WAVENEY VALLEY: The Bungay Cherry Tree Angling Club's website now contains pictures and news of their latest stocking escapades with some handsome additions.

Featured too by clicking on 'Directions' are maps and pictures on their various best sections and show just how versatile some of this water is. The site address is www.bungaycherrytree.com

Their rapidly improving Lay-By Pit has even more fish to come in 2011 on order and soon the whole of their Falcon Meadow will be enhanced with steady and stable fishing platforms, some of which are disabled facility, provided by the Environment Agency for the club to own within their lease.

For members only there is also a 2011/12 match fixture meeting to be held tonight at the Three Tuns Public House in Bungay at 8pm, to construct next year's card with hopefully a good mix of both river and commercial venues that will provide good fishing.

Sport was still slow to pick up after the four inches of ice on Beccles Quay put swims at a premium but by New Year's Day things had improved all round.

Up toward the mouth of the river, some very nice sized skimmers moved in to the eddy from the mainstream, coming down about four pegs into the quay and gave the Claysport match a 10lb winner.

Even these were delicate biters compared to the normal pull on the float but welcome they were indeed from the obliging small perch that have provided minimal but essential sport of late. First out of the trap in the thawed main river amongst the ice flows, have been the piking results, with most of the river predator anglers having good sport.

Some of these enthusiasts found a dozen fish in their wanderings for the day covering perhaps 20 swims and a couple of miles with their lures.

So far it has been the hungry jacks at the bottom of the food chain and relatively few double-figure fish have shown.

Sad to say the ice had a bad effect on the faster flowing waters in which the otters settled in and at the Haycroft bottom corner of Bungay Common opposite the Earsham gravelworks, the heads of four pike estimated at between 5lb and 8lb, and five nice chub were found.

On top of which the 60 resident cormorants at the gravel pit moved on to the river as well for a while.

Most of the fish are shoaled up hard and a good example was the Falcon where Justin Hunt was the only one to weigh in and took the match with just 1lb 2oz.

But only 50 yards upstream the Fleece AC hot swim teemed with priming fish.

Locating these shoals can be hard but looking for rising fish towards dusk has given a clue to where the dace are holed up and they are tending to roam more up in the water.