WAVENEY VALLEY: Beccles has remained the tops but the better catches have been returned from roving boats prepared to locate the feeding shoals.

Whilst some areas do remain barren, where the roach and hybrids decide to settle it has yielded some top class bags to 30lb of predominantly roach. This winter more than most the shoals appear to move by the day under pressure from various predators, up to 400 yards at a time, and have fed far higher up in the water than normal.

There is still an abundance of natural food in the guise of small aqua life being borne along and even tiny whirling beetles have remained in place up some dykes. The red maggot on a light feeder took some decent hybrids and skimmers around the pound mark near to the main road bridge, but as yet the shoals have still not settled properly in front of the house boats, as they are still awaiting the flow and colour, now several weeks behind schedule.

On the Upper Waveney a dozen fish has been a good bag but upstream near to the Pink House on Bungay Common a quite substantial shoal of 2oz roach and dace have kept a few enthusiasts happy with their fair jaunt along the bank. There have been small fish caught at Loddon Quay but plenty of them if you can get in to the limited amount of spots. Pikers near to Haddiscoe Bridge with their dead baits were rewarded with several double figure pike over the holiday period, but as yet anything near to 25lb has failed to show.