River Thurne - Norfolk

I have just returned from a few days break near Great Yarmouth and I managed to get a couple of short session in on the River Thurne. I had spoken to an angling friend who has fished this river many times and got as much information as I could about the venue and soon found out it was about 8 - 9 feet deep and tidal. I also discovered that there are many miles of bank that are quite inaccessible without very long walks and so the info on access points was invaluable as I wouldn't have time for any long hikes as time was limited.

I planned to fish at a place called Cold Harbour which is a couple of miles below Potter Heigham as there is good parking at the bottom of a track right by the river with pegs both up and down stream of this point. My first session was early on Wednesday morning and after a half hour drive I arrived at the river at 6.30am and was set up and ready to fish by 07.00am.



Sunrise over the River Thurne



I set up my feeder rod with a 2oz tip as I had been told the tide was not too strong and attached a medium feeder to a paternoster rig finished off with a size 18 Drennan Wide Gape hook.
Groundbait for the session was 50/50 Brown crumb and Dynamite Silver X Bream original with some Casters and Sweetcorn added.
I started off with a couple of Red maggots on the hook and cast the feeder to the middle of the river, set the tip and then poured myself a coffee while I waited for something to happen.


Tip set and ready for action


 It wasn't long before the tip moved around and I connected with a 2oz Roach and after a couple more casts I hooked a small Hybrid of about 4oz. I followed this with a10oz Hybrid and a number of Roach and small Skimmers before trying a piece of corn on the hook.
Unfortunately all this did was frustrate me because I was missing more bites as the smaller fish struggled to get the corn in their mouths although I did catch a couple of better Skimmers.
I decided that Caster may be a better idea and found that the average size of the small fish increased slightly and I had a number of 10oz Hybrids before the boat traffic got up and I decided to call it a day.
I finished up with a few pounds of fish and a desire to have another go and perhaps next time on the float.

It wasn't long before I made it back, in fact it was the next day but this time it was to be an evening session. I arrived at 5pm and was surprised at just how many boats were still on the river but this wasn't going to be too much of an issue as I was going to fish a float 1 rod length out. The river was running out and was perfect for trotting a float through except for the tricky head wind and so I set up with a bolo float so I could maintain good control as it ran through the swim.


Hand made Bolo float


I set up with a double bulk shotting pattern and decided I would feed with hard balls of groundbait containing Maggots and Casters. I started off with the introduction of 4 balls of groundbait and Red maggot on the hook and after a couple of runs down the peg the float disappeared and a 4oz Roach was the prize. the bites were coming every cast and a number of 2 to 4oz Roach were joined in the net by a few batter Skimmers and Hybrids of around 12oz. I also had a couple of 8oz Perch but before I knew it time was up and I had to head back.
The few hour I had managed to get on the river had really been a real pleasure as I don't normally associate good flow and colour with summer rivers, well not on my local river Nene anyway.
I would love to get back in the autumn for a proper go at the Thurne when the boat traffic has calmed down a bit but we will have to see as its a 2 1/2 hour drive from my house.