was fishing well early last week but this warm spell and high pressure has sent the water clear and the pike into hiding. A few out over the weekend with most being doubles but we'll see what happens over the next few days as the low pressure comes in. The one thing that isn't affected is the Perch, had probably my best hours fishing with 6 fish between 2lb and 3lb 8oz and i upped my Pb twice in 5 minutes.... most pleased although did lose a couple of other big ones, but then they're always big when almost caught! :)

Congratulations to Ed who wins our summer competition, his perch of 3lb 12oz was by far the biggest fish which was photo'd. There were a couple of pike in low twenties over the summer but it would've needed to go past 25 to beat that perch. Hopefully he'll up his Pb again when he has his free day!

Not too many boats out in the weeks since the school holidays but the first Autumn twenty has come out to Mr H! October soon so i'll be up and running!

The Denford father and son combo have been down for their summer trip and as usual have done me and most to shame, 6 days for 34 pike inc many good doubles, and they don't fish the middle 8hrs of the day. There are fish to be had once you've got some know-how. Other boats out have mainly been after silver fish etc and have been catchingwith bream to 6lb but being August can be busy. Upstream is quieter but the weed as always when the B.A. do bugger all...... is thick.

I thought i would just briefly mention Blue-Green algea. At the moment the Broads Authority are not reporting any fish deaths linked to the algea on Ranworth Broad and the algae has not spread any further than this broad. If you don't know, Ranworth is not the main broad that boats can access but the inner nature reserve so the algea is not really coming into contact with people too much. We've had people fishing from dayboats in Malthouse broad next door and they've been catching fish, but personally i would avoid fishing in the algea itself if it did spread to Malthouse. There is no sign of it in Broads such as Wroxham and i think it's unlikely to appear there or certainly not in the flowing river.

A bit of an upturn in the pike fishing with one boat out for five days putting 15 fish in the boat which being the height of the holiday season is a good result. They also put plenty of nice perch in the boat but were out done on Friday with the first 5lb perch in one of our hire dinghies!! Although not on one of our boats there was a 25lb pike from the Wroxham area in the last 10 days which is a fantastic summer Bure fish. I've been out again this week for the perch but saidly no monster for me. Set out at 4am and was in my favourite spot by a half hour later. Over the next 2hrs we put about 20 perch and one bream in the boat with the biggest about a pound and a half! Not exactly what we were after but a nice morning anyway.

 A big well done to Ed who got a great new PB perch last week on his favourite stretch of the Bure. I think he's got a good chance of winning our July/August competition, will probably only be beaten with a 25+ pike which i think in Summer will be unlikely. The fishing has been harder this last couple of weeks with the heat and busy boats coming along, the fishing improves when you can find a quieter corner and when the temp drops a bit.

First ten days of the season down and plenty of fish have been coming out on the hire boats. Mostly in the 5-10lb range for the pike but about a dozen mid doubles as well. Generally on lures which have put some nice perch in the boats too! One or two boats have been out for roach, bream etc and have done well downstream of Wroxham. My first short session with a friend produced about 20 perch around the 1lb mark and each of us having a 2lb 9oz and 2lb 13oz respectively so not a bad start to the perch summer for me.

Another new season is well under way and another blog is under way. I've only just sussed the blog system out on the new web platform so i've missed a few weeks. I'll add in a couple from the facebook group.